Think I need a new PC....

[Mr E]

Bloody hell. Compiling a widget to convert AVIs to PSP format MP4s, and the compile has pretty much redlined my CPU for 10 minutes.

I suspect it'll be worse once I give it some video to transcode.

I've been putting of doing anything with the PC on the understanding that the ancient rig is simply good enough for the job in hand. This may no longer be true......

----------

Compile completed. Just kicked off a transcode.....

....4 frames a second......

Sarah wants about 5 episodes of lost transcoded for the PSP in time for our little trip away on Thursday. I'd best kick them off now......

[jimmyjimjim]

Don't expect much!

Tomshardware has some cpu benchmarks. Problem is they've made them a sod to find:-

http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.htm

Go intel.

[Momentofmadness]

I'm sorely tempted to spash some cash myself

ASUS Vintage V2-M2V890 AM2 Barebone - DDR2, Integrated Graphics 120002 1 in stock £59.36

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Socket AM2 (2.2GHz) L2 1MB (2x512KB) Retail Boxed Processor 118226 151 in stock £55.28

Ebuyer 1GB DDR2 667MHz PC2-5400 240pin Extra Value Ram 115961 237 in stock £25.63

LITEON DVD8900/DW1670 16x DVD±RW/RAM Bare Black - OEM 119566 150 in stock £14.75

Maxtor STM3160212A 160GB DiamondMax20 ATA 2MB Cache - OEM 120286 95 in stock £26.99

Cart Total: £213.89

Doesn't seem like a lot of money

Edited by Momentofmadness on Monday 2nd April 22:21

[Mr E]

jimmyjimjim said:

Don't expect much!

Tomshardware has some cpu benchmarks. Problem is they've made them a sod to find:-

http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.htm

Go intel.

Heh, my CPU isn't even in the list, it's that old.... (Barton core)

[ThePassenger]

Mr E said:

Sarah wants about 5 episodes of lost transcoded for the PSP in time for our little trip away on Thursday. I'd best kick them off now......

<Ego-maniac mode> No I don't </Ego-maniac mode>

If it's a Barton core then it's pretty old and quite probably a Socket A based unit. So no upgrade path.

Check to see if you're graphics card is onboard, AGP 8x (AGP 4x doesn't count I'm afraid) or PCI-Express... I highly doubt it's PCI-E but you never know, if it is your in luck as that's what most modern computers now take... if it's anything else... it's a bin job (or give to the kiddies)

Pick any upgrade bundle from a place like Novatech that is either AMD64 or Core 2 Duo (but not Celeron or Semperon) and any compatible graphics card (PCI-E or AGP 8x depending on the chosen bundle) will result in a machine blisteringly quick compared to that one.

If you're looking at a full new system (TFT, base unit, etc) then to be quite honest even a £300 - £400 cheapo Dell will run rings around a Barton core'd AMD.

<nerd speak below>
Compiling is a pain in the rear on slow machines as it's pure CPU grunt, RAM has some impact but not a great deal. If you're running some form of *nix or OS X see if you can install ccache, this acts as a compile cache so that if you're building lots of annoying modules that all pull from a common pool... it speeds up quite a bit. If you have multiple machines kicking around also investigate distcc in addition to ccache, this distributes compile jobs to the other machines and again speeds up the process.
<nerd speak over>

And now I will start speaking English again.

[Mr E]

Will investigate ccache - cheers boss.

I'm not even thinking about upgrading the box. It's a naff case with a noisy power supply, slow memory, cheap motherboard and a extinct CPU.

It's also been overclocked to buggery for about 2 years now, and I'm not trusting any of the components. If I'm going to upgrade, I'll go bare bones with a case, PSU, CPU, gig of RAM and decent Mobo, and transplant the drives....

[spyke]

Have you tried SUPER? It's free...
www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

Or, if the movie file is under 150MB (also free and uses someone else's CPU!)...
www.media-convert.com/

[Mr E]

spyke said:

Or, if the movie file is under 150MB (also free and uses someone else's CPU!)...
www.media-convert.com/

Nice find.

I think some of the stuff I need to convert is larger than 150mb, but it specifically outputs to PSP. Very nice.