PC is slow when editing - what can I do to improve speed?

[trikster2001]

I'm turning into a digital filmmaker slowly and slowly because I love editing movies that I've shot on my camcorder on my computer. The only problem I've encountered while editing is that my computer is slow at it.

I use Adobe Premiere mainly, but I've tried other editing programs too, and with all of them, in the middle of editing or clicking play to play a clip, the program will freeze for a while before starting the clip. Sometime these random freezes can be up to 20 seconds long, depending on the file size.

I was wondering what I can do to my computer to improve its speed when it edits movies. Here are my specs now:

750 Mhz Athlon (Not overclocked)
256 MB RAM
5400 RPM 40.0 GB Maxtor hard drive (where all the movie files are stored on)
5400 20.0 GB Maxtor hard drive (where Premiere is installed)
ATI Rage 128 Pro video card
Sound Blaster Live! sound card

I also just got a new DV cam and I'm waiting for the firewire card and cable to come in the mail. Will editing DV videos edit faster than the analog videos I used to edit?

[Mirror_Image]

750 Mhz Athlon (Not overclocked)

What is the fastest Athlon that your current motherboard will support? An XP1700+ is going for about $120 (USD) these days, and if your board will support it, you'd be amazed at the difference. With video, both encoding and editing, increasing CPU muscle is the dominant factor in reducing task time. Overclocking a little won't speed things up much, but more than doubling your CPU certainly will.

[trikster2001]

Hmm...so if I decide to upgrade my CPU, then I'll need to buy a new mobo and CPU chip, but that's all right? Everything else should plug into the new mobo?

[Mirror_Image]

Well, depending on which motherboard you have, it might be as simple (and as cheap) as removing your current Athlon and installing the new Athlon in the same Socket A. What is the brand and model number of your motherboard?

[trikster2001]

Ok, this is what I found when I visited my motherboard's website:

Q: Could you please tell me what speed of athlon processor my motherboard can take?
(2001/06/11 Ian mc neill from U.K.)
A: With bios update NC611, you may upgrade to an AMD Athlon (T-bird) up to 1Ghz. It must be a "Slot A" CPU, and FSB is limited to 100 MHz.

Should I just buy the 1Ghz processor, or get a new mobo and upgrade the processor to a higher speed?

[bleh]

From looking at other posts, people say hard drive speed is important in speeding up Premiere. You could try getting faster 7200rpm one.

[MOVIEGEEK]

I would get a cpu & mobo combo,prices have dropped recently.Check:
http://www.pricewatch.com