Question about Vegas and fast computer - how to test?
 

Ok, I will try to make this simple because I am trying to figure out if I have done something wrong and which of my systems is faster.

I have two computers:
1) Dual Core Pentium 3.0Ghz - 1.75meg of DDR 333 RAM - SP1 XP (10 months old) - 80 gig MAXTOR IDE
2) X2 AMD 3800+ - 2 meg of DDR2 667 - SP2 XP (brand new) - 80 gig MAXTOR IDE

Now, I am trying to determine which is a faster system for Vegas 6 - possibly upgrading to 7 in the future.
The trouble is, I am finding that computer "1" is faster (it only has SP1) and computer "2" is slower since I put Service Pack 2 on it. It could be just me, but when I start the programs from a cold boot, computer "1" takes less time to load up and start - I used a stopwatch and by the time the Vegas window is up, Computer "1" is a winner by over 20 seconds. Now, that might not be the best method to testing out the speed of a computer, but it is a start for me. I am wondering if the SP2 has clogged my "2" system down and whether I should leave it off.
Does anyone know a benchmark test or a way of figuring out which would be better for Vegas? Again, my eyes don't lie when I say computer "2" does seem to run slower even though it has DDR2 RAM and more of it. More interestingly is that computer "2" ran very fast when I first formatted it and put Vegas on, but alas in the past 3 days, it has very much slowed down.

Any ideas?

If a computer inexplicably slows down, start looking for malware. Viruses and the like can have an impact on performance. Also, look for something that may have a memory leak. Use your computer for a while and then shut down all your applications. Use a utility that will show your available memory and if half your RAM is taken up when you have nothing running there is probably a program with a memory leak. This may require a reboot to get things going smoothly again. I have also used a program called "freemem" to clear up RAM.

As an update, I just rendering out a small clip on both systems and
computer "1" render times was 1.5 X(times) as fast. This is crazy.
Computer "2" should be faster according to the specs, right?

I am at a point, where although I am going to hate myself, I think I
might have to reformat the drive and spend another 8 hours putting
software back on, but without SP2.

In the "old days" of Vegas it seemed the actual Video card was as important as anything, maybe not for rendering, but it seemed very important for editing.

Not so sure anymore as dual Geforce 8600 GTS Pro SLI cards dont seem to help with ACVHD, with HDV it seemed a different story.

You may be on to something as far as older machines being faster at certain things. I have a 2-1/2 year old computer I built that still seems to out perform my newest beast I built when it comes to video editing. If rendering is what youre after Im betting a networking render farm using all your PCs may help. This is where I think I am headed.

I never needed it with standard DV or HDV but this ACVHD stuff appears a little tougher cookie to swallow

Also, my Vegas loving old machine is a Pentium with an ATI card and a Rapture HD, My newest "slug" is a X2 AMD with dual nVidia............Hmmmm

I have never noticed a single difference going from 1 gig - 2 gig of RAM, Im wondering if the newest Pentium Duo cores ( arent they a gig Mhz processing speeds?) would help.

Maybe they were on to something 1-2 years ago

Well, something I did remember was when I reformatted the system and start from scratch there was only 1 gig of RAM and it flew. I am going to try different variation of the RAM. Right now, they are set up properly in the like coloured slots, but I am going to drop down to one stick and see if that has anything to do with it.
I took a quick clip (20 seconds) and put Magic bullet free looks on it (Bistro) and it ran about 8 minutes to complete on the new AMD.
Same clip with MB on it, 5 minutes in the older Pentium dual core model.
You are right about it being different with each piece of software, but I want to trry and see if there is a free program out there that will tell me if I have memory leaks or the system is not running up to speed, because it really seems odd to me.