XPS 16 - Slow HD Video Editing - What to Upgrade?

As an example, after I chop off the pieces I don't need from an hour/hour and a half-long HD movie (about 10 GB), it often takes up to 5 minutes for my laptop to save what's left (5-6GB). Is there a way to shorten it to a minute or so? Or am I expecting too much from the current technology?

If there is a way to improve it, what would be the best way to boost my HD editing experience? More RAM, better processor, or something else?

I'm somewhat price sensitive, so don't want to spend a ton to only shorten the time by, let's say 10 seconds or so.

Is it also possible that my laptop for some reason is just not using all the current resources properly? Is there something else I can check and tweak, if necessary?

Thanks guys!

 

RAM is a cheap upgrade, but I don't know how much it would help. When you're talking about saving a 5GB file, what you're really limited by is HDD speed. You could upgrade to an SSD, which would speed you up significantly, but if you have a lot of 5 - 10 GB files, then you'd need a large SSD, which can be crazy expensive. Not to mention that large media files are hard to compress, so Sandforce drives wouldn't work too well for you. You'd have to look at something like the Crucial C300 series drives.

 

Thank you! I was hoping there could be a less expensive solution, but apparently not.

Well, I'll just have to wait until the prices on SSDs come down a little, as I definitely need at least a 500 gb drive.

 

A 500GB SSD will cost you more than the laptop did, lol.

One option would be to pick up a ~$200-250 128GB SSD (stick to Intel or Crucial for your type of work) to house windows, your editing programs, and the movie your working on.

For all your completed movies, and other media / mass storage needs, get an external enclosure for your 500GB. Or if you don't use your optical drive, you could remove it and put the 500GB in a caddy that fits in the now empty optical drive bay. If you need your optical drive occasionally, you could get an external esata or USB enclosure for it. Though judging by the big smiley face next to the "blu-ray burner" in your sig this might not be an option for you.

 

I have all my programs and files i'm working with on my ssd and it is definately the way to go. bumping your ram above 6gb is negligable and not cost efficient at all.

 

Another option for mass storage would be to stick your 500GB into a NAS enclosure. Then you could access your files from any computer in your home network at relatively high speeds, or even set it up to access it from any internet connected computer, instead of having it all physically on your laptop.

 

Thanks guys! You just saved me $100, as I was about to upgrade to 8GB RAM, hoping it would solve the problem. I understand that for my particular issue, it won't really help much.

I also looked at 500 GB SSDs, and, oh my! $1,500? That's a lot of money. I'll definitely have to wait for the the prices to drop. I hope I don't have to wait another 10 years for that to happen.

I do offload to an external drive about once a month. On average, I'm saving about 50-100 GBs worth of video files a month. If I get a smaller SSD than 500 GB, I'll have to offload more often, which means that whatever time I save by getting a better performing drive, I'll lose by offloading more often (which requires messing with cables, etc.)

I actually tried to transfer files to an external drive wirelessly (much less set up work involved), as I have a Netgear WNDR3700 router that was acquired specifically for that purpose, but, unfortunately, it just didn't work as advertised for multimedia files, so I had to go back to using cables.

I guess my current needs are a little bit ahead of what the market can offer today at a reasonable price Well, I'll just wait another year or two...

 

Yes, the burner absolutely needs to stay It was the main reason for acquiring this laptop. It's too bad Dell doesn't offer this option anymore. I hope it doesn't fail, since I don't think they'll be able to replace it.