G’day Terry –
First up, I don’t claim any tech savvy status. Much of what I think I understand has been gleaned from other forum members. Unfortunately, some of those members have moved on. They could advise you much better.

Whenever I’m looking at these things I refer to benchmark test results at a few different sites. All I’m doing is passing that on to you.

Your DxDiag didn’t state (not sure why) the CPU model, but I think it’s probably this one from the other specs… Q6600:
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=Intel+Core2+Quad+Q6600+%40+2.40GHz

Here’s your GPU:

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/video_lookup.php?gpu=GeForce+8600+GT

On that site, if you click on the CPU/GPU name you’ll get a comparison to some of the fastest performing hardware.

You’re right. 4GB RAM would be regarded as minimum for HD editing. One of the alarming things about your DxDiag is the size of your C drive, and the lack of free space.

Hopefully, other genuinely tech savvy members will chime in with their thoughts. You obviously know what your PC will do, & how much you need to nurse it sometimes.

Hope that helps a little, anyway.

Cheers - Tony

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Tony has given you some good links to look up.

With Video Editing and rendering speed it is all about display (GPU) and power (CPU and Power unit). Most of us use computers which are "not special" and make do. Look up Tony's links and get back to us/him.

Dafydd

Thanks for taking the time, Tony and Dafydd. I'll check out the links you gave me, Tony. Perhaps it's time to upgrade seeing as video editing is my priority now I've reached retirement.

Terry

CPU is on the low side for HD, but it is quad core, and that's good. You have a 64-bit system, so if you can add more memory, do it. Check the settings on your monitor. It is not set to full HD. See if it is possible. That's not required, but would be nice.

You seem to have plenty of storage, but would be nice if a little more free space was on the C drive. If it is in the budget, see if your motherboard supports more cores on the CPU. If you can do that without changing the whole motherboard, that may be a cheap upgrade. You may also be able to get a faster version of the same CPU.

If it were me, I would start with memory. __________________________________
CORNBLOSSOM

Thanks Jaime-esque. I'm searching online for memory at the moment.

Terry

I just looked up the motherboard and it looks like a CPU upgrade would be pretty expensive for very little gain. I'll check back later. __________________________________
CORNBLOSSOM