Do I really need to upgrade my Compuer?

[Deleted User]

It is all down to the H.264 video encoding performance (assuming you are using that codec because it is the most common and probably the default setting).

Does the MiniTool Movie maker support hardware encoding - eg  Intel Quicksync? It doesn't look like it does from a quick browse of the website so it is probably using software encoding which will be much slower.

Intel introduced quick sync with the Sandybridge processors (2nd Gen) so you are just in there with the first release of it but it got much faster around 6th Gen processors which also introduced HEVC / H.265 which will give you better quality or smaller sized video files.

So try using some software that can use hardware encoding to see if it is any faster.

But as per comments above, really doesn't matter if you have your workflow right, I usually set my encodes off as I go to bed so it doesn't matter how long they take.

CoastingHatbox

Deleted_User said:

Intel introduced quick sync with the Sandybridge processors (2nd Gen) so you are just in there with the first release of it but it got much faster around 6th Gen processors which also introduced HEVC / H.265 which will give you better quality or smaller sized video files.

Not all Sandybridge CPUs supported QuickSync. In fact most didn't. Type the CPU model into the search box on this page:
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark.html

[Deleted User]

CoastingHatbox said:

Deleted_User said:

Intel introduced quick sync with the Sandybridge processors (2nd Gen) so you are just in there with the first release of it but it got much faster around 6th Gen processors which also introduced HEVC / H.265 which will give you better quality or smaller sized video files.

Not all Sandybridge CPUs supported QuickSync. In fact most didn't. Type the CPU model into the search box on this page:
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark.html

Thanks, both the CPU's the OP mentioned have QuickSync.

Norman-B

If I upgrade the Ram as a temporary measure, do I add another 4GB to the 4GB there or can I add 8GB to the 4GB there to total 12GB? Or do I have to remove the 4 and add new 8?

Jenni_D

Usually it is best to have RAM sticks of the same size and type, so adding another 4GB stick the same as what is already there may be better.

If you're not sure what you currently have, CPU-Z may help.  

Norman-B

Thank you 

sk2402005

Both your desktop and laptop have quite weak CPU's, where a current lowish end systems are 5x faster, so in that instance your down to 5-10 mins instead of 45 mins to process the file (assuming CPU performance is your bottleneck) add in some GPU acceleration that's often now enabled, and it would process in no time.

I guess the problem at the moment is that even a low end system is £4-500 due to the chip shortage.....

I really wouldn't invest anything in your current setup.

Something like this will offer up an approx 4x the performance of your 2100

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/ryzen-vega-3350g-16gb-480gb-desktop-system-from-ps34396-from-awd-it-3837564

or this would be in the order of 7-8x the performance

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/pc-budget-buy-5600g-8gb-240gb-500w-a520-vega-desktop-ps42500-at-palicomp-3836879

CoastingHatbox

A 4 GB stick of RAM doesn't cost much, especially if buying it second hand.

If it works, it works. Enough e-waste is generated each year. Something to be said for making technology last as long as possible.

sk2402005

CoastingHatbox said:

A 4 GB stick of RAM doesn't cost much, especially if buying it second hand.

If it works, it works. Enough e-waste is generated each year. Something to be said for making technology last as long as possible.

Cant agree more that the place is a throw away society, a 4gb stick is only around £10 second hand.

But a 10 year old system will use a lot more power to do the same job, so its not as simple as that.

you would also have the advantage that the system will also be responsive and fully usable to work on whist the encoding is happening in the background, which is a big advantage of the quadcore+ systems now.

jamesd

Norman-B said:

... I have a Desktop and a Laptop but like to sit at my desk and work with the Desktop.
...My Desktop is an HP Cpmpaq, intel i3-2100CPU 3.10ghz.Ram 4 gb. SSD 111gb with 8gb free and Windows 10. 

You could install TightVNC on both desktop and laptop and work on the laptop from the desktop or vice-versa. It's a very widely used tool that lets you look at and control one computer from another.

Your desktop is extremely constrained by short disk space. Without moving off any of your own files you can free space. I suggest that you use these things to do that, none of them removes anything that matters.

1. In windows Explorer pick the folder C:\Windows\Logs\CBS and delete every file in that folder whose name ends in .log. If you have display of file name extensions turned off, so you see nothing from .whatever, delete all files in there of type text document. CBS contains various logs from Windows Update that are only needed for troubleshooting but at times various bugs have caused some files to grow to silly sizes of many tens or even hundreds of gigabytes. This gets rid of any such junk and Windows just starts anew. You can't delete the current one easily, to do that follow the instructions here: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/5789be66-b99f-4880-a737-222b3c15adfe/is-it-safe-to-delete-cbs-log-files?forum=win10itprohardware In addition, you can restrict future growth a bit by right clicking on the CBS folder name and choosing properties, then the Advanced button. Tick the box for Compress contents to save disk space and click on OK then OK to do it. The log files compress extremely well and compression is done in the Windows disk layer so it can't do any harm, but the compression limits the speed at which space will be consumed if something goes wrong. At the moment my CBS.log file, the only log in the folder, is 648k on disk but 2.32 MB uncompressed. If you've been affected b one of the bugs it could easily be 50 gigabytes or even more.

2. In Windows Explorer right click on the C drive and choose Properties. Click on the Disk Cleanup button near the middle right. Click on Clean Up System Files at the lower left and wait for it to give you things to pick. Click on the More Options tab at the top and in the System Restore and Shadow Copies box click the Clean-up button in the bottom right. It'll ask you if you want to delete all but the most recent restore point, click on the Delete button to confirm that you do. Then click on the OK button on at the bottom and again confirm that you want to permanently delete things. This may temporarily free up some working room for later things. System Restore lets you undo Windows Upgrade changes and a few other things, this is telling it to let you go back only one step instead of however many there are and it's very unlikely to matter. Later, it'll create anew other steps if enough disk space is free, so this is just temporary.

3. Windows Upgrade allocates space for many things but doesn't clean it up automatically very much or very thoroughly. First step in this is to get an elevated (administrator) command prompt (DOS window).
a. press Windows + R, type cmd in Run box, and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter. Click Yes in the pop-up User Account Control window to run Command Prompt as administrator
b. In the command box type: Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /AnalyzeComponentStore and hit the enter key
c. This doesn't delete anything, just gives you some idea of the potential space saving, it'll take at least several minutes to run.
d. Now, the first step in freeing up space that's not needed: type Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup and hit the enter key. This does free space and will take as much as half an hour or more to run. It removes mostly temporary duplicates.
e. The second step in freeing up space, type: Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /SPSuperseded and hit enter. This removes all but the most recent versions of the Windows pieces, usually many versions that aren't used are kept around to allow various recovery rollback options like uninstalling an update. As with the last one it may take half an hour or more to run.
f. The third and final step in this area, type: Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase and hit enter. This removes more duplication but you must ensure that you have done steps d and e first because anything not removed in those two steps becomes a permanent part of your Windows installation. Again, expect it to take half an hour or more.

g. Now type again: Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /AnalyzeComponentStore to compare the after cleanup situation with what you started with. Type exit and hit enter to leave the elevated command prompt if you want to stop here.

The output of step b will look something like this:

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool

Version: 10.0.19041.844

Image Version: 10.0.19043.1348

[==========================100.0%==========================]

Component Store (WinSxS) information:

Windows Explorer Reported Size of Component Store : 4.39 GB

Actual Size of Component Store : 4.33 GB

    Shared with Windows : 2.99 GB

    Backups and Disabled Features : 1.34 GB

    Cache and Temporary Data :  0 bytes

Date of Last Cleanup : 2021-11-13 05:33:43

Number of Reclaimable Packages : 0

Component Store Cleanup Recommended : No

Except that in your case the actual size will be bigger than it needs to be and the component store cleanup recommended line will say Yes. Doesn't for me because I do it regularly. Worth saving a before and after copy so you can compare, as well as comparing the free disk space.

This is a good time to pause and say how it's gone so far but there's more duplicate removing that can be done. Windows keeps another set of duplicates where it stores a working copy and a second copy in the Windows Update folders. You can save a couple of gigabytes by telling Windows to use the Windows Update version as the only copy and throw away the strictly unnecessary working copy. Another step that can save a gigabyte or two is to compress parts of the Windows operating system files but this step can slow things down while potentially saving 1-2GB. Best to see how things have gone before proceeding with either step.