Video Editing - Hard drive slowing it down - upgrade?

craig20102010 · 24 Oct 2017 at 21:20

Laptop Specs are:

Windows 10 64bit
Intel i3 m330 2.13Ghz
4GB RAM
Nvidia Geforce 310M 512mb
standard hard drive that came with laptop 500GB

I have been using this laptop for as long as i can remember its maybe about 7years old now. Never had any components replaced on it.

Im trying to edit Gopro videos in the Gopro studio. The quality of the video is 1080p 60fps and what im finding is the video play back is stuttering rather badly and when its stuttering the hard drive light is constantly on. I can play the Raw 1080p video in window media player completely fine but in go pro studio or Quik its terrible.

when i open up the task manager it still says i have 2GB of ram spare and its hardly using the CPU at all. The hard drive how ever is sitting around 80% and sometimes maxing out at 100%.

Is this normal? or is the hard drive on its way out or is this a RAM/video card problem?

i was looking at upgrading the hard drive to a SSHD or a SSD and seeing if that would make any difference before i bight the bullet and look for a better laptop as i don't tend to use the laptop for much else but i know if i was going to buy a new one id have to buy near top spec so i want to try save the money lol.

any advice would be great thanks

Madwelsh · 25 Oct 2017 at 00:09

lol, madness, firstly, at 1080 @ 60 on a lappy, unless it was 3million quid, I wouldn't even attempt. You can buy a desktop that will eat that for about a grand.. if you want a lappy, prob twice the amount..

craig20102010 · 25 Oct 2017 at 07:22

right ok then so you think the laptop is going to be useless for 1080p @60. i didn't think that it would have been too much of an ask for a laptop that could handle 1080p.

problem i have at home is space. id prefer a desktop all day long but id need something where i dont have to have a screen out all the time so iv been looking at mini ITX desktops so that it can go in a cupboard next to the TV and use the 49" TV as a monitor but im so out of touch with PC's now im not sure what will go together well in that size case.

so whats the main issue with that quality is it mainly the graphics card so i know where to start with looking at new laptops?

Pocah · 25 Oct 2017 at 10:06

Absolutely! An SSD will breath new life in to an old PC. The PC itself may well be pretty slow, but adding an SSD can really improve certain functions. It does sound like you may be having issues with disk access. Although on average your system is probably fine, video compression is a fickle thing. Sometimes it does require higher amount of data to be shifted around than normal, and it can cause glitches. This can be down to bus speeds for older graphics cards, well, a number of things, but if your HDD is showing a heavy load than it's a good bet that replacing it with an SSD will help. And even if it doesn't then it's not wasted, you can use the SSD in a newer machine when you get one.