Dear CNET members,
Happy Friday! I hope this newsletter finds everyone well. This week we got an abundance of great answers to help Dennis with his question on whether he should upgrade his 8-year-old PC, or ditch it for a new one that will allow him to continue his video editing projects.
Well Dennis, after going through this week's discussion around your question, it's a mixed bag of answers, with some suggesting upgrading and some saying to get a new one. But regardless of your decision, many of your fellow members mentioned that because video editing is so processing-intensive, whether you upgrade your PC or go with a new one, having beefier hardware in terms of maximizing the amount of RAM/memory your system can handle, having a good video card, and larger hard drives will be key to handling all the video-editing tasks that your throw at it.
In my opinion, Dennis, to have your Gateway PC run for eight years is a pretty darn good stretch. Today's PCs, even the budget ones, are much more powerful than what you have, and by the time you upgrade your old PC, you might almost be in the vicinity of cost to buy a new one. You should also really think about your future projects, as I can only assume video editing has become what you enjoy dabbling in. What if you'd like to make your videos fancier? Or one day decide to go high definition? Will your system be able to handle another upgrade? And if keeping your current video-editing software is of your concern, have you checked out any new ones lately? I'm sure newer versions of your software or others have come a long way and may just even make your life easier. So don't get too tied up with holding on to your hardware for the sake of your software. Some of today's operating systems even come with video-editing software. Anyway, this is just some food for thought.
If you go through all the answers, you'll find a lot of good advice from your fellow members. Many even suggested going to Mac. I'm sure by the time you and any others who are in your position read through the discussion, you'll be confident in where to go next. Good luck! Thanks to all who participated! Have a great weekend!
Cheers!
- Lee
Got suggestions? Send me an e-mail: messageboards@cnet.com
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Dear fellow members, I need advice on a good computer for editing home
video. I've been using my 8-year-old Gateway desktop (512 MB RAM, 160
GB HD, WinXP SP3, 128 MB GeForce4 MX440 video card, Pentium 4 2.66
GHz) with two big external HDs to convert VHS to DV-AVI and it's worked
fine. But when I move to editing it's too slow to handle the big
20-30GB files and all the special effects in my editing program (Adobe
Premiere Elements 4). I need a dedicated computer just for home video
because converting, copying, and burning to disc for archival purposes
takes so much time. Should I try to upgrade the Gateway or look into a
new and hopefully not too expensive new computer? If the latter, what
specs should I be looking at? And is there any way I can use my old
software, which has been satisfactory? Thanks.
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