AthlonXP 2400 with 1GB of RAM. What will help most with video?

Question

My motherboard will support the highest AthlonXP (3200 I think) and up o 2 gigs of RAM. I want to speed up the process when working with video. Short of buying a new computer, what will give me the best results - faster processor, more RAM, combination of both.

Answer 1

For video encoding, the processor is the most important thing. 1GB of ram is enough for any encoding application, but some video editing programs like Adobe Premier can benefit from more. But your processor is slow enough that that's going to be the bottleneck when working with video. Short of getting a new computer, the processor upgrade will give you the biggest improvement. Don't waste your time with the ram- unless your system is constantly paging to disk with 1GB (which it shouldn't be), you won't notice any performance increase.

And despite the name, video cards don't help with encoding video at all. They're for rendering real time 3D graphics in games.

Answer 2

lol
ram would be ur best upgrade more then likely .
depending on ur existing processer speed .

a good processer is needed but video editing takes a lot of ram .
the faster the ram speed is the better your resources will be used. so try to get ram chips with a larger mhz rating "Example" ram @ 166mhz will of coarse run smoother & faster then 100mhz chips

so if u have say 1000 Mhz processer with a gig of ram id say go for the processer first but if your running around 2000 Mhz id go for a ram upgrade. if u can afford both by all means get the largest Processer u can get and stuff the ram full :P

and people responding with a Vidcard lol he is wanting to increase speed at processing video not viewing it lmao

Answer 3

Working with video requires a lot of processing power. You will probably see the most increase by going to the fastest processor. To get really really good video processing, you will need a newer MB and processor like a 64 dual core. If you plan on doing that, don't buy a bunch of RAM because it probably won't work with a newer board.

Answer 4

I really think more ram and a better vid card will help, but don't go out and buy anything thats top of the line, as your processor won't be able to keep up. If you do buy a nice video card and more ram, try overclocking your processor just a bit, maybe 15%, which shouldn't do any harm unless you have a horrible colling system.

Answer 5

Video manipulation will use a lot of CPU cycles, memory and also need good I/O to the hard drive....

Recommendation, X2 or Core Duo with 2 GB ram... With SATA II.

Since new is not an option, I would say go with RAM.... You will not gain much from a CPU upgrade....

Answer 6

with the video editing process ive seen nvdia work better for it and ive used abit before too so id suggest buying around a 512mb stick of ram and a video card of at elast 128mb or more on it and also it helps if you close out all of the background software too if your looking for a cheap place to get these things from id say use www.newegg.com there usually the cheapest and ive never really had any problems with their shipping hope this helps

Answer 7

RAM definitely helps as does a better video card but alone they will do nothing for performance.

I would look at a hard drive that runs faster than 7200 RPM (probably 10,000 RPM as a 15,000 RPM drive probably won't be supported by your machine) and I'd go into a RAID configuration for sure! This will significantly speed up your processing time for video.

Answer 8

Get a good video card. Seeing the way games are coming these days, something on the medium high end of the Nvidia 7000 series would do nicely. It of course, depends on your budget. With a few hundred dollars, i would get a 7900 or maybe a 7950. It should be good for a few years. Another Gig of ram wouldn't hurt either.

Answer 9

ok here's what your aiming for.
AMD Athalon XP 2400+
2 GB RAM (PC 3200, or PC 4200) AMD mobo's don't use PC2 yet I believe
256MB 256bit nVidia 7900GS For about $170 or a 6800GS which will play any game on the market with about 70FPS all MAXED like bf2, I get 80fps on MAX. But I use 1024x768 Resolution. But I doubt it makes a drastic difference.

EVGA 7900GS (7000 means 7th Generation 900 series the 900 means alot, its more advanced than say a 8200 if there was one.)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130056 ($170)

EVGA 6800GS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130063 ($99)

If you want to go Extreme check out the nVidia 8800GT its so awesome I'm afraid to post the link here...

I would write the technical specs but I have a life too you know...

Answer 10

I noticed a big difference going from 1GB of RAM to 2GB. Make sure that you buy a matching set. Don't just add another 1GB stick to what you have. Your RAM will run at the "worst" spec'd stick so getting a matching set would be best.