Encoding Speed Depends on What?????

[majagua]

I use RMPEG to transcode movies to a lower bitrate. The speed of this operation depends on what? I believe the processor, mainboard, chipset and memory have a lot to do. But does the graphic card, for example, have something to do with it? Does the OS play a big part on this speed? What can I do to make this operation faster?

[WarpEnterprises]

As the main operation involved is NOT memory-throughput, the only thing that really matters is CPU-speed (which of course could be influenced by other tasks running parallel on the OS)

[theReal]

The graphics card has nothing to do with it, that's for sure.

The OS makes marginal differences (haven't noticed any encoding-speed difference from Win98SE to Win2K). Of course CPU, chipset (board) and memory speed make the biggest difference. If you don't want to upgrade, all you can do is to overclock the FSB.

[majagua]

I have read before about overclocking. When you talk about overclocking the FSB, is it just as simple as changing the BIOS settings and changin the multiplier of the processor?

I have heard that overclocking can damage your CPU because of the excessive heat and your CPU could result useless. If I overclock, would the solution to the problem mentioned above be just buy a better cooling fan for the CPU and maybe for the chassis?

[theReal]

Increasing the FSB is easy, but getting it to work stable at higher speeds can be a little tricky. Plus, of course, the higher you overclock, the cooler your system must be to run stable (an Athlon XP that runs stable at 65°C with default speeds will almost certainly be unstable at that temperature with some overclocking.

Of course overclocking shortens the lifetime of your components - from 15 years to 10 years, and even if it's shortened to 5 years, well, I don't care :)

You have to be careful of course and only slowly increase the FSB step by step. In between you must check the system temperatures and check the system for stability (run Prime Torture Test, for instance).

Tricks that you can do to make the system run stable at higher speeds include increasing the memory voltage, increasing the cpu voltage, playing a little with different memory timings, putting a better cooler on the system's northbridge (better cooling in general).
This is the advanced stuff, but you can try to just get the FSB a little higher. Don't expect too much for encoding speeds, though...

[Arky]

h**p://www.theoverclockingstore.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=5

Personally, I've found my system takes a real dislike to overclocking, so I've simply given up bothering to do it (it's such a chore to have to reset all your BIOS settings each time you overclock just that little too much and the system refuses to boot).

Regarding the temparatures, this is MAINLY (but by no means exclusively) a problem for the AMD crowd, since the AMD chips run WAY hotter than their Intel counterparts. Also, the Intels have built in thermal shutdown protection, according to what I have read on the above forum.

My over-riding advice to you would be to SPEND what you really need to, to get a DECENT CPU cooler. It is just so absurd to see people spending £100-350 on a CPU, and then frying it because they were too tight to spend £30 on a CPU cooler. The best ones I've seen are the Coolermaster SF-Delta Heat Pipe Radiators. Be aware that there are specific versions for AMD chips, and for Intel chips. They're widely available, but Scan.co.uk is where i got mine.


Arky ;o)

If you're overclocking, a very useful utility can be found here:

http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA002374/src/download.html


Incidentally, my system is as follows. I don't know why it's such a pig to overclock, since it is very well-specified for exactly this task, and, at base settings, I can hammer it til the cows come home, with encoding, authoring, compiling, rendering, surfing, etc. and it is superbly stable:

EPoX EP-4G4A+ (inc.RAID + LAN), Intel P4b 2.266 GHz 533mhz, OCZ 1024Mb DDR PC3000, 1x WD Caviar 80Gb 7200 8Mb, 2x IBM 120GXP 80GB 7200 (run on independent RAID channels - not as a RAID array), Pioneer 104 DVD-R, Plextor 40-12-40a CDRW, Coolermaster P4 IHC-L71 SF-Delta Heat Pipe Radiator, Lian Li PC-7, Sharp 1620H SXGA TFT.

[theReal]

The best cooler seems to be the Thermalright AX-7.
I can't say for sure because I don't have it, but I've heard a lot of people say that it was the best for every kind of fan, be it low- or high noise (and it's not expensive).
However, it's a big cooler for 82mm fans and it doesn't fit on every board.