I'm new to this so please be gentle with me

I want to fit a new motherboard to get more performance from my PC. It is currently 1GHz, 128Mb RAM. I can only fit a maximum of 512 RAM so I want to get a better processor and more RAM.

Can anyone recommend the parts to do this? I've seen a few kits that come ready to fit. Are they worth it or is it better to get all the parts seperately?

I'm not really into gaming so I'm not bothered about getting the best graphics card. An integrated one is fine if it doesn't hinder performance.

My main thing is to be able to edit video and without my PC constantly freezing or dropping frames when capturing from the camera.

I'm confident enough to do this myself with a bit of guidance, as I have done upgrade bits before, ie add 2nd hard drive, installing RAM, adding DVD writers etc.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Integrated graphics will most likely not be able to handle video editing if you're using a program other than Windows Movie Maker. I suggest perhaps an ATI 9200 or a Nvidia 5200 for this. Their inexpensive (around $75 to $120) and will let you edit on programs that require more resources. For RAM; Kingston, PNY, Corsair, all name brands are good and they sell in dual 256mb sticks or single 512mb sticks whichever you prefer. I'm guessing you have an Intel seeing as how you named it by the GHz. Intel 1GHZ processors are Socket 370 so I assume you have a socket 370 motherboard. If this is the case I don't believe theirs much you can upgrade for this. If not, you should get a Socket 478 motherboard by any brand name company (MSI, ASUS, ABIT being leaders in this category) and a 2.0GHz or 2.4GHz intel. A 2.0 will run you about $70 for a Pentium 4 based Celeron and a 2.4 will be about 80$ for a Celeron. The celeron has 400FSB and the regular 2.4 with Prescott core had 533FSB and costs $143. Motherboard prices vary according to what features and accessories they come with. Hope this helps =D

Thanks. Some good pointers. Yes it is Intel. I'll look for a board so I can get the 2.4 Ghz chip and 512 RAM with enough room to add more if I want to at a later date.

Cheers.

Video cards do not play much of a part in capturing or editing video (with a few exceptions, such as special 3D effects or extra features to remove interlacing or pixelisation). Onboard RAM takes away some system RAM, which can reduce performance, but you can always allocate the bare minimum (typically 8Mb).

I would concentrate on the CPU (Intel P4 for video editing), RAM and hard drive.

Eh...i beg to differ coconut cards do play a huge part in the sense that if you dont have one it eats your memory and if he only has 128 that will GREATLY kill his system. I recomend going to newegg.com and buying some parts

In this case Ignite, we're advising Richie to update his entire system, since his current setup is a bit of a dead end. 128Mb of RAM, even on its own, is hardly enough. I'd recommend at least 512Mb!

So, in the end, he'll have more RAM to play with. Even so, it would help to get a dedicated card, preferably a Radeon 9200.