New computer with Vista hardware needs

[Bartron]

Since Windows Vista now comes with every new PC, and I'm about to buy a new PC, I have to ask if 1 gig of RAM will be enough to function? Is the Pentium D 820 or AMD 64 3200 too slow for Vista? I was going to use this computer to edit and burn DVDs recorded on my DVD recorder, but not much PC gaming.

[JohnnyMalaria]

I have 1GB and a Pentium D on my main Vista system (Vista Ultimate 32-bit and 64-bit). I haven't any complaints performance-wise.

However, you should consider the benefits of investing a few extra $$ in a more recent dual-core CPU (such as Intel Core Duo or Core 2 Duo) and an extra 1GB of RAM. Clock-for-clock, the more recent dual-cores are more powerful than the Pentium D.

[yoda313]

I have a gig of ram and vista premium on my hp amd 64 3800 2.4ghz pc (single core). Seems to be enough ram. If all your doing is authoring and burning that should be enough.

If your going to do heavy editing you may want to consider more ram however - couldn't hurt but 1gig should be sufficient. I have authored on this pc and its sufficient but as of yet I haven't done any editing or encoding so I can't speak to those points.

But I would suggest going a little higher on the amd specs if you can - more cpu horsepower does make a difference.

[redwudz]

More RAM can help as little, as mentioned, with editing or some graphics programs that hold images in memory. I just put together a Vista system with a AMD 3600+ Dual core CPU with 2GB DDR2 6400 RAM and it does fine. With encoding, it still uses about 300-400 MBs, so the extra RAM isn't doing much at present. If you have on-board video, some will be used by that. 512MB RAM is not recommended for Vista.

The dual core is a good investment, though. If nothing else, it improves multitasking considerably. The combination of dual core and DDR2 memory all works together to improve performance, along with a PCI-E motherboard. For a CPU, the best advice is the get the fastest you can reasonably afford, and you can't go wrong. I would recommend at least 2GHz CPU speed, though slower will work, just take longer for encoding.

With memory, dual channel helps, but be aware that you need matched RAM modules to make it work the best. Adding a additional RAM module at a later date may not let both operate in dual channel mode. But with that said, 1GB RAM should be sufficient for most uses. If I had to choose between an additional 1GB of RAM or a faster CPU, I would go for the faster CPU anytime.

[JMMac]

The machine I use for a very similar function (and under Vista) is 2GB, with an E6600 Core 2 Duo. I agree with the previous posters on the RAM - 2GB is probably overkill. But, what I have found GREAT about this machine is truly useful multitasking. I can be encoding DVDs (I use Premier Elements, which is intense on resources), and I can still capture DV via firewire simultaneously. I can even do light browsing at the same time and get away with no dropped frames.

My old machine was a 2GHz P4 - I get about a 6 fold improvement in encoding performance with the new machine. It encodes an hour of video in about an hour. That really improves my productivity.

Vista is heavy. Video editing is heavy. I would definitely step up that processor if at all possible.

[ofbarea]

I have Vista Ultimate x64, Pentium D 920 (2.8 overcloked to 3.0GHz), 2GB.

The memory utilization is different depending on the program used.

For example If I use virtualDub-MPEG2 1.6.15 to open a MPEG video to create a new DV file, it uses 98% of the memory.

When I use TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress to render a DV file into MPEG2, it will consume 1.1GB of RAM. Most other programs will not consume more than 500 MB of RAM.

By using Dual core and having lots of memory you will be able to use several program concurrently. For example I´m also able to capture DV video to an external USB2 disk while creating a DivX.

Or running a planetarium symulation under a Virtual PC running Knoppix Linux, while doing some other stuff.