need advice

[Alll]

Hello

I will be getting a new system to do my encoding stuffs need some advice I'm getting a P4-2GHz with 512mb PC-800 rdram (do i really need 1gig of ram? more the better?) how much of virtual memory do i set so it wouldnt be too little or too much...
which OS is better for encoding, win98se, win2k or winxp? my friend told me win98se is not built for fast system like p4-2ghz is it true? also to use FAT32 or NTFS? Please explain a bit on the your choose so at least i know something new Thanks

[rumzeiss]

yes you can have too much ram e.g. by using win95 or a ram amount >512MB is indifferent to performance under win98.

regarding video coding is the amount of ram indifferent too, because the processor coding times would never match your harddisk. so it won't be quicker by using 1GB then by using 128MB ram.

512MB is pretty OK for p4 if you not making any video cuts. but if you wanna do this then you need to know how big your files usually are and then add all the memory you need for operating system and software. for the last i would take so about 64-128MB into account if you are using win2k.

personally i have only 512mb ram but having a pretty fast scsi raid though. so there is no real urge for me to have much more ram even for cuting videos or working with dtp programms.

i hope it helps.

[ChickenMan]

Win2000 is 10-15% quicker in encoding movies compared to Win98 or ME. XP is about the same, probably a tad slower.

As for memory, anything about 512meg is not needed for encoding. The encoding process is not memory dependant

NTFS is faster than FAT32 for file transfers etc so can speed up the encoding process as a lot of data in and out to HD occurs. Two high speed ATA100 or SCSI HD's is prefered with DVD or movie files on one HD and encoding with the new made file being made on the other HD. This speeds up encoding, etc again by 5-10% and simple things like de-muxing or cutting by about 100%

[Alll]

Thanks for the advices
so the best choose is win2000 with NTFS...now i only have winxp onhand try to get win2000 "if" i use winxp should i install home edition or pro edition any different in encoding?
as for getting 2 HD's is it better to connect 2 HD's to 1 IDE cable as master and slave or 1 HD connect to primary IDE and 2nd HD to secondary IDE?

[ChickenMan]

joripe has it spot on !

XP home or Pro makes no difference as they are really the same operating system. What ever suits you best is fine there. I would run the Pro Corporate version myself as no authentication number is required.