[GT40FIED]

Originally posted by blind34_1
Oh goodness! yeah, that's your problem! If you're doing video encoding, DO NOT try to do anything else. Just start it up and go do something else (I play my PS2)

As a rule, whenever you are ripping, encoding, or burning anything, close anything that is running, eliminate as many background tasks as possible, and for the love of god, stop using RealPlayer!

Seriously, in my opinion RealPlayer has got to be the worst thing ever to be running. It goes comfortably under my "Bad Software" list, right next to MusicMatch Jukebox, any Creative Software, any HP software, and AOL AIM. It's horrible.

That, combined with video encoding, and trying to check email using Outlook on a machine with too little RAM...I'm surprised you haven't shot yourself yet.

Go with two 512Mb. sticks, to bring it up to 1Gb. You'll thank yourself. I'm running a gig of mushkin3200 with a 3ghz intel, and I can rip and encode VERY smoothly. Your processor is well up to the task, but your bottleneck is having virtually no RAM.

And like I said, your onboard video isn't helping things.

And also, if you are doing video work, just get a 250gb HDD. You'll thank yourself again. I've got a 160gb and a 120gb and I'm wondering where all my space went (probably to the raw video object files taking up 65gb).

Wait for the BestBuy and CircuitCity ads to come out on Sunday, as there is almost always a great rebate deal. They sell the full retail box, which comes with a huge poster that shows how to install it. I remember seeing a 250gb western digital going for 160$. That's a heck of a deal.

Problem is, there aren't any Best Buys or Circuit City's down here. I'm pretty much relying off of online retailers. There's a WalMart....but like hell I'm buying any PC products from them. My PC was OEM with only 80GB of HDD space, so a 160GB drive would quadruple the storage capacity. The problem is that $160 doesn't fit well into my financial plan. I can get an OEM 250GB drive for a lot less...but I don't think it would come with instructions. The memory will have to wait for now. I haven't taken a good look at my board in quite some time. I'll have to open the tower up to install the HDD and I'll have a better idea of what I'm working with. Fucking hell...computers are a pain in the ass.