512 MB enough for video editing?

[spade357]

Can I work on a 512MB ram for my video editing? Is this enough?
I'm not planning to do anything else during this process. Will I get frame drops with this?

[lordsmurf]

yes, enough

[W_Eagle]

Definitely enough.

[spade357]

thanks guys

[rhegedus]

Yes.

I've got a Gig in my PC (2 x 512 because my order for 1 x 512 was duplicated....... but I don't complain) but can't realy rell the difference over 512Mb.

I guess the only benefit is that you can run other programs at the same time - even then my RAM usage doesn't go much above 300Mb.

[W_Eagle]

Indeed, while editing video no more than about 300MB are used. Anyhow, running other programs at the same time will only increase editing time, will probably use the processor to its full capacity, which may cause it to heat too much. Thus, there is no benefit at all in having more that 500MB.

[lordsmurf]

I want to get 1GB of RAM, but it's only for when I have SoundForge, Photoshop, FrontPage, Outlook, IE, CuteFTP, ATI MMC and DVDit! PE running at the same time. Which is more often than you'd think.

Do web work, video and internet all at the same time. Sometimes get random crashes from insufficient memory right now, at 512 RDRAM.

[energy80s]

It would probably make more sense to get a second machine. Video work is sooooo much more intensive than even audio editing, that its not worth the risk of glitching video edits just so that you can edit photos and view VCDHelp all at the same time. RAM won't make any difference there.

[Gazorgan]

512 is fine. you woin't se any speed increase with 1 GB, so don't spend your $$$ there. Take the money and get a faster CPU or bigger HD and you will be happier!

[spade357]

wow thanks guys, i guess i can use the money for a larger hard drive then. Speaking of hard drives, are SATA drives faster than IDE? Can i have an IDE and SATA drives working together in my system? If so, which would be better to use for my video files?

[Gazorgan]

SATA are indead faster with lower overhead. But in video editing it usually doesn't matter.

Usually.

If your editing in huffyuv or RAW formet, then it does matter. You talking 40-80 GB of video that you have to scroll through, so HD access is definately critical. I wouldn't give up a 200 GB UDMA133 IDE dive for a 60 GB SATA drive.

[bottle-necked]

More important than the amount of ram is the type of ram installed. Make sure you get the proper speed/type of ram that your motherboard / manufacturer recommends for your particular system.

Many people make the mistake of thinking that any ram will work as long as the numbers are the same, but this isn't always the case.

For error free and stable operation always use high quality ram of the proper speed and ratings. You will never go wrong.

Good luck.

[RabidDog]

It is CRUCIAL that you use the correct ram. Video-editing and video capturing are two different things .. frame drops can occur when vid capping not when vid editing.

[babyboo]

I believe that you can have both SATA and IDE devices as long as they are on not on the same channel although I am not 100% sure since I only have IDE devices

[bottle-necked]

Serial ATA uses a different interface cable, power plug, and a different controller than Ultra ATA. You must either have a motherboard with SATA support, or install a PCI-SATA controller card to use SATA HDDs.

Good luck.