trying to figure out which route to go

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lancef3113

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im tryin to figure out which route would be the better way for me to go...

heres what i got:
sony vaio pcv-rx860
pentium 4 2.4ghz
80gb hdd
512 pc2100 ram
agp 4x slot

heres the problem..i do video and picture editing, and lately the computer freezes up on me whenever im trying to edit a video.
the video card is integrated and has 32mb set aside for it...what should take me less than 2 hours takes me all day because the computer just doesnt seem to want to work with me...

if i loaded this thing up with 1.5gb of ram and dropped in a 256mb video card, that would work with my agp 4x slot, do you think that would take care of the problems and get this thing speedin up?

or should i just look at a new computer all together?

if so can you recommend a computer that would solve my needs, or if i should build my own, and if so any suggestions on cpu,motherboards,type of ram,video card, ect...would be awesome.

another thing im needin is dual monitors

the computer would only be used for picture and video editing...no gamming

thanks
 
oy, caramba, doing video editing on 512@133MHz is gonna be a bigtime drag, man.

don't worry about the video card now, as long as it doesn't lag the picture or gets you the diagonal-cut in fullscreen then you're fine with that.

but kick up the RAM bigtime, and up to a PC3200 if you can, at least. put 1.5GB extra min, I'd say. But check your motherboard compatability first (I couldn't figure it out for you, sorry)

but don't get a new computer just for that. This one should do you fine. best of luck
 
LU4sTrooper said:
Yeah, get 2x 1GB Dual Channel RAM and you'll be good to go.

^^ His mobo dosen't support dual channel. ^^

lancef3113 - Just get yourself a 1 gig stick of RAM you can find them on newegg for $68-$85, and put that in your spare RAM slot, your mobo only supports 1.5 gigs max. You can also get yourself a good 4x agp video card for about $100 like the 6600le that would help out a lot. If so if you don't mind spending $200, shipping included, that would probably give you a good performance boost.

I personally would scrape together $1500 and build one so you can just get parts that would excel at video editing.

If you're a hardcore editor then use a mac, that's what the G5's are for. If you wanna stick with a PC get an intel dual core since you're not going to be doing any gaming. I like AMD myself but I have a Pentium D 820 that works just fine.

Make sure your RAM is at least DDR2-667 Corsair or OCZ, you can get their high end lines but I think the value lines will work as well. With mobos, a lot of people consider ASUS to be one of the best; ABit and Gigabyte are pretty solid as well.

As far as your video card goes, look into the ASUS Extreme N6600GT Silencer/HTD, cause that card can handle HDTV, or an All-in-Wonder card from ATi.

Get a big hard drive because you're gonna need it, at least 250 GB, or get a couple and set them up in RAID (if you got the cash, get 3 and use RAID5.)
 
use a dual core Intel you dont even need a top of the range one.
spend a lot on RAM, get 4 gigs if you can afford it. you want high bandwidth (dont worry too much about the timings)
Vid cards i recommend an ATI X1600 or two (they are not great when gaming but are brill with video encoding)
get a pair of nice, high quality monitors
get three large HDDs (250-300 gig) and set them up in RAID5 as mentioned before
Asus P5WD2-E Premium Intel 975X looks great (only took a glance though)
think thats it, good luck
 
Seems we're both in the same boat. I did a lot of rendering last year and it took over 8hrs to get 1 hr of DVD from the AVI file. I use to start rendering late at night and by morning it would be nearly finished.

First off I would ask these questions at Videohelp.com. They specialize in all sorts of video stuff. You may already know about them.

Please double check what I put down here. Ram and video aren't nearly as important as the almighty CPU. If I understand right it's rendering that's taking up the time. Video max's out the CPU and heats it up.

It sounds like your upgrade will be just under the cost of putting a new system together. I'll be doing mine when I finish with building one for my dad.

Just a few things to keep in mind.
Heat ~ Got to get rid of it.
SATA RAID hard drive
PROPER video card
PROPER RAM

ATI and a few others will be recommended cards at videohelp.com. A proper video card means that video work and gaming have much different requirements.

RAM is an overvalued thing as well...at least that was the argument last year. They were saying that 1GB is overkill. I doubt that's the case anymore and with prices down lower it may be plenty. I read here that pairing up a dual channel is better than 1 stick, whether you 1 or 2GB. Personally I'm sold on a pair of OCZ's for stability and any OC'ing I may/may not do.

Check out these hard drive deals, if they're still avaialble, if not there'll be others. 300GB SATA $90
By ordering one for yourself and another for a trusted soul who'll give you the the HDD and rebate you can get many GB/$ out of it and have your raid. A good GB/$ for storage is 160GB ATA $30 and even this 300GB ATA w/ext HD enclosure $90.
 
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