johnnymk

My nephew will be using Avid Xpress 3.5 to perform video editing of weddings.

Their website claims that the minimum hardware requirements is a PIII 933 CPU and 1 GIG of memory.

His present computer is a PIII 900 and he believes that the max memory allowed is approx. 650 MB, which he has.

What is the easiest way to get an additional 33 MHz in the BIOS? That's only 4% overclocking.

I am hoping that his 650 MB memory will get the job done.

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LegendKiller

The 33mhz isn't a huge deal, if anything it'll just run a tiny bit slower. It will still install.


LK

johnnymk

Ok, but what would be the best way to goose it up a bit? Increase the voltage? Increase the CPU multiplier(I think that's what it's called)?

LegendKiller

The multiplier is locked on that processor AFAIK. The best way to go would be to do bump up the FSB by 4mhz, which would get you to 936. (assuming 100fsb normal bus speed and 9x multi). I don't think you'd have to worry about voltage, but if you do, bump it up just a *little*.


LK

johnnymk

Thanks

Devhux

Just bear in mind that the actual rendering process (adding in the transitions and such) will take quite a lot of time even at the minimum requirements.

johnnymk

What if the majority of the editing is just cutting and piecing together with few special effects?

daedal

The system he has now shouldn't really cause a problem for video editing as long as the video size is constricted. By this, I mean a lower-resolution video. Obviously, the highly the resolution, the more work it takes on the memory and CPU but for cutting and fades, he shouldn't have much of a problem.

He should definitly invest in a better PC if he's going to do this for a few videos or for part-time income.

shocky123

-Agreed, I would actually not even worry about the 33mhz issue. The real issue is the fact that you're barely pushing 65% of the required/recommended system memory. Video editing is done almost entirely to data that is already stored in system memory, this is what makes it reasonable to do on most high end systems, as there is a ton of ram, and the bus on the system allows for high data transfer speeds. The actual processing is less rendering small things, and much more compression/decompression(encoding/decoding) of data. which can be done on most systems and cpus, assuming the cpu has the support for special instruction sets. ( like SSE2/3 etc. ) which makes things sometimes go a little faster.

Conclusion: up the RAM before you worry about the cpu.
like you mentioned earlier: the overclock would only equate to a 4% boost, which may or may not correspond to even a 1 or 2% overall performance increase.

RAM RAM RAM, they werent lieing when they said 1Gb!

good luck,

Kyle

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johnnymk

Thanks, I am going to find out if that motherboard will support more RAM

Jeffbx

A faster HD will also help, but I'm with everyone else here - he should REALLY think of just getting a new PC. I'll tell you what will happen (because I've seen so many people doing this) - he'll just barely get it to work, and then someone will recommend a better video card, then maybe a bigger HD, then maybe he'll try to install some more RAM, maybe a new motherboard & processor, etc. Pretty soon he'll have a half-a$$ machine pieced together that will kind of get the job done. He's better off making the investment in the proper equipment up front. He can be up & running with a new machine for about a grand, I'd guess.

However, if money is REALLY tight & he just can't swing it, I'd agree not to worry about the MHz issue so much & focus on the RAM & the HD. He'll want to max out the RAM, and the HD should be at a minumum 7200RPM with an 8MB cache.

johnnymk

I checked the computer. It's a Gateway Select K7 850. It's not really a PIII.\, but he claims that the saleaman told him it was a 900 Athlon. Max memory is 768 MB. He would just have to substitute a 256 MB module for a 128 MB module to obtain the max, memory. But isn't Gateway memory proprietary? If not, I have a stick of 256 MB memory. That would be 76% of required memory instead of 65%.

Didn't the old Athlons outperform equivalent PIIIs when it came to video editing?

And yes, money is an issue to my nephew.

LegendKiller

The memory still follows JEDEC standards, it's probably ddr if I am not mistaken. I'd check to see if its PC133 or something akin to that, i'd go to www.crucial.com and check their memory configurator.

The Athlons were typically faster than P3's at some things. Again, the system will just run a *little* slower in the 33mhz diff.


LK