Slow Encoding Asus A7N8X Deluxe

Newbie Forum
#1

Hi
Im having problems with slow encoding 2 hours whereas it should be around an hour

Motherboard is an Asus A7N8X Deluxe Rev 1004 showing an AMD Athlon XP 2000+ 1666mhz (I bought this as an xp athlon 3200?) what is the best way to get a bit more performance out of these boards & chips without going too mad?

Im using 1 gb of Geil PC3200 ram Hitatchi 500gb Sata & convert x to dvd to encode my movies, burning them is not a problem. The time that its taking to encode is way too long.

Any Help Appreciated

Thanks

#2

Hi and welcome to the forum :slight_smile:

The only way to obtain a better performance is to get a new mainboard. The Athlon CPUs, and the the 2000+ in particular, is not enough powerful to and certainly requires a couple of hours to encode a movie.

In these days you can get a multicore CPU at a reasonable price, and this has certainly a better performance than a so old Athlon CPU :slight_smile:

#3

Hi Geno888
Thanks for the reply. I thought this may be the case so now im looking for a reasonably priced cpu & mainboard. What best deals are on the market for a reasonable bundle. I have used Asus & gigabyte with AMD in the past but havent built a pc for a few years now so Im open to suggestions. It would be good if i could use my old ram & pair it with another stick. Im looking for a pc that is fairly quick for encoding divx & avi to dvd.

Thanks

#4

You’re welcome :slight_smile:

Even if your PC is rather old, if you need a new machine only to convert AVI into DVDs, I have a cheaper alternative: get a standalone player able to read AVI files. There are many cheap standalone available in the market :slight_smile:

Moreover, if you get a standalone with an USB port you can also use an external HDD to read movies, and you don’t need anymore to burn a DVD :bigsmile:

However, about a new PC, can you provide a maximum budget? There are so many possibilities that is nearly impossible to answer :frowning:

#5

Your old A7N8X uses DDR1 ram. Modern boards use DDR2, and DDR3 in the latest ones. So you will not be able to reuse your ram in a new build.

It is very difficult to build a budget computer and come out ahead of Dell or HP. Their bottom of the line computers are very inexpensive compared to building your own anymore. The only reasons to build your own at the budget level are to insure that you get specific parts that you want, or so you can reuse a lot of parts you already own.

If you are set on building a budget computer, look through a few guides on the net for parts. This one from Ars Techinca dates back to April…a new one is due any time now from them: http://arstechnica.com/hardware/guides/2009/04/ars-technica-system-guide-april-2009-edition.ars

Here is the discussion thread debating different parts to be included in their next guide: http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/77909774/m/828003361041/p/1

#6

Hello
Thanks for all that info. I would like to be able to have a desktop pc not just for ripping & encoding movies but to use for music and doing other bits also.

I have been using a laptop with AMD 64 bit x 2 with 2gb ram pc5300 takes around an hour to encode to dvd would an AMD 1.9 Ghz be faster or is dual core the best solution. I need half decent processor with that many to choose from choice isnt easy.

The MB is a different issue again not sure what to go for but it would be good to have 2 Ide slots I know sata is the normal way to go now I only have a need for 1 sata slot right now & thats to use a partitioned 500gb hard disk later maybe to get an identical drive and use raid config

Bottom line suggestions for a reliable MB and what sort of processor to get. I have always used AMD and for no particular reason. Would a penteuim be a good bet?

Thanks Again for the replys & Help

#7

To build a new computer, even reusing parts that you have now, you will need the following parts: a new motherboard, cpu, ram, and power supply. This is assuming you get a motherboard with onboard video, since your old agp video card won’t work on any new motherboards. You could also just buy an inexpensive pci-e video card, if buying a board without video built in.

Power supplies have changed a bit since the A7N8X days. It would be best to get one with a 24pin connector, and more power on the +12v line than was normal back in those times.

Here is a mid level Core 2 Duo build (4 core for better video encoding times) with good parts from Newegg:

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128359 $105 after rebate

Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33GHz http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115055 $150

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231166 $90

CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX 400W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS PSU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139008 $30 after rebate

And a wild guess on what you’d need for a PCI-E video card. This one is HDCP compliant and has both DVI and D-sub connectors
XFX HD-465X-YAF2 Radeon HD 4650 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150393 $50

You’ll notice that the total is $425 after rebates. You can buy a Dell or HP for less, with a one year warranty. May not have quite as good a selection of parts, but it would be complete, with operating system and probably a monitor for that price. It is possible to go cheaper than the parts I’ve selected, but this is a slightly higher performance build than a bottom of the line machine.

I used Intel for this hypothetical build simply because I am more familiar with it now, and because they have a slight edge in performance in video encoding.

#8

Thanks for all comments there is a lot of info that will help