Video Editing...

Hey, guys, it's been a while since I've posted, but where else to get help but Tribalwar.

Anyway, around Christmas time, I'll be doing some video editing and i was wondering if a video-card would help with quality/speed, or anything at all. Not doing any gaming, just video editing. I have an E-Machine Athlon 3200 with an integrated video card. Also PCI x16 slot. If yes what would you recommend?

I know I'll need to get some more memory. I currently have 4x256 sticks and im looking to change 2 of them with 2x512.

Edit: the machine comes with a 300watt PS

Now, I wouldn't consider myself a professional by any means, but I do do a bit of video editing.

I'd say that you will want to upgrade your video card, but it doesn't need to be anything super fancy. In my machine, I have an older Matrox 128MB Parhelia video card, and it does a fine job. You can definitely go higher-end, but I've had no problems with it at all.

My biggest recommendation, aside from getting more memory (at least 1.5 GB), would be to get a new motherboard and processor. This might be out of the question, but from what I've heard and in my own experience, AMD processors do not do as well of a job in video editing as Pentium processors. I've tried to run programs like Adobe Premiere Pro on an Athlon 3000+ machine and it just did not go very well... The rendering was done poorly, software ran slowly, etc.

Also, make sure you have plenty of HD space...

And, just to make your system more stable, I'd go with more juice in your power supply. I have a 480watt PS and I've had no problems.

My machine looks like this:

3.1 GHz P4 processor
1.5GB PC3200 RAM
1.6 TB of HD space (two 120GB HDs, a 200GB HD, and a 1.2TB external HD)
128MB Matrox Parhelia video card
480 watt PS

It's not a perfect editing setup, but it's been reliable and stable for a few years. Good luck with the editing; it's tons of fun.

Yes, Intel processors are better for video editing. A lot of RAM also helps (I'm thinking 2 gigs). The vid card doesn't need to be high end, but a lot of memory helps there too.

Thanks guys. I don't think I'll be changing the processor and MD just because this is a home movie project. I will get perhaps at least 2 gigs of mem but im not sure what card yet.

You can't just change the processor without changing your motherboard. I don't think you want to do that. That's basically a new computer.

I don't think he needs ANY of the stuff you guys are telling him to get. It sounds like he wants to do some splicing on some video and adding in effects and music for his home videos. I've done that before on MY old computer using Adobe Premiere and it worked out just fine.

Why don't you try what you want to do with it first, and then IF it's too slow or doesn't run acceptably for you, come back and let us know? If anything, I would first look to upgrading memory.

Ah, if it's just simple home video editing, yeah... no need to change your CPU and motherboard. Just make sure you have enough RAM and hard drive space.

What program are you going to use?

Mostlikely Video Vegas 4, not sure if any of my other buddies that im working with have any other program. Perhaps Premiere

I was looking at this card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E1681 4102041)

what do you think?

That card isn't going to do anything to accelerate video editing or rendering outside of video games. Trust me. Like Koala said, make sure you have enough RAM and hard drive space. 1GB RAM should be okay, but if you're doing work with really large files, you should consider updating that.

Don't fork over any money until you give it a shot with your system as it CURRENTLY is, and IF you have a problem with it, THEN upgrade. :)