CPU or RAM

[darkblackx]

I currently have a Duron 750, 40gig 7200rpm HDD, and 128MB SDRAM. I encode alot of avi's to VCD's using TMPGenc, and DVD's to SVCD using TMPGenc or CCE. At the moment it takes around 40 HOURS to do a DVD encode in CCE (DVD2SVCD).
My question is what would give better results; a faster CPU eg Athlon Thunderbird 1.33, Athlon XP 1400? Or more RAM eg 256 SDRAM, 512 SDRAM?

So RAM or CPU????????????????????

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: darkblackx on 2002-01-10 05:55:29 ]</font>

[grumpyfin]

I don't know but I think you probably want to upgrade both CPU and RAM. I run a dual PIII800 box with 1GB of RAM and it takes me an average of 7 hours from start to finish for just about any movie that I've ripped. I've ripped as many as four at a time (after extracting the .VOB files) and had all four movies completed within 16 hours.

[iant]

Amazing how many times this one gets asked. If you search the forums, you'll find the answer is always CPU as encoding is 99.9% CPU dependant.

On that point, grab an Athlon XP. It has the SSE instruction set which, I believe, the standard Athlon Thunderbird does not. Using no fancy filtering, you'll encode a full film in about 4 hours on an Athlon XP 1600.

Have fun,
Ian

[tinycorkscrew]

If you must upgrade only one component, it should be the CPU. The encoding process is mainly CPU-dependent.

As for RAM, TMPGEnc doesn't perform better if you have excess RAM, but it does perform worse if it doesn't have enough. 256MB might be enough if you don't have other programs running concurrently. In that case, 512mb would offer no benefit.

[loudanddeep]

Ok, you alluded to the problem:
It takes too long to encode your dvd.

You did not specify what you are encoding it to.
IF your goal is to encode it to MPG1 or MPG2 (for (s)vcd;
AND your goal is to save time,
THEN if you dont mind a slight loss of quality (and this part is debatable, but please not here).

THEREFORE spend your money on a realtime hd encoder.
I reccomend a usb type.
It will encode in real time, if you can use a dvd player as the source.

(and yes, usb can handle the bandwidth necessary to TRANSMIT the mpg stream from the compression chip to your hard drive. It cannot handle the bandwidth necessary to transmit the uncompressed signal to a video card. many people assume because of #2, it cannot do #1, this is false).

Now, if you want a reccomendation on which capture device;
1 - if you are cheap: ADS USB Instant dvd
2 - Spend a little more: Dazzle DVCII

read the capture forums for this.

Remember, you need to solve the right problem.
ie. - takes to long to make mpg files OR takes to long to make divX files.
They have diff solutions.

Dp