Need Advice on cctv DVR card selection & software

[ClamRake <ClamRake@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,  am new to the forum but have used X10 gadgets a long time ago.
Now am getting back into doing some home automation.  While I have 2
X10 cameras , a BW wired and a color Xcam2 wireless, I just bought a
set of non-X10 4 wireless cameras with a 4 channel receiver.

Now I need a good dvr card that can handle these 4 cameras and be
expandable to handle a total of 7 to 11 cameras.  Checking thru good
old Ebay, I find a number of cards available, but it seems hard to
find detailed info on the software.  Surprisingly, I found the same
lack of info on the commercial cctv web sites.

So am hoping to find experts here.  I want to be able to watch at
least 2 cameras in real time.  The others can be displayed more
slowly.  For storing the images, a much slower frame rate will be ok
(and save a lot of drive space).   And I want to use motion detection
on a couple oft he cameras.  Thus each camera's settings need to be
done independently.

Presently am looking at 8 and 16 input cards with 120 or 240 fps.  But
what software will do the job I need?  And how much of a load will the
cards put on the cpu?  I would prefer that the card do as much of the
decoding/encoding as possible.

Am guessing that the more expensive cards are going to put less load
on the CPU, but how can I figure that out?  There seem to be 5 ranges
pricewise for cards based on the chips on board and the fps.  The $20
ones(all only 4 inouts max), the $60-75, the 60-$99 ones, the $120-150
and the really expensive ones that are way beyond my reach.  btw these
Ebay card prices include the shipping.  I have found 8 & 16 inout
cards in the 4 pricier ranges.

Suggestions will be very much appreciated.

Tia
ClamRake