well that seems to me that would require some audio/video editting. so i would think a decent processor and probably a decent GPU
how do you figure that out, recording video is not the same as video editing. Most people dont have a clue what video editing really means when they use it an an excuse to suggest a top of the range cpu.
Then again something good enough to run multiple monitors if you're wanting it set up that way?
even the cheapest card wil run 2 monitors just fine, if you need more... get 2 cheap cards
Sounds like you just need a good Gaming PC but with loads of extra HDD space to compensate with the shear amount of space that is going to be taken up by the Video and Audio you'll be recording.
question, why would he need a good Gaming PC when he isnt gaming?
And Video and Audio its necessary and weighty as you'd thing, 1 500 GB drive would be well enough imo.
Of course it depends how many feeds you are going to have
Lots of harddrive space for sure.
yeah probably, provided he want to store the stuff for a long time, which he probably does
Yeah you should look at somthing like alright CPU like core2duo, and maybe a 8800GTS video card, and then like 4 500GB Hds?
are you nuts, why would he need all that crap, you're telling me that in order to record to video you must spend $1k on a machine!!!!, and 2TB of data....really! given that most likely the camera will be of poor resolution that would give him years worth video, i would have said he needn't keep more that a month...probably a week of footage
Also, I had a look into this, and I found this catagory on newegg, does anyone know which one of these would be good enough to video a 3 metre area, or would I be able to control it like move where the camera is pointing.
Im sorry but i thought curtain was doing this project...are you doing it too
The functionality of the camera is dependent on which one you buy, some you can control remotely
Also would I be able to get it to set an alarm off when it detects motion?
some cameras have this built it, but i think you can get software that will handle that for you. Otherwise you can by outside PIR detectors for dirt cheap
really a good GPU ??? i thought GPU's are for processing frames ?? like making 3D effects etc .. y would u need a good GPU for video coming in .. its not rendering it or etc .. if anything wouldn't u need a good processor to processes the video .. not a good GPU?
If i were you I would listen to anything these jokers have said

You dont need much to perform this task, you need a mid-low cpu, even a sempron would handle this task fine
get a budget gpu but look out for the outputs dvi/vga, you may need to run dual monitors.
Hdd, i would have thought 500gb is ample, but i depends on how many feeds you will have and how long a backlog you want to keep.
Recording media is not gpu or cpu hungry
Depending on the type of camera you may need a data capture card, but wireless options are available.
People, can we understand that we dont always need to recommend the stuff we wish we had.....this task could be accomplished for $3-400 (excluding cameras and software)