Video editing upgrade help

[Ring]

Hoping to get a few suggestions or a plan to upgrade a friends machine so he can edit digital videos. I have no clue or experience with video so I'm not sure what the best bang for the buck is.
Currently he has a Dell 1.4 P4 with 512 MB RDRAM, a 64 MB GF2 video card and a Santa Cruz sc. Hd's are a 40 and 80 gb 7200 WD. Has a cdrw and 12x dvd ....would like to add a DVD burner. He has been attemping to edit home videos with Pinnacle (I believe) to add sound and video effects but is getting a lot of slowdown, sound stuttering and freezes.
Not sure if he has enough horses to do the kind of stuff he wants or if it's a software issue. I realize the video card is weak but I'm not sure how much of a role it plays in editing. What would be a middle of the road upgrade for what he wants to do?
Thanks for any help.

 

[Ring]

up

 

[boshuter]

I would say he needs more cpu, and another 512mb of ram wouldn't hurt anything. You could also get a hardware based video editing card, but a good one will cost you more than a new cpu and memory. In all honesty, if he's going to do a lot of video work, a new system would be a good idea.

 

[VTrider]

I would agree, more CPU punch and another 512mb would show a significant increase in video editing performance. I wouldn't focus so much on upgrading the video card because it wouldn't really make any difference unless ofcourse he invests in what boshuter suggested, which for all but the most serious hardcore home video enthusiasts is probably a bit overkill?

 

[modedepe]

A new video care won't really help anything. A faster cpu would help quite a bit. Also more ram, especially if his computer is having to constantly use the page file.

 

[Ring]

Thanks all! I was thinking along the same lines. We're considering an Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe, a XP Barton 2500 or 2600 and 2 512 MB sticks of ram. Would this be enough of an upgrade?

 

[pulse8]

Is he editing in DV format?

Because if he is, he shouldn't be having those problems with that setup.

 

[Ring]

Hey pulse8,

Can you explain or suggest a web site where I can get some easy to understand info on video editing? I know absolutely nothing! Don't even own a Digicam!
I did consider upgrading the OS to Win XP but he has ton of stuff on his machine to back-up. Still a distinct possibility since it will be necessary anyway if we upgrade the MB.

 

[pulse8]

You can try 2-pop. They have some pretty good forums for DV editing.

I would also suggest upgrading the software to something like Adobe Premiere Pro. It may be the step up in software that helps.

I cut two five minute pieces with a bunch of effects and compositing stuff on a P3 700Mhz with a 60GB hard drive that was also the boot drive. I would run into some stuttering problems when trying to play full screen on the computer, but as soon as I went through firewire I didn't drop any frames. I was really pushing the machine, but with the one your friend has he shouldn't have any problems with dropped frames when cutting DV unless the Pinnacle software has some kind of real-time effects that it's doing. If it does, your buddy can always just render them out to play the video without any dropped frames.