Does RAM affect performance?

[Biz.Kid09]

I have just bought a pc off my mate and it did have 4gb but he decided to keep 2gb, Now all i do is recode dvds and burn dvds but i was wondering if having more ram would make this process of recoding quicker?
Thanks guys
Also i do some recoding on my laptop which is fine but when it comes to burning its dvd drive lets it down but can i buy an external dvd drive with better speeds than my internal one then when i want to burn i just use the external. Would this work or can i only do through internal one?

 

[ScottMC7000]

I have just bought a pc off my mate and it did have 4gb but he decided to keep 2gb, Now all i do is recode dvds and burn dvds but i was wondering if having more ram would make this process of recoding quicker?
Thanks guys
Also i do some recoding on my laptop which is fine but when it comes to burning its dvd drive lets it down but can i buy an external dvd drive with better speeds than my internal one then when i want to burn i just use the external. Would this work or can i only do through internal one?

More ram won't make the process quicker, it will just allow you to have more things open at any one time, but if you have a massively big file to encode ( or multiples of them at any one time) then the additional memory will come in handy. Encoding involves the CPU primarily. But if you are burning to DVD, then you are limited to the speed at which the DVD burner will allow you to burn though you do risk the possibilities of running into errors on the playback at the highest burn speed settings.

 

[PhoenixUK]

For those things, not really.
Regarding the drive, if the drive you've got is in bad condition, external drive might help you there.

 

[Biz.Kid09]

Ok cheers guys, I will just stick with 2gb then until i feel it slowing down, Its not in bad condition but was just wondering if an external would burn quicker than internal

 

[Nemeses]

Ram wont speed up those processes but it will allow you to do other things better at the same time