:wink:HARDWARE QUESTION

[marcelcukier]

I have an Athlon XP 2600+ with 512Mb, and it takes about 4 hours encode a video whith 2 hours length, using HCenc, at a good quality.
If I upgrade my pc to a 64bit processor with 1Gb of memory, will that make any diference ??? a lot or just a few ?
is there anyway to make the encoding process faster ???
tanks

[AlanHK]

Go to Doom 9, which is where Hank, the author of HCEnc, hangs out and you will get the most informed responses.

[guns1inger]

HCEnc is a 32 bit program, so going to 64bit won't have much impact. Going to a fast dual-core CPU will make a large difference. CPU speed is the single biggest factor for encoding speed. While you can run XP reasonably comfortably in 512MB, 1 GB is smoother.

[redwudz]

Just to add, a Athlon XP 2600+ is a 64 bit processor, so if you mean a 64 bit operating system, it's as guns1inger mentions, it won't have any effect for HC. But a faster dual core processor will.

[aedipuss]

the op has the old socket a 32 bit processor. the only upgrade to that computer would be a xp 3200+ processor if you can still find one they go for about $300. socket a chips died with the xp line.

better to start fresh with new m.b. cpu and ram.

[redwudz]

aedipuss, I'm so used to 64 bit CPUs, I wasn't thinking of the 2600+ 32 bit Socket A version.

[jagabo]

Hcenc isn't included but you can get some idea of CPU speeds from other encoders:

http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html

The list doesn't go as far back as the Athlon XP 2600+ but you can use something like the Sempron 2800+ or 3000+ as close approximation.

[TimA-C]

I went from a 32-bit socket 'A' XP3200 with 2Gb RAM to a socket 939 Athlon64 X2 4200 with the same 2Gb RAM and processing time dropped to just under half what it had been. Don't forget to work on two different drives (preferably on different controllers) - read from one, process, write out to the second drive. This will make quite a big difference even on your current setup. (More memory wouldn't hurt either, and don't forget to turn off all that rubbish you've probably got running in the background! )