Building a system - maybe....

[albertyay]

I am trying to maximize my system performance for video editing, but don't have a huge budget.
I currently have an HPa520n with:

MOBO: ASUS A7N8V-LA (BIOS does not allow overclock)
CPU: AMD Athlon 3200+ (Socket A)
Memory: 512M PC2700 RAM (I've already ordered 2 512M sticks of the Corsair PC3200 value ram with C2.5 latency)
Hard Drive: Samsung 160G HD (2mb buffer) 7200rpm
Video Card: ECS Radeon 9200
OS: XP Home

I am trying to decide whether to go ahead and build a system with the following:

MOBO: EPoX "EP-8KDA3J" nForce3-250Gb
CPU: Athlon 64 2800+ or 3000+ (Overclocked to ??????)
Memory: 1G (2-512M sticks Corsair PC3200 c2.5 value - already purchased)
Hard Drive: Western Digital 160G to 200G Barracuda (SATA or IDE??) or Comparable Seagate Drive
Video Card: ECS Radeon 9200
OS: XP Home

Another option I'm considering is just upgrading the hard drive on the HP a520n (along with the 1G of PC3200) with an IDE version of the 160G to 200G WD or Seagate.

What type of performance increase, most importantly with regard to video editing, should one expect with the upgraded system, assuming a "mild" overclock? I know that the hard drive and RAM should make a pretty significant difference, but don't know if it is worth upgrading the mobo and the CPU just yet. Also, if I build the new system, would an SATA hard drive result in any performance increase? I understand that if I purchased two of the hard drives and used a RAID array that it would help decrease the reduction in sustained transfer rates that occurs with an increase in stored data. I don't think that two hard drives would fit into my present budget; however. I would consider adding a second drive in a RAID array in the future if it is worth it.


Thanks.

 

[jpeyton]

That HP is a fairly current system, especially once you add the 1GB of RAM. Is it too slow for you?

Try adding a separate drive for video editing files, one with 8MB cache, first.

 

[albertyay]

It's been more sluggish than I had expected. But like you said, adding the ram and upgrading the drive might get it up to speed. Man, way to rain on my parade...just as I had almost convinced myself that I could justify spending the money to build another system, you go and post reasonable advice. ;-)

Thanks.

 

[moonsite]

Yeah, it is not worth upgrading just yet.

 

[SneakyStuff]

It wouldn't matter, your graphics card is a SEVERE limitation.

 

[wetcat007]

New graphics card would breath new life into the system.

 

[albertyay]

I don't game much and really only went with the 9200 for the DVI to run my lcd monitor. I thought that video editing was not really dependent on the video card. The encoding is CPU intensive and there is a large amount of data transfer to and from the hard drive. I'm upgrading the ram because I have had some system lock-ups while trying to edit longer clips with music and some effects and the page fiile usage was also high. The board only supports PC2700, but I bought the 3200 in case I decicded to upgrade anytime soon.

 

[jpeyton]

Don't upgrade your current drive; add a second one just for video files. If you can put the drive on a second channel (or SATA channel if you have one), it's even better.

 

[albertyay]

Edit: Deleted stupid question.

I understand about adding the additional drive just for video files. The less data on that drive the faster it will perform. I just re-read you last post and you said second channel OR SATA. I'll check out the system in the morning and figure out the best way to set up the new hard drive.

Thanks for your help.

 

[jpeyton]

If you have a SATA channel use that. Then just adjust the software to point to it for temp files, scratch disk, etc. Save your work on that drive too.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

ROFL @ silly no0bs suggesting a GPU upgrade.

Go for the massive storage upgrade, since that's most often the bottleneck for video editing.

- M4H

 

[SneakyStuff]

har har, didnt see that tny detail, either way, Radeon 9200? and all that nice stuff!? AHHHHHHH!!!

 

[jpeyton]

Actually Albert built himself quite a system on a budget. You got the HP from Ratshack, right? I saw that deal on FW.

 

[jdogg707]

Ya, that system is pretty nice. The best thing you could do after adding that RAM is formatting the HD, and using a new copy of Windows XP to put a fresh install on it. Taking off the bloatware that HP adds will slow down any system! The 9200 is a great card for those not looking to game, I mean the last time I checked it didn't take a 9800 Pro to run the Windows XP GUI.

 

[albertyay]

Yeah, I admit to being a noob!

I bought the HP system at Microcenter and paid about $479 after rebates and being approved for a Microcenter credit card [EDIT: I added the Radeon 9200 and the Radeon TV Card (VE) for $51 and $29 respectively].

When I got the computer the first thing I did was get rid of all that HP "bloatware". What a load of crap...preinstalled...but you have to pay to use it!

I think that Anandtech has gotten addictive and I'm just itching to put together another system. I'm glad I posted this as it may have stopped my insanity - for now!

Again, thanks for the input.

 

[albertyay]

I just re-read jdogg's post about removing the HP bloatware. I may try installing a clean version of XP. Out of curiosity - why does removing all the extra programs slow down a system?

Does XP Pro offer much advantage over the Home version? I've noticed quite a few people who use it.

If anyone is interested, the mobo has only 2 ide channels and no SATA, so I had to set up the new drive as a slave on the same channel as the boot drive. I did get pretty lucky and was able to get a 160G Seagate Barracuda (7200.7?) for $69 after rebates at Bestbuy. The I realized that the case was pretty full and there was no spot for another hard drive. So I ended up rigging a small platform on the base of the case to mount the drive. It keeps the drive about an inch off the bottom, so I'm hoping it will stay cool enough. Oh well, it has a 5-year guarantee!

 

[geologist]

A few things I have learned that may help you:

I would wait and see what the new ram does for you. In grad school, I had an old AMD T-Bird at 1400 mhz and 256 mb of pc-133 ram. Our lab had a 2.8Ghz P4 with a gig of Rambus ram. There was no real comparison between the two systems. When I maxed out my ram to 1.5 GB, I swear it was almost as fast as the P4. And this wasn't just for word processing and surfing the net, it also helped with big Adobe Illustrator files and Photoshop projects. I would strongly urge you to do nothing until you install that ram you've ordered.

I think that fewer entries in the registry makes Windows run faster (not 100% sure), which explains why a fresh install of Xp seems lightning fast until you start adding lots of programs. I only know that after I cleaned the registry on a friends machine, everything seemed to run faster, especially boot and shutdown times.

Some programs run in the background and slow a machine down.

 

[Pollock]

Definitely reinstall XP, but you shouldn't bother paying ~$170 to upgrade to Professional. I'd also second an 8mb cache drive, which it appears you've gotten. The only real advantage of SATA in my opinion is that it has nicer, smaller cables. I suggest you try it out with what you're already planning before doing anything like upgrading the CPU and motherboard.