Upgrading PC for improved video editing results.

chedder21

Beta member
Messages
5
So, i have a 1.5Ghz computer with 2gb of RAM. I use Sony Vegas Pro 9.0, Adobe After Effects + Cinema 4D for my video editing. I run 32bit Windows Vista Home Premium. Link is below to the computer:

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/desktops/0,39029979,49299238,00.htm

This also providing more in-detail specs:

http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/advent/pc/ECO.htm

My most recent editing footage is my 'mini edit, quality test' video on youtube.com/iCHEDz

I know i can improve on this as i have seen better, even my friend uses the same settings and recording device but i think has better youtube.com/Jakex2oo9

Here is what crucial said about my system:

http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/viewscanbyid.aspx?id=3CD20CA431D926C3

So, what do i need to do to improve this, better processor and more ram? was thinking of upgrading to a 2.9ghz processor and 3gb ram (1gig in one slot, 2 gig in the other)...good?

HELP! :) Im knew to all this so excuse me + im from England and im not sure if English people call parts different names compared to Americans, like we do with words
 
Welcome to CF!

Audio/video editing can shift a lot of information via the RAM<>CPU<>Chipset<>Hard drive, when working on large projects/using fancy effects, so it pays to improve data throughput efficiency to and from these components.

I do audio editing/composing/mixing and had to make a huge decision last year to upgrade to a nice set up so I can be productive; my projects were just getting to large for my previous set-up.

First of you need fast hard drives and you would use the hard drive/s to stream the audio/video data to/from the application as you work. A lot of the applications do this in real time so it pays to use 7200RPM 16MB-32MB cache drives. The SSD's are ok but just too expensive and not needed.

Then the CPU and RAM. It's not really about the CPU speed here but you need a CPU that can deal with/allocate a shed load of instructions very quickly and the faster the connection to the RAM the better.

And having said all that this is why I went for an Intel Core i7 rig with 1600Mhz RAM and a Samsung Spinpoint F3 drive. There's probably slightly faster drives but it's more than enough and the CPU/RAM combination is perfect.

Whats your budget?
 
Thanks for the reply! My budget is around £150 so about $ 250 , I can upgrade to 4gb RAM and get a 2.9ghz processor in that budget as someone has already recommended me that or is that just pointless, do I need a better graphics card? I'm not to sure really, I have a 160gb harddrive and that seems big enough to me as I am yet to fill it up...

Thanks once again and I look forward to hearing again from you.
 
See it all depends on the workload. If your doing smallish editing tasks then the 2GB RAM is ok. The CPU and maybe the hard drive could be faster though. What CPU have you been offered?

However if the your productivity is suffering because of lack of resources then an upgrade of major parts is really the way to go.

What's your average type of editing work and does the machine struggle?
 
Quick reply a I'm late for work but I record my footage while using a 9000bit per second device, render with Vegas Pro 9 and Adobe After Effects, all quite big programs. I'll reply inmore detail later once I'm home but thanks again :)

Okay I have been using quite alot of Effects which you can see on my intro on my YouTube link I provided, also I'm intending on getting Cinema 3D but personnally I think that would run as slow as hell on my current computer as it's rendering 3D texts and such...

Also when previewing my edits on egas pro I have to full in no higher than Half quality on draft mode otherwise it lags really bad, and it's still really bad quality. My harddrive seems big enough I think, but just really curious of what ram an better CPU would do to improve my system? make the rendered video (finished video) any better quality? I record gaming from an XBOX via a dazzle dvc 100 , 9000 mbits per second (whatever that means).
 
I've had a quick look at the video capturing device and it only has Composite and S-Video inputs which means the quality will never be great and after checking out the video links that can clearly bee seen. However I can see that your friends clips is slightly better.

Make sure you use the 4 pin S-Video connection. Dont use the yellow Composite connection to capture the video as it's rubbish in comparison. I'm betting your mate is using the S-Video connection to capture the clips which is why his clip is better.

The above has nothing to do with the available resources on your computer because once the signal is digitised by the Dazzle DVC 100, and is in the digital domain, the applications you use won't introduce any noise/artefacts due to the high bit rates the app's engines work at giving theoretically high S/N ratios.

Sorry, I went on a bit there. But yea try using the S-video connection, not the composite connection.

With regards to the computer I feel that CPU and RAM upgrade might improve things a little but to properly improve rendering times you really need to upgrade and using DDR3 RAM with the latest architecture CPU's will enable a little more productivity and provide a better platform for the software to properly utilise.

:)
 
Thanks for the reply once again, but I'm already using S-Video to record...

Also you mentioned DDR3 ram what is that? how much would it cost to upgrade? (sorry If obvious I'm new :) )
 
DDR stands for Double Data Rate, so DDR3 would be the third iteration of that. You can purchase the DDR3 Ram from Here. You will need to upgrade the motherboard too if you want to go with DDR3 RAM as your current one (based off the specs in the second link) will not support DDR3.
Unfortunately, there's no mobo that I can find that would support your chip and DD3 so you'll need to do an overhaul of the system.
 
Back
Top Bottom