Computer question(s)

[Shu]

I have PIII 933mhz 384mb ram XP Home

I primarily use it for internet/email/pics/STR/NOW Mtn Bike VIDEO editing

It's slow as phuck when trying to edit clips in Windows Movie Maker and the play back skips stallspausesstops....you get the picture...

Buying a new or refurbished Mac is going to cost $1k....

What are some other options/upgrades "THAT WILL WORK" that won't cost me that much $$$$$

[bvader]

Use Internet explorer and go to
http://www.crucial.com/
let it scan your system and see if you can add any more memory. Make sure you only have essential services running (do not try this if you are not an advanced user)

Other than that...your probably looking at a new computer that thing is pretty ancient...

[station]

Dude, G4s are cheap now and work fine for editing video. Check out Craigslist. Get one with current software. The pain of dealing with a PC is going to make the G4 look like a dream come true. Also, there are cheap Mac Minis that will do just as good of a job. You can just hook it up to your old monitor.

[Shu]

I don't want to get rid of it if I don't have to b/c it was from World Trade Center 3...American Express Building that didn't drop....

Can I use that scan site w/ Firefox?

[bvader]

Originally Posted by Shu

I don't want to get rid of it if I don't have to b/c it was from World Trade Center 3...American Express Building that didn't drop....

Can I use that scan site w/ Firefox?

Yeah but you have to download a little mini app. It is a safe and respectable site.

If you use IE it will use an ActiveX control

I suspect that board will only take a max of 512mb which won't buy you much.

[katonk]

Originally Posted by Shu

What are some other options/upgrades "THAT WILL WORK" that won't cost me that much $$$$$

I am a trained professional and this answer is actual advice:

No.

If the non-video tasks are working OK for you now I wouldn't recommend upgrading anything on your current PC. At this point you'll likely be paying a premium for any parts, as they're mostly no longer in production.

Save your money for a new PC or Mac. If you're going to buy used, a PC is a better bet as they lose their value faster. If you're going to buy a new Mac, don't buy your upgrades from Apple. They'll rape you. Buy Mac memory and hard drive upgrades from a 3rd party.

[jeffj]

You can get a new PC with 3GB to 4GB of RAM (Vista should have at least 2GB to run well) for $500+/- that will shred for video editing. You could do it for a less if you really want to shop and know what you can and can't do without.

How much value can a $500 computer lose?

Video rendering is very demanding. RAM and processor speed is king. When your project is rendering, your computer will be running more or less flat out for the duration of the rendering process. A PIII like yours will take several hours to render an hour's worth of video. A new rig would do it in less than an hour.

[station]

Originally Posted by Shu

I don't want to get rid of it if I don't have to b/c it was from World Trade Center 3...American Express Building that didn't drop....

Can I use that scan site w/ Firefox?

Fine, put it in a glass case and get a mac.

hehe

Originally Posted by katonk

I am a trained professional and this answer is actual advice:

No.

If the non-video tasks are working OK for you now I wouldn't recommend upgrading anything on your current PC. At this point you'll likely be paying a premium for any parts, as they're mostly no longer in production.

Save your money for a new PC or Mac. If you're going to buy used, a PC is a better bet as they lose their value faster. If you're going to buy a new Mac, don't buy your upgrades from Apple. They'll rape you. Buy Mac memory and hard drive upgrades from a 3rd party.

tru dat.

[mottmcfly]

Originally Posted by Shu

I have PIII 933mhz 384mb ram XP Home

I primarily use it for internet/email/pics/STR/NOW Mtn Bike VIDEO editing

It's slow as phuck when trying to edit clips in Windows Movie Maker and the play back skips stallspausesstops....you get the picture...

Buying a new or refurbished Mac is going to cost $1k....

What are some other options/upgrades "THAT WILL WORK" that won't cost me that much $$$$$

First off. the processor isnt all that speedy, after that 384 of ram isnt nearly enough to do rendering. Forget whats on the graphics card. Thats the least of your worries.

If you are dead set on keeping that PC the only thing you can really do is add RAM. I would beef it up to the max. On that mother board I wouldn't be surprised if the max is 1 gig. if it is, time to move on.

fact is, no matter what you do it's going to be slow due to your core hardware.

[JoeTruth]

If you're set on keeping your budget low and can't afford a new computer now, I'm sure I have a P4 (guessing 2.0 Ghz.) box sitting around with 512 mb of ram and probably an 80 gb HD (most likely IDE but could be SATA). I'd be willing to trade you for something equivalent of next to nothing or if you have nothing to offer, you can just have it. Screen, mouse/KB is not included. I need to see if it has a functioning CD-RW, CD-R or DVD-Rom. You supply and install your own OS and applications. No warranty or support included. Let me know if you're interested.

[mottmcfly]

Originally Posted by JoeTruth

If you're set on keeping your budget low and can't afford a new computer now, I'm sure I have a P4 (guessing 2.0 Ghz.) box sitting around with 512 mb of ram and probably an 80 gb HD (most likely IDE but could be SATA). I'd be willing to trade you for something equivalent of next to nothing or if you have nothing to offer, you can just have it. Screen, mouse/KB is not included. I need to see if it has a functioning CD-RW, CD-R or DVD-Rom. You supply and install your own OS and applications. No warranty or support included. Let me know if you're interested.

Awfully nice of you Joe.

[DBD]

A PIII? And do you know what type of RAM you use AND the type of mother board? Also, what type of video card are ya running? What size is the hard drive (guessin' 80GB since it was an office PC)?

Processors right now, especially for the older boards, are very cheep. So is RAM but that will depend on what type you have.
You could upgrade the processor for 100$ or less to something around 1.8 to 2.0 GHz. Depending on the mobo you could even get a dual core 2.2GHz for around 80$.

You could bump up the memory to 1GB (or at least 512) for abut 40 to 60$.

Not to mention, you COULD also get a new mobo for about 60$ that would work better as well.

I would also guess you have an older AGP video card and a new one (definitely recommend a good one) would run you about 80$

An upgraded hard drive, if you are running an 80GB HD, can be had for 60$ and that would get you up to 250GB.

Yeah yeah yeah, that just built you a new PC and maybe more then ya want to spend but you do not need to do all of it.

So for about 360 you could have pretty much a new PC that would work well for your needs. The only thing that may hold you back would be the power supply, if it is at least 350W it should work but even a 500W supply can be had for 30$

If you were to replace just a couple items I would say bump the memory up to 512 (better 1GB though) and replace the video card.