More Bang for the Buck-Memory or video card?

Dimension 4300
upgraded the processor to 2.6GHz
512MB ram
separate 80GB hard drive just for video
nvidia geForce2 mx/mx400 with latest drivers



I have just started to do quite a bit of video editing, and would like some
more speed in the re-encode if possible. I am editing shows from my
Dishplayer PVR to DVD. This process takes about 7 minutes for each minute
of video.

Which upgrade, memory to 1GB or video card will be worth the money spent, or
is this about the best I am going to get from this PC?


Thanks
Bob

Video card won't do anything.
Memory likely won't do much.

It's just CPU intensive.
"Leanin' Cedar" wrote in message
news
Dimension 4300
upgraded the processor to 2.6GHz
512MB ram
separate 80GB hard drive just for video
nvidia geForce2 mx/mx400 with latest drivers



I have just started to do quite a bit of video editing, and would like
some
more speed in the re-encode if possible. I am editing shows from my
Dishplayer PVR to DVD. This process takes about 7 minutes for each minute
of video.

Which upgrade, memory to 1GB or video card will be worth the money spent,
or
is this about the best I am going to get from this PC?


Thanks
Bob

is you 80gb drive 'just for video' on the same controller as the primary
hard drive? if it is perhaps you should consider moving it to the secondary
controller. though you can have two ide drives on a single controller, only
one of them can be accessed at a time. if any of your work involves copying
data between the two drives then moving one to the secondary controller
could theoretically double your performance... also, if your hard disk
light it on the entire time of processing (which i suspect it is) then
perhaps you should look into getting a large scsi drive and add in
controller as a way to improve performance...

"Leanin' Cedar" wrote in message
news
Dimension 4300
upgraded the processor to 2.6GHz
512MB ram
separate 80GB hard drive just for video
nvidia geForce2 mx/mx400 with latest drivers



I have just started to do quite a bit of video editing, and would like
some
more speed in the re-encode if possible. I am editing shows from my
Dishplayer PVR to DVD. This process takes about 7 minutes for each minute
of video.

Which upgrade, memory to 1GB or video card will be worth the money spent,
or
is this about the best I am going to get from this PC?


Thanks
Bob

Thanks, That was sort of what I thought.

Bob
"Tom Scales" wrote in message
...
Video card won't do anything.
Memory likely won't do much.

It's just CPU intensive.

All of the video files are on one drive, the hard drive light blinks
randomly while processing, at least I have that going for me : )
I keep looking at the "workhorses" in my PC mags. Maybe next year.

Bob

"Christopher Muto" wrote in message
news:f4rVc.110$oD2.36@trndny08...
is you 80gb drive 'just for video' on the same controller as the primary
hard drive? if it is perhaps you should consider moving it to the
secondary
controller. though you can have two ide drives on a single controller,
only
one of them can be accessed at a time. if any of your work involves
copying
data between the two drives then moving one to the secondary controller
could theoretically double your performance... also, if your hard disk
light it on the entire time of processing (which i suspect it is) then
perhaps you should look into getting a large scsi drive and add in
controller as a way to improve performance...

to be clear... if your application is on the boot drive with the operating
system, then it is probably using the primary drive for temporary files and
then writing the final product to the store location (your just for video
drive)... so if the boot drive and the video drive are on the same ide
controller then this is a bottleneck in your system. hope that this
description reads more clearly than my first.... the cost of moving the
drives to alternate controllers is only time... and it may pay you back
handsomely.

"Leanin' Cedar" wrote in message
hlink.net...
All of the video files are on one drive, the hard drive light blinks
randomly while processing, at least I have that going for me : )
I keep looking at the "workhorses" in my PC mags. Maybe next year.

Bob

"Christopher Muto" wrote in message
news:f4rVc.110$oD2.36@trndny08...
is you 80gb drive 'just for video' on the same controller as the primary
hard drive? if it is perhaps you should consider moving it to the
secondary
controller. though you can have two ide drives on a single controller,
only
one of them can be accessed at a time. if any of your work involves
copying
data between the two drives then moving one to the secondary controller
could theoretically double your performance... also, if your hard disk
light it on the entire time of processing (which i suspect it is) then
perhaps you should look into getting a large scsi drive and add in
controller as a way to improve performance...

Thanks for the follow up.

I have set my applications to use the same drive for the temporary files as
I am for the video. At this time I have two 80GB drives on my primary ide
controller , and my Iomega SuperDVD writer as primary and a CDRW as
secondary on the second ide controller. The Iomega must be in the primary
position on the second controller. I am not sure if this leaves me much
wiggle room to be switching drives around.

Would putting my CDRW on the primary controller in the slave position and
the second hard drive on the secondary ide controller as slave make any
difference or create problems? I know one benefit of this would be copying
a CD disc to disc and not have to use the hard drive to store the files, but
I seldom do this.

I finally got all my internal drives, external Maxtor USB 2.0 and dual
firewire enclosure setup and working, I am hesitant to mess with anything.

This thing looks almost as bad as the back of my entertainment center. LOL
Game controllers;USB hub;two battery power supplies(lots of poweroutages
here); cables hanging out for the camera and the Pronto Remote control;
hookups for the vcr and sat TV, I think that covers all of it. I have
considered getting a converter for my JEEP so that I can hook up the PC to
the Jeep during poweroutages. : )

Bob


"Christopher Muto" wrote in message
news:%iLVc.1926$Ff2.1200@trndny06...
to be clear... if your application is on the boot drive with the operating
system, then it is probably using the primary drive for temporary files
and
then writing the final product to the store location (your just for video
drive)... so if the boot drive and the video drive are on the same ide
controller then this is a bottleneck in your system. hope that this
description reads more clearly than my first.... the cost of moving the
drives to alternate controllers is only time... and it may pay you back
handsomely.

i think it will only make a performance difference to you if you also
configure the application to use one drive for temporary work and the other
for destination. if you don't want to change that (or can't because of
space limitations) then changing the drive location will not make any
difference. switching the physical locations of drives will change their
drive letter, but this can be overridden within windows.

"Leanin' Cedar" wrote in message
ink.net...
Thanks for the follow up.

I have set my applications to use the same drive for the temporary files
as
I am for the video. At this time I have two 80GB drives on my primary ide
controller , and my Iomega SuperDVD writer as primary and a CDRW as
secondary on the second ide controller. The Iomega must be in the primary
position on the second controller. I am not sure if this leaves me much
wiggle room to be switching drives around.

Would putting my CDRW on the primary controller in the slave position and
the second hard drive on the secondary ide controller as slave make any
difference or create problems? I know one benefit of this would be copying
a CD disc to disc and not have to use the hard drive to store the files,
but
I seldom do this.

I finally got all my internal drives, external Maxtor USB 2.0 and dual
firewire enclosure setup and working, I am hesitant to mess with anything.

This thing looks almost as bad as the back of my entertainment center. LOL
Game controllers;USB hub;two battery power supplies(lots of poweroutages
here); cables hanging out for the camera and the Pronto Remote control;
hookups for the vcr and sat TV, I think that covers all of it. I have
considered getting a converter for my JEEP so that I can hook up the PC to
the Jeep during poweroutages. : )

Bob


"Christopher Muto" wrote in message
news:%iLVc.1926$Ff2.1200@trndny06...
to be clear... if your application is on the boot drive with the
operating
system, then it is probably using the primary drive for temporary files
and
then writing the final product to the store location (your just for
video
drive)... so if the boot drive and the video drive are on the same ide
controller then this is a bottleneck in your system. hope that this
description reads more clearly than my first.... the cost of moving the
drives to alternate controllers is only time... and it may pay you back
handsomely.

"Christopher Muto" wrote in message
news:A83Wc.5532$Nn2.5070@trndny05...
i think it will only make a performance difference to you if you also
configure the application to use one drive for temporary work and the
other
for destination.

I will give this a try. I guess I misunderstood at first. I had configured
the application to use my "Video only drive" for the temporary work files
and the destination, I thought this would save the app from accessing two
drives. I have all of my .mpg files etc on the same drive.

Bob