hardware help

I am about to upgrade my hardware as my current set up hasn't got the guts. The main tasks my Pc struggles with are rendering in after effects and premiere software. My processor is only 1.1gig and I only have 300+ memory. I want this hardware update to be able to handle decent editing software for months to come. Have you any advice that I would be grateful of??
Oh and yes, should I get a dvd writer as most of the dv films I edit for college wont fit on cd rom. Maybe an external hard drive is the answer but I am working on cross platform. Does this matter?
Cheers.

[MarkE19]

To start with you need to get the fastest processor you can afford, but I would recommend not getting the newest/fastest as these are too expensive and will drop in price in next to no time
Go for 512Mb RAM or more if the budget stretches that far. Obviously go for a large separate hard disk for video capture.
DVD writers do seam to be the way to go, but which format? It may be more expensive but the Sony multi format drive will make sure you don't end up investing in todays version of a Betamax VCR.

Just be aware that no matter how fast the proccessor or how much RAM you have rendering will still take hours. Hardware CODECs on dedicated capture devices are the only real way to speed things up by a large amount.

Mark.

Excellent advice. Cheers. I may go for a dual athlon and the ram you mentioned. What about tha graphics card and what dv capturing software would you recommend as the fastest ??
Thanks.

I've just bought a 2600 Athlon with 1Gb DDR memory, 160Gb HDD, DVD-R and run Pinnacle....
It's quick......
and the DVD-R works in my player - so no complaints there....

I don't want to start a pointless Pentium/Athlon argument, but it's possible that a Pentium might be specifically faster than an Athlon at a task like rendering, due to its support for SSE2 instructions.

I understand these specialised instructions will never be supported on Athlons due to licensing/copyright issues, but they can make a big difference if the software is written to take advantage of them...

[MarkE19]

Originally posted by spacemonkee62
Excellent advice. Cheers. I may go for a dual athlon and the ram you mentioned. What about tha graphics card and what dv capturing software would you recommend as the fastest ??
Thanks.

When I purchased my editing PC I was recommended an Athlon processor if going for dual proccessor or Pentium IV if going for single.
Graphics depends on the budget and space available. I have a Matrox duel head graphics with 2 monitors connected. This makes life a lot easier as you can spread all the windows accross 2 screens giving more space and all windows visible. Other companies also make duel head graphics. If only useing 1 monitor then any 64Mb or higher quality card should work well.
Pinnacle Studio 8 is a great performer and fairly easy to learn.
If speed is the most important thing then consider getting a hardware CODEC card such as the Matrox RT.X10 or RT.X100 or Pinnacle Pro-One. Great cards that will speed rendering, but cost several hundred pounds but do include software (normally Adobe Premiere 6.5). These cards will give some real-time effects.

Mark.

[Dazza Polky]

Pinnacle Pro One !!
I have just recently installed a pro one board into my new purpose bult pc.

However I still am having problems getting the upto date hardware drivers to install.
Pro One E4 is flagged in device manager.

Also my geforce fx200 grahics card nvidia setup wont let me set the Pro One 3D renderer as extend my windows on this desktop. I tick the box but the it rejects it saying the driver is not up to date for my version of windows (XP SP1)
Can anyone assist me..please!