Laptop question re minimum specs needed for

RobTang

Personally I think upgrading is a waste of time and money for your needs.

I had some of the best equipment from the same era as that comp and it would not do HD video at all.
As a comparison if i take my laptop im using now, its hardware is significently better than any upgrade you can buy for that machine, it wont playback 1080p smoothly, will do 720p just about. Most modern cards have decidated HD decoders which no card short of a professional solution had.

Pound for pound you are better off buing a cheap base unit.

Norman-B

Intel Pentium 4
Windows XP Professional SP3 (Build 2600)
CPU Arch : 1 CPU - 1 Cores - 1 Threads
CPU PSN : Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.00GHz
CPU EXT : MMX, SSE (1, 2)
CPUID : F.2.4 / Extended : F.2
CPU Cache : L1 : 12 / 8 KB - L2 : 512 KB
Core : Northwood (0.130) / Stepping : B0
Freq : 1900 MHz (95 * 20)
MB Brand : Unknown
MB Model : P4i65G
NB : Intel i865P/PE/G/i848P rev A2
SB : Intel 82801EB (ICH5) rev 02
GPU Type : Intel(R) 82865G Graphics Controller
DirectX Version : 9.0c
RAM : 1024 MB DDR Dual Channel
RAM Speed : 126.7 MHz (3:4) @ 2.5-4-4-8
Slot 1 : 512MB (2700)
Slot 1 Manufacturer : Noname
Slot 2 : 512MB (2700)
Slot 2 Manufacturer : Noname


Having given the problem further thought, it seems obvious to me now that I need to buy a cheapish laptop and update/upgrade my desktop. As pointed out, if I only upgrade the DT, I will still have the problem of an 11 year old constantly saying, "Have you finished yet, grand-dad?"
So, I now will buy a laptop for him to keep in touch with the world via MSN and I will be free to do my own thing.



Is the above what was required for seeing what RAM is needed?


Lastly, I really do appreciate the help with this from all of you.

Norman-B

01001011 wrote: »

What program are you using to play the HD movies?

Windows Movie Maker, but they run in slow motion. I also tried a Cyberlink software. When I went to PC World (Where I purchased the Cyberlink software) they said that my processor was too old and slow.

Norman-B

macman wrote: »

And what method are you using to do the the transfer? A Firewire PCI card should sort out that side of things.

Yes, my neighbour fitted a Firewire card in my desktop.

Norman-B

Donnie wrote: »

In fact, in this case I would spend the money on a Graphics Card and not more RAM, especially if there is a fixed budget for the upgrade.
A possible candidate would be this Asus HD 3450.
Those of course I would need the Motherboard/Chipset details to confirm...

Please view my update. Hope that is what is required.

Norman-B

pendulum wrote: »

Your not actually doing much true video editing are you? Your problem is as you say stuttering playback of HD movies. I would forget about the RAM upgrade as 1Gb for XP is more than enough to play back HD movies. Just add a capable video card to replace the onboard graphics, as that is the bottleneck at the moment. You can't expect good quality HD playback by just using a lousy onboard video. Do download CPU-Z, and click on the Mainboard tab and see what graphics interface you have, I am guessing it will be AGP, you can get a cheap AGP card on eBay for under a tenner that should improve playback alot, its worth a shot.

I think I can see your logic but to clarify things, I get the stuttering motion on playback of my old mini DV tapes (NON HD!) as well.

macman

Norman-B wrote: »

Windows Movie Maker, but they run in slow motion. I also tried a Cyberlink software. When I went to PC World (Where I purchased the Cyberlink software) they said that my processor was too old and slow.

PCW would tell you the moon was made of cheese if they thought it would get them a sale. They probably hoped to sell you a complete new PC. Don't ever go there for technical advice (in fact please don't go there at all).
Sounds to me like it's well worth trying to upgrade your graphics card, it won't cost much for one for an old Pentium 4. Since you already have Firewire, transfer transfer speeds should not be an issue-but you do need to clear some disk space.

pendulum

Norman-B wrote: »

I think I can see your logic but to clarify things, I get the stuttering motion on playback of my old mini DV tapes (NON HD!) as well.

To me that still points to the onboard graphics being responsible.
Without a dedicated graphics card your CPU is having to do alot of the graphics processing, and as its not very fast its struggling. If you install a decent graphics card it will take stress off the CPU and be alot better at processing graphics playback than onboard is.
One thing's guaranteed - and that is that if you just upgrade the RAM, you will still get poor playback of HD (and even non-HD) movies. You will need to upgrade graphics at some point.

Norman-B

Is a graphics card something even I could fit? Is it pull one out and put another one in? Is a graphics card not part of the motherboard?

Would you be kind enough to suggest one or is that depending on what I wish to spend?

Thanks again.

Donnie

Norman-B wrote: »

Please view my update. Hope that is what is required.

Yes, the Asus HD 3450 would be suitable.

Whilst it seems that people like posting stuff like 'ebay' and a 'tenner', it would be much better if they posted links to suitable cards instead.

Yes, you have an AGP(Advanced Graphics Port) slot on your Motherboard, designed for adding a superior solution than was provided with the basic unit.
There is no existing graphics card on your system, just a chip on the Motherboard.

Very easy to fit. Just a few minutes.