Video Editing: New Computer Or Upgrade?

[Jedi5]

Can someone please chime and advise me on what better thing to do is?
Looking to start editing more videos on my PC.
I know I need a bigger HD (have a 30GB currently) to begin with but I'd also like more speed.
Sometimes I think my PC runs a little slow.

Not looking to get into any over clock or things of that sort.
Videos will pretty much all be home movies and some music videos.

This is what I currently have, nothing fancy.

System Model: Dimension 4700
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 502MB RAM
Page File: 277MB used, 948MB available

[edDV]

Can someone please chime and advise me on what better thing to do is?
Looking to start editing more videos on my PC.
I know I need a bigger HD (have a 30GB currently) to begin with but I'd also like more speed.
Sometimes I think my PC runs a little slow.

Not looking to get into any over clock or things of that sort.
Videos will pretty much all be home movies and some music videos.

This is what I currently have, nothing fancy.

System Model: Dimension 4700
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 502MB RAM
Page File: 277MB used, 948MB available

Until last fall I was using a machine like yours (but with >TB HDDs) and was happy. What kind of "home videos"?
502MB RAM is minimal. XP is OK with 1GB total. Vista needs 2GB minimum.

"502MB" RAM also indicates an old video display card.

You may be able to stay where you are for awhile depending on your goals.

[wiseleo]

That is fine for editing. You want 2GB of RAM minimum, but RAM is cheap.

Add a couple of large hard disks. Raw DV video is 13GB/hr. A couple of 500GB disks on a SATA controller will serve you well. A cheap solution is an eSata external hard disk and an eSata controller. An even cheaper option is firewire and external disk. However, if you do not already have firewire (then how are you connecting your camcorder?), eSata is the preferred medium. Note that USB 2.0 is tied to the CPU and firewire is not.

Can you wait a few hours overnight for your work to render?

When you throw more hardware, you simply decrease your rendering times.

[Jedi5]

Yeah, I'm running XP and I bought this PC, I didn't go all out because at the time I really wasn't doing much on it aside surfing for pr0n.

Have firewire so that is taken care of. Home movies are nothing big.
Just your everyday home movies I guess.
Also have some music DVD I'll make every now and then.

So really all I need is more RAM and a new HD?
OK, that'll work then. I don't know why but I was thinking I was going to need more, LOL.

I've heard that with a Dell, the RAM *should* be from Dell as well.
Any truth to that?

Anyone suggest a good HD I should look at?
Prefer one not external.

thanx