I want to build a top of the line computer that is fast.....

[neo2810]

WOW, some of you are talking about 9 hours to convert to VCD with TMPGEnc!!!
It takes me about 2 1/2 hours to convert a 2 hour movie from AVI to MPG with TMPGEnc. This is done with:

800MHz Athelon
ASUS KT-Raid MB
916MB PC100 RAM
MAXTOR +60 40GB HD

I always save the sound file first either as WAV or MP3, and then convert using the seperate sound file. If I'm converting from NTSC to PAL, I resample the sound file in Soundforge, to shrink it to the correct size, and then use Multiplex to join the new sound.MP3, and the converted 25fps video file together. The whole process never takes me more than 3 1/2hours from start to finish. Am I doing something right for a change??? I never have any problems with the finished article either. Burn as PAL VCD using Nero, and they play perfect in my (and others) DVD player.

[vigilante]

Ripperkhan,

Maybe you can be a little more specific. What do you want to use the system for. Maybe that way we're not just posting what we used.

[dphirschler]

Just got this for Christmas...

Asus AT7V133 mobo,
AMD 1600 XP proc.

I already had 256m RAM (but I believe it is pc133), Maxtor 20m 7200 HD, and an ATI Rage AGP video card (8m I think). I haven't built it yet. I need to buy a case today. It will have Win98SE on it.

My questions are... Is this a good enough setup to capture 480x480 at 30fps? And what kind of encode times can I expect?


Darryl

[Macros746]

This has all turned into a pissing match. It is too bad considering all the kid asked for was advice. Here is mine. I don't know how much you have to spend but buying a bleeding edge system doesn't make all that much sense to me. If you buy just below that the prices will be MUCH lower and you'll be able to get more for your money. I would purchase an AMD chip not because it is necessarily better (though I DO prefer it) but because it is backward compatible and they aren't planning to change sockets anytime soon. Look into buying an EPOX motherboard (I learned about these thanks to Sefy's recommendation). Not only are they really solid boards that support upgrades (so you can buy that 2.5 gig CPU in a couple of years but they are VERY easy to overclock thus getting the most for your money. I would get an EPOX motherboard (can be had for around $80) I would get a 1.3 Thunderbird chip (these are easily overclockable with a decent fan and a mechanical pencil) overclock that baby. Get some high quality Ram (anything above 512 is probably overkill) overclock that too using the EPOX board. Then get a descent, but not bleeding edge video card (ATI AIW can be had for next to nothing now that the new cards are out or a Geforce 2 ultra with TV-In if you want even more horsepower) Get a HUGE harddrive (7200 RPM is recommended but not a necessity) at least 40 gigs. And get an audigy or a soundblaster live 5.1 series soundcard (some have reported problems with these soundcard but I have never had any...) And there you have it. This ENTIRE system can be built from scratch (i.e. no case, no monitor, no DVD drive) for UNDER $1000 on Pricewatch. So there you have it, great stuff at a great price. If you wanted to boot it up to truly top of the line (100 gig HDs, Geforce 3 with TV-in) you could STILL do it for under $1500. Good luck, if you have any questions just ask.

Macros

p.s. Asus is also a great motherboard for dependability and overclocking....

[stevlover]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-12-25 03:20:30, THE RIPPER wrote:
If your looking for the fastest computer for TMPGE then you definitely want to build yourself a dual athlon system.I can encode a 2 hr movie in about 1:40 min.

TYAN TIGER MP
2x 1800 MP
ATI 8500DV
60 GIG MAXTOR
16x DVD
24X BURNER
1024 DDR RAM
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

[stevlover]

I have a P3 1.1GIG with 512mb ram and a 60GIG maxtor hard drive plextor 24x 10x 40x cdrw dvd rom it takes me about 8 hrs using tmpeg to decode a 90 min movie. I saw your post about the dual p4 do you think a dual P3 would make much of a difference in encoding time?

[Macros746]

dphirschler,
It depends on how you are planning to capture. The short answer is YES! That system, in most areas, is going to do that just fine. Your bottlenect is going to be that graphics card. You might want to look into getting a RAdeon AIW....they can be had for slightly over $100 these days. But your system should be fine for capturing to lossless 480 x 480.

Macros

p.s. I say that it should be fine but you will note that their are posts from people on this forum that have AMAZING systems and can't capture to save their lives. Hopefully, you will not have this problem. Win98 does seem to be better, in general, than XP at capture so that is a good choice. As for encode times they will be VERY good. This will vary depending on whether you are frameserving and how many filters and the filter order....etc.

[TheInformer]

Just a little note on RAM...

If you are going to use Win NT/2K/XP, then get all the RAM you can afford. The OS will use it with no problems.

If you plan on using Win 9X/ME, then don't get more than 512 megs of RAM. Once you go above that, the OS starts to get very flaky.

Just my two cents...

[Macros746]

The RAM issue is an interesting one...I don't really see the purpose of going over 512. Now admittedly, I don't use XP, but 512 is more than enough for any modern games and, as long as your system has sufficient memory to function, I haven't heard anyone here believably argue that it increases encode time since that is largely CPU dependant. I don't know....I don't pretend to be an expert....any arguements for greater RAM would be listened to with interest....

Macros

[dphirschler]

Well, the ram helps out with MAME games, especially the Neogeo games. But I am not a bit time gamer. But lots of RAM comes in handy with image processing and 3D modelling, something I dabble with as well.


Darryl

[jk]

If you're looking to spend some money ($800 extra), check out the Matrox RT2500. You can skimp on the rest of your system (ie-get a 1.5GHz vs. 1.633GHz and save $100), and in return, this card will do hardware MPG2 (DVD/SVCD) encode/decode. And, if you use Adobe Premiere, it'll do 3 video tracks with effects in real time. Matrox suggests you get a RAID of some kind (Soyo Dragon+ motherboard has one built in) with 7200pm drives so your I/O can keep up with the card.

Either way, my research (and as of late, experience) is the Athlon XPs kick booty.

[d4n13l]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-12-28 10:27:23, Macros746 wrote:
The RAM issue is an interesting one...I don't really see the purpose of going over 512. Now admittedly, I don't use XP, but 512 is more than enough for any modern games and, as long as your system has sufficient memory to function, I haven't heard anyone here believably argue that it increases encode time since that is largely CPU dependant. I don't know....I don't pretend to be an expert....any arguements for greater RAM would be listened to with interest....

Macros
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>
For the vast majority of users, 512MB of RAM is more than enough, however people may need more if they had server or a workstation for example. It allows more programs to be resident in memory at any one time, letting you run more applications at once, It also helps if you do a lot of heavy graphical work or when printing very large documents.
Generally, going greater than 512MB is for power users - which many people think they are, but in fact are not. I will buy more than 512MB for my next system as I need it, I could be compiling a program, encoding VCDs, on the internet, doing some graphical rendering, printing some work out and running many other apps all at the same time, which will eat RAM. I also hope to use it as a server.
But any performance gains had by going greater than 256MB are negligable where encoding is concerned, maybe even negligable for more than 128MB where most users are concerned.
Unless people dont know why they need more than 512MB, then they dont need more than 512MB

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: d4n13l on 2001-12-28 14:16:57 ]</font>

[shochan]

disturbed1,
I have the athlon xp 1600+ it runs at 1.4ghz. I have yet to try that exact same setup you have done but I will give it a shot to see which out performes the other, I will also overclock my computer to as close to 1495 I can get it. I on the other hand do not have as much memory as you have. what version of tmpge are you using and what operating system are yu using?

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: shochan on 2001-12-29 15:56:10 ]</font>

[shochan]

Here is my encode of a test d2v off of star trek search for spock. it is only 1min long as I didnt want to waste my time but if someone wants me to go for the full length as disturbed did just let me know.

http://www.geocities.com/genenamy/index.html (sorry I made it quickly at geocities there is my little encode and my specs.

his p4 is running at 1495 and my athlon xp is running at 1488.

but I dont know if anybody said this at all. what makes a fast computer is not only the processor but everything else to. but 1min in 20sec is very nice.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: shochan on 2001-12-29 19:34:02 ]</font>

[SanitizeME]

"P4 2.0Ghz - 3Gig Ram - 1.7Tb HD Space"

Are you serious, disturbed1, man? The P4 is nothing out of the ordinary but damn... I got to hand it to you...You love your computer more than...you know what. That's a monster machine. That'll be the day when I get those specs. Why so much space? 1.7 Terabyte!

[SteveDVD]

1800+AMD-XP
512MB
80 GIG IBM HDD
128MB Radeon
Sound Blaster (Why not connect a stero reciever)
TV (as monitor)
Hook up a DVD Player
T3 Modem
PlexWriter (DVD-RW?)
DVD-ROM (Still need it for ripping)
Some expensive Motherboard
Network Card
Ethernet Card
USB Card
Twin Cooling Fans (your going to need them)
I don't know anything else. If your going to make this computer you mine as well buy a Mercedes Benz with a PS2 in it.

[SteveDVD]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>

916MB PC100 RAM

</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

WOW Weeeee. No wonder your getting such good TMPGEnc convert times.

[shochan]

I fixed my link on my previos post.

like i said easrlier 20sec for a 1min clip

just incase its
http://www.geocities.com/genenamy/index.html



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: shochan on 2001-12-29 19:35:45 ]</font>

[Chris X]

I personally am starting 2 dislike these types of threads. Yes, Im an AMD man, and the 1.4Ghz Tbird is faster then a P4 1.5Ghz, however, if your happy with what u got I say go ahead a flaunt it. Dont call somebody bad names or insult them because they have a different/slower system. Seems something 1st graders would do.

Yes, TMPGenc is optimized for SSE2, which the newest XP lacks, but not that much faster, the newest XP does have SSE, and that helps also.

BTW, It takes me 1 hour 2 convert a DVD.avi 2 VCD in High Quality mode with TMPGenc 2.5 =) and MES DAMN HAPPY!!!
_________________
Computers

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Chris X on 2001-12-30 22:43:18 ]</font>