Video Editing Upgrade...

gr1mey · 1 Jun 2006 at 17:48

My father has a PC he uses for Video Editing using ULEAD and Serif applications, it currently has the following spec:

P4 Prescott 640
1gb Corsair XMS Pro PC3200
Gigabyte I915 skt LGA775 mobo
300gb Seagate SATA HDD
Windows XP Pro

he's started to experience "stuttering" in video clips when he tries to add more than one audio track over the clip. Im no expert when it comes to video editing so, I was just wondering if anyone could reccomend a decent upgrade (under £250) that would help him along, and maybe stop the stuttering.

I was looking at getting 2gb of good quality ram (mushkin or maybe OCZ at a push), perhaps a second HDD dedicated for Windows and Programs, and clearing the 300gb for use when editing.

Would there be any realistic benefit of going for a dual-core CPU? If so, budget would, obviously be enlarged, and if this was the case, may even be tempted to wait for Core Duo CPUs and get a new MOBO and some seriously quick DDR2 - obviously this would be an expensive affair!

Also, I have a copy of WinXPx64 lying about that I dont use, providing all programs were compatible, would this help with performance of editing videos?

I really dont wanna have to turn around and reccomend upgrading to Core Duo - any other way of increasing performance on the cheap??

Hope I made sense, but Im a noob when it comes to Video Editing and what it requires in terms of 64bit etc etc bleh.... :confused:

Energize · 1 Jun 2006 at 18:53

I would reccomend Intel Conroe, dual core helps a lot in video editing.

Mikey1280 · 1 Jun 2006 at 18:56

Energize said:
I would reccomend Intel Conroe, dual core helps a lot in video editing.

For under £250? I dont think so. He would need a new board, memory and cpu.

Energize · 1 Jun 2006 at 19:05

Mikey1280 said:
For under £250? I dont think so. He would need a new board, memory and cpu.

Intel conroe cpus are cheap, video card doesnt help with editing, easily done in under £250.

gr1mey · 1 Jun 2006 at 20:21

lol a new mobo, conroe chip, and 2gb of memory for under 250 - sorry dont see it.

Energize · 1 Jun 2006 at 20:32

Conroe uses lga775 same motherboard will likely work. If hes already got 1gb of corsair ram he can sell it along with the cpu and it can more than easily be done.

Mikey1280 · 1 Jun 2006 at 20:48

His board doesnt support dual core let alone conroe.

Energize · 1 Jun 2006 at 20:51

Mikey1280 said:
His board doesnt support dual core let alone conroe.

Bios update.

Mikey1280 · 1 Jun 2006 at 20:58

I dont think it can support conroe even with a BIOS update, what is the product no. of the board gr1mey, there are quite a few I915s?

Energize · 1 Jun 2006 at 21:22

I think there about 10 boards with that number.

Naffa · 1 Jun 2006 at 21:57

Lol.. Even if the board supports dual core the motherboard is DDR.. Which Conroe doesnt support afaik.

Energize · 1 Jun 2006 at 21:58

naffa said:
Lol.. Even if the board supports dual core the motherboard is DDR.. Which Conroe doesnt support afaik.

Google says the mobo supports ddr and ddr2, id be suprised if conroe wasnt backwards compatible though.

Hector · 1 Jun 2006 at 22:54

whats that bit of kit like that ocuk do that plugs into a PCI, can use upto 4gb of DDR ram and is picked up as a SATA harddrive?

i cant find it atm.. i'll be back when i do but someone may know what i'm on about and can comment on it.

edit: found it, top of the page, Gigabyte i-RAM Solid State Storage Device..
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_SATA_RAID_424.html#ahd_2d000_2dgi

Energize · 1 Jun 2006 at 23:07

Hector said:
whats that bit of kit like that ocuk do that plugs into a PCI, can use upto 4gb of DDR ram and is picked up as a SATA harddrive?

i cant find it atm.. i'll be back when i do but someone may know what i'm on about and can comment on it.

edit: found it, top of the page, Gigabyte i-RAM Solid State Storage Device..
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_SATA_RAID_424.html#ahd_2d000_2dgi

What does that have to do with this thread? :confused:

Hector · 1 Jun 2006 at 23:26

i dono perhaps because of this..

... proves the benefits of using DRAM in massive data access applications such as video/audio capture & editing, and 3D graphics design applications. i-RAM is undoubtedly the fastest storage device on the market!

wam7 · 2 Jun 2006 at 00:16

Let's hold on a second... I am not even sure it's the lack of processing power that is causing the 'stuttering'. A 640 should be still be more than powerful enough for most video tasks.

Ask your father to have the windows task manager open (ctrl-alt-del) and use the performance tab. When he's trying to do these tasks which stutter have him look at the CPU usage and see what that's like. While he's at it he should check the memory usage and see what that's saying.

Also check that his hard drive has been defragged recently.

Quixote · 2 Jun 2006 at 00:25

You say that he experiences stuttering when adding audio tracks to video - is he using onboard sound ? If so, then an X-Fi's dedicated sound processing chips might do the trick. My point being, you need to know where the bottleneck is to solve it. Other than that, I think a cheap dual core (805 or 930) & a mid-range motherboard (the current one won't support it) is probably the best option.

Energize · 2 Jun 2006 at 18:02

Hector said:
i dono perhaps because of this..

Yes but in video editing upgrading the cpu will almost always be more significant than upgrading the storage.

wsurfa · 2 Jun 2006 at 18:26

I did read that the intel dual cores are meant to be dropping in price soon - if the cpu is the bottleneck - then the 805/940 would be a good upgrade.

I've had stuttering before when playing back edited tracks and it turned out to be the gpu (mine was very very poo).

I'd suggest searching around the relevant software forums to see if any similar probs have occured (e.g premiere, pinnacle etc)

Hector · 2 Jun 2006 at 21:57

Energize said:
Yes but in video editing upgrading the cpu will almost always be more significant than upgrading the storage.

if it was that easy to answer why not say that to start with. i only asked for a comment on it, incase it was any good. sorry for butting into your thread.