How much memory is enough

[kwack]

Currently doing a large amount of capturing of home video to my PC.

I am running Win XP Pro with 512mb ram.

Would I notice any difference by sticking another 512mb in it or is it a waste.

Opinions please

Kwack

[Beavis]

If it's capturing fine now, no. DV capture over firewire happens at a fixed rate no matter what you do. A more powerful system won't enhance anything.

[racer-x]

You should be just fine with 512 mb ram. I'm running an AMD XP1700 w/768 mb ram. I usually run Premiere Pro and Photoshop (big memory hogs) at the same time. I never run into problems, even when I use to run 512 mb ram.

[jimmalenko]

I think it is fair to say that it is generally accepted that 512MB RAM is about all you need with Windows XP, and that 1024MB would be slightly better, but not absolutely necessary. As a few people have mentioned, if you're getting the results now then there's probably no need to change anything.

That said, I had a P4 3.06B running with 512MB RAM on a cheap Shuttle board. I bought myself a new mobo and another 512MB RAM and noticed a massive difference when I configured hyperthreading and put my RAM in Dual Channel mode. The difference only comes in the encoding stage (which is generally the most time intensive stage). For 2-Pass VBR using TMPGEnc Plus I went from encoding times of 3-4X runtime (2 hour movie takes 6-8 hours to encode) to 1.3-1.5X runtime (2 hour movie now takes 2½-3 hours to encode).

I would call that massive

Like all good weight-loss ads, individual results may vary

[kwack]

Thanks for all the advice guys I think I will save the money.

Cheers
Kwack