Tell me if this is normal. 34 sec clip, takes 1 hour 30 min to render....?

M

MelonDome

My computer is several years old.

I only have 16 GB of free space left.
512 RAM
2.4 GHZ Pentium 4

I was rendering a 34 second clip from 28 days later, and its going to take almost 2 hours. Is it because of my outdated computer? And in your opinion, what do I need minimum on my computer, to sustain a decent render speed? Because my father has a more recent Dell Notebook, and im wondering whether I should edit on it.
 
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512 RAM is pretty minimal, at least 1 GB if not 2 GB RAM would be nice. Your processor cpu is decent, though at some point a dual core or quad core might be nice. I am guessing you are using MS-Windows (I like Linux) and if so I might ask when was the last time your hard drive was defragmented? If it has been awhile, that could be a huge factor in your rendering time. You might do a full defrag of your hard drive. Other ways to speed up things are to get a SATA drive (for under $99 you can get a 500GB SATA that has a 3GB/sec transfer rate, yup that was 3GB not 3Gb).

MelonDome said:
My computer is several years old.
I only have 16 GB of free space left.
512 RAM
2.4 GHZ Pentium 4
I was rendering a 34 second clip from 28 days later, and its going to take almost 2 hours. Is it because of my outdated computer? And in your opinion, what do I need minimum on my computer, to sustain a decent render speed? Because my father has a more recent Dell Notebook, and im wondering whether I should edit on it.
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Joe999, you are more than a little off base with your performance data. The SATA-II interface runs at 300MB/second and a fast 7200RPM drive will deliver data at around 70MB/second, with burst rates maxing around 160-180MB/second.

As a matter of fact, I just installed a Barracuda 500GB SATA-II drive and Seagate's spec sheet specifically states 3Gb/second interface speed which equates to 300MB/second.
 
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MelonDome said:
My computer is several years old.

I only have 16 GB of free space left.
512 RAM
2.4 GHZ Pentium 4

I was rendering a 34 second clip from 28 days later, and its going to take almost 2 hours. Is it because of my outdated computer? And in your opinion, what do I need minimum on my computer, to sustain a decent render speed? Because my father has a more recent Dell Notebook, and im wondering whether I should edit on it.
Click to expand...


Most NLE editors recommend at least 16 GM of free space if I recall (you would have to look up the spec so don't quote me). Windows was more than likely juggling the temp and swap files in order to try to process your render. Also, 512 Ram, although most rendering is CPU intensive (I use Sony Vegas Pro--which by the way kicks azz) isn't going to help your render speed much because your OS is probably sucking up most of it including handling the juggling I mentioned. Like Joe666 said, having a sata external via usb 2.0 or fire wire or the new fire wire (=new mobo and system for you i.e joe said) should help tremendously. You can certainly edit on a notebook--but keep in mind, rendering is hard on the computer system as it pretty much all cpu--so the notebook is really going to be working hard and you certainly can do other things while its rendering (at least with vegas).

I would seriously recommend getting a dual core (they are super cheap on new egg now--$50 for AMD athlon X2 Toledo) because you can build a system cheap. ASUS a8N-Sli mobo that has 2gb front side bus. This is what I have and I am editing in HDV. I can render an HDV (1440x 1080) from Sony Vegas (first render took less as it only compressed the transition areas) and then the 1 hr 45 minute edit recently in about 8 hours in DVD architect. Did I mention you can edit in real time and see real time effects with Vegas? I would check out the recent reviews on it. I've been using it for about 3/4 year.

So, to review if you are keeping your existing system:

1. increase your free space on your hd (delete, buy an external to transfer off)
2. increase your ram to at least 1gb
3. try sony vegas demo and see if you like it. Not all editors are the same.


If you can build a comp, do it.

T.
 
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To add to my prior post, and to Aquarian's, once Windows sucks dry the 512MB RAM it will use the hard drive as virtual RAM, compounding the problem of hard drive access during the render, the drive being much much slower than RAM for number crunching and rendering of data.

AquariunGuru said:
Most NLE editors recommend at least 16 GM of free space if I recall (you would have to look up the spec so don't quote me). Windows was more than likely juggling the temp and swap files in order to try to process your render. Also, 512 Ram, although most rendering is CPU intensive (I use Sony Vegas Pro--which by the way kicks azz) isn't going to help your render speed much because your OS is probably sucking up most of it including handling the juggling I mentioned....
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Or an internal SATA (Samsung 500GB internal sata, $99, 3GB/sec; at newegg.com where I buy all my computer stuff, great place) but only if your computer motherboard supports SATA. Otherwise I too am leaning to external USB drives, easier to then work on files when switching between my desktop and laptop, etc.

MelonDome said:
THanks guys. So it looks like I should get a external SATA drive. And sony vegas pro.
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MelonDome said:
THanks guys. So it looks like I should get a external SATA drive. And sony vegas pro.
Click to expand...

and at least double your current ram... in fact, just this upgrade may help with your problem substantially! I have 2Gb in mine and want to get more because I do video. RAM and Disk are the most necessary components when working with video, regardless the platform under which you run.
 
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I found a mobo+cpu combo quad core I want to build, but though the mobo can support 16GB RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128074 motherboard (mobo)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103226 quadcore cpu
the RAM chips do not exist yet for it I believe, but that would be one screaming banshee system! Rumors have it the ramchips will come out soon to max out those 16GB ram, think of it-- almost an entire feature film in high def held in the RAM, sweeeeeeeeet for editing/rendering :yes:

knightly said:
and at least double your current ram... in fact, just this upgrade may help with your problem substantially! I have 2Gb in mine and want to get more because I do video. RAM and Disk are the most necessary components when working with video, regardless the platform under which you run.
Click to expand...
 
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As a geek, I will tell you that although it's a great thing to be able to build your own for cheap. If you end up investing time into supporting your own PC (rather than buying a premade beasty that includes a support contract with it), that is time you can't spend editing. As a geek, it's always very tempting (and often much more attractive) to spend tons of time geeking out on the hardware, but that eats into writing/editing time that needs to be spent creating product.
 
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