New computer

[rcguy1]

I just bought a new Compaq Presario with a AMD 3500+ cpu. Also the video card is built on the motherboard and 1 gig of memory. It's a ATI Radeonxpress 200 series. I have two questions, (1) should I upgrade to a AMD dual core processor and (2) should I buy an PCI video card? I do not want to spend $350.00 for a new video card but a card sort in the middle. I do alot of video editing as a hobby. Any suggestion would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

RCGUY

[ROF]

Your onboard video should be sufficient. If anything buy more RAM. These computers typically come with 256MB-1GB of RAM. I would not buy a video card for this computer at this time. The price you would have to pay to achieve better results would be expensive at best. Will your system support a dual core? Most compaqs use a proprietary board that would prevent such an upgrade even if it is a 939 board.

[redwudz]

The video card will have no effect on editing, that's done with the computer, not the video card. If you were into gaming, then you might need a more advanced card. The video card is just for viewing.

You didn't mention hard drives, size and number. That's important when working with video. I would have at least 2 hard drives and keep your video separate from your boot drive. With editing or capturing it will make a difference.

You would have to check your motherboard specs to see what other CPUs will work with it.

[jman98]

Your video card is fine for editing video. My video card and sound card are built into my motherboard and they are suficient for me. If you are a dedicated gamer, maybe you might want to get a PCI video card. Personally, I have absolutely no interest at all, zero, in playing any video games. An onboard video card works fine for watching/editing video.

You don't really need dual core unless you are doing some time consuming stuff that MIGHT be sped up by dual core. I do a lot of video encoding while I sleep and/or am at work, so I don't really need a job to take 4-5 hours instead of 8-10.

You certainly can work with only one disk drive, but if you have the money, there's a lot to be gained by having a separate drive as redwudz suggests. It's not critical though. If you keep enough free space on a very large single drive, you can get by with one drive, assuming you don't really do much with the PC while capturing/editing video other than the job at hand. I have a 2nd PC and it's only job is for video work. I have only 1 drive and it works fine for that My PC is not connected to the internet or any other PC. All I use it for is video stuff.

[CrayonEater]

Even if you were to buy a video card, you'd probably be taking a step backwards if you bought a PCI card; either it's gotta be AGP 8x or PCI-Express (which is most likely what your system supports, but you never know with Compaqs - they have been known to be a few years behind in technology). But, as others have said, your card should suffice as long as you aren't in heavy-duty gaming.

I will also attest to the fact that a second hard drive - especially running on a different PATA or SATA port - makes a big difference in terms of performance and general usability. Again, you may have problems due to the fact your machine is a Compaq - many parts are also proprietary or somewhat so. But, if you think you can squeeze in a SATA drive, a 200 Gb is about $80 at Tigerdirect.com.

[redwudz]

If you need an additional hard drive and you have a spare SATA socket on the motherboard, a neat option to add a extra drive is an external SATA drive. A external SATA enclosure with PS is less than $40US, then you toss in a SATA hard drive and the drive will run just as fast as an internal SATA.

You can get a PCI slot SATA connector with an internal cable to the motherboard SATA socket for less than $10US and you have a very fast external drive that can be used on more than one computer. Then the only installation is to open the case, put in the new PCI slot plate, plug it in and you are done. No software or drivers needed. Runs circles around both FireWire and USB 2.0 in terms of speed.