Using RAM drive to increase the speed of conversion

[KameleOnOff]

I'm looking for a solution to increase the speed for AVI to VCD/DVD conversion, even if sacrifice the quality a little, but still remain in a reasonable (read accessible) price.

After I searched a lot of posts I founded the following:

1. Use the fastest software encoder:
- CCE very fast and very good quality
- MainConcept very fast and still good quality (but with some problems for bitrate above 3 Mbps)

2. Increase the processor frequency

3. Choose P4 instead of Athlon (this is a hot subject and please don't start a new war), but I don't know to much about the Athlon M (and maybe the new Athlon 64 will be a option)

4. Use 2 processors. Here seems that P4 is the choice.

5. Use 2 HDD, one for source and one for result. Maybe a RAID configuration will help, but I don't know what type.

6. Increase the RAM (only for CCE).

7. Use 2 computers

I want to ask you if is possible to make a big RAM drive, using a lot of memory (2-4 GB). In this case the whole process of encoding will be in memory. After a little digging I discovered:

A. The usual motherboard have a maximum of 4 slots for RAM, which mean that the limit is 2 GB if use 512 kB DIMM (but see next)

B. The software RAM drives which I found can use only a part of the RAM and this is not enough.

C. Use a Rocket Drive (http://www.cenatek.com/store/category.cfm?Category=15), but the price is very high ($1,999 for 2 GB, $3,599 for 4 GB). I founded a review on net (I can't remember the address) and the results was very good (about 2-3 times faster than usual HDD at 7200 rpm).

D. Use a memory expansion card. I don't know exactly what is this and I don't know if is the same like Rocket Drive, but seems to be used on servers.

Does anybody know something useful related to the subject? Something like Rocket Drive, but cheaper? Or motherboard/processor configuration/RAID combination that can really increase the speed? Or a better RAM drive software? Or any other solution?

Thank you and sorry for the english, it's not my native language.

K

[Faustus]

If you are using a frame server anywhere in your process then you might as well forget to CPUs and get the CPU that offers the higher FSB reguardless of Intel/AMD. That I'm aware of the frame servers do not support SMP and therefore the whole idea behind to CPUS is pointless. Also I'd not go over 1gb of ram, instead just get a fast cpu with good FSB, thats going to be your biggest speed boost.

[bugster]

If you are using a frame server anywhere in your process then you might as well forget to CPUs and get the CPU that offers the higher FSB reguardless of Intel/AMD. That I'm aware of the frame servers do not support SMP and therefore the whole idea behind to CPUS is pointless. Also I'd not go over 1gb of ram, instead just get a fast cpu with good FSB, thats going to be your biggest speed boost.

If you use virtualdub to frameserve (and use any filters at the saem time), the frameserver can run on one processor and the encoder can run on the other. Sure the memory becomes a bottleneck but you should get much better performance than with a single processor.

[RabidDog]

The best, simplest and easiest to implement of all thos suggestions is simply to get the fastest CPU and memory combination you can afford. Ramdrives and extra memory make small precentage differences, as do seperate hard drives. What software you use and how many passes you make are the other big determinants. eg 2 pass takes twice as long as 1 pass. CCE is much faster than tmpgenc but take into account the whole process including audio and the diff is much less. Do vcd @CBR and youve got a quick process.
how much money are you talking about spending??

[elmotheteapot]

p4 does not support dual cpu's, xeons and athlon mps do

[Piccoro]

And opterons.
Those wont have memory bandwidth problems with SMP.
Each CPU has the memory controller onboard the CPU so with dual channel memory and 2 CPUs each has their own channel.
Not to mention Memory bus is its own link to the CPU separate from the FSB completely and not on the same bus as the harddrives.

[KameleOnOff]

how much money are you talking about spending??

Not to much. Up to 1,000 US$ if it really worth. Sorry for my delay.

I searched the net for distributed computing and I founded a very interesting article about Condor:

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=7126

Does anybody know something about that?

[fmctm1sw]

7. Use 2 computers


K

Who is using two computers? It seems to me it would take one hell of a long time to get an avi file or even a mpeg-2 dvd file over some kind of network.

[bottle-necked]

When trying to get speed and dependability from a computer system you can't just pick out one part or one component and neglect the rest of the system. To have a fast system you must consider all the items and handle each in the proper way. The system must be a balance of equal parts to perform properly.

Adding a ram drive doesn't make much sense. Adding a RAID Array on a system with an old slow processor isn't smart either. Putting over 1G of ram on a home system is not necessary. So are most of the other ideas listed here unless you are going to take the entire system into consideration and match up each component. Understand?

If you want a fast encoding computer then get your check book out. If you're not interested in spending money then encode your video files overnight while you sleep. Changing one item on a computer isn't going to fix your speed problem. It's got to be a balanced blend of components performing together.

Good luck.

[freestyler]

p4 does not support dual cpu's, xeons and athlon mps do

p4c has hyperthreading

[KameleOnOff]

If you want a fast encoding computer then get your check book out. If you're not interested in spending money then encode your video files overnight while you sleep. Changing one item on a computer isn't going to fix your speed problem. It's got to be a balanced blend of components performing together.

Thanks for your answer and thanks to everyone. Now I have a much clear idea of the "fast encoding system".

I started this thread because I think that a RAM drive can speed up the process, because the RAM have microseconds access time and the HDD have miliseconds and this slow down the process. Some tests can clarify this aspects, but for the moment I can't do that.

In conclusion, the best choices are, in order of importance:

1. Frameserving and processor with high frequency and FSB.
2. Separate HDD (with 8 MB cache), one for source file and one for destination file.
3. Two processors, preferably Opteron.

If you want a fast encoding computer then get your check book out.

Can you give me some details (general, not deep details)? Maybe in the future I will spend more.

Thanks again and Happy New Year for everyone.

K.

[bottle-necked]

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=751002#751002