Most Improvement from Video Card, Memory, or Something Else

[EwanG]

About a month ago I got a new computer that I thought had pretty good specs (for the money I had available). System is a Compaq Presario SR1430NX with a P4 515J, 512 Megs of RAM, Intel 82915G/GV/910GL Express Video (Built In), and an internal 150 Gig HD. I've also added three external USB 2.0 HDs and two Firewire HDs.

I have a number of different sources for my video - clips from my digital camera, DV captures from the family camera, VCR captures from my daughter's Special Ed class, and the occasional file from my TiVO. Generally I use TMPGEnc 3.0 XPress to edit and produce the final version of my files for playback.

This works ok, but I'm wondering if there's anything that isn't too expensive that would make things go noticably faster. I've thought of adding a PCI Video card, but I'm not sure that would really make editing and encoding any faster. More memory is a possibility, but I can't say that I've seen much indication that I've been memory constrained. The HD interfaces should be more than fast enough to keep up.

Basically, is there anything short of replacing the CPU (not inexpensive or particularly feasible) that would speed things up?

[fmctm1sw]

I'm not real familiar with what a P4 515J is. The cheapest thing you can do to speed up is to not use TMPG. It is a great program, but among the slowest encoders. I switched to CCE basic ($60)and I noticed it's about 2x faster on my PC.

[redwudz]

What fmctm1sw said. That appears to be a 2.93Ghz P4 processor.
The processor speed and the quantity of RAM memory seems sufficient for what you are doing.

[mats.hogberg]

Basically, is there anything short of replacing the CPU (not inexpensive or particularly feasible) that would speed things up?

No. When encoding, all else equal, encoding speed is linear to processor speed. But TMPGEnc isn't the fastest encoder around. I think CCE stil is the speed demon of mpeg encoders.

/Mats

[guns1inger]

The joys of computing. Long before you can afford it, it is obsolete. More memory is the cheapest way to add a few % points of speed, then upgrade the processor. If editing and encoding are your biggest bottlenecks, then spend some cash on real-time editing and encoding cards.

[edDV]

Before spending money on unneeded memory, check the specs for the MPeg encoder you are considering. In addition to CCE look at Mainconcept. This report shows how the different encoders performed on different CPUs.

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/intelamdcpuroundupvideo/

Hardware based systems are coming down in price but not cheap yet.

http://www.canopus.us/US/products/EDIUS_DV_Pack/pt_EDIUS_DVpack.asp
http://www.videoguys.com/rtx100.html