I have a P4 1.9 GHz, 512 MB RAM, 200 GB HDD, Intel 845G chipset computer and use Sony Vegas for editing. I'm thinking of upgrading my comp for better editing. As of now I'm thinking of increasing the RAM to 1GB. Is an external graphics card of any use for editing? Should I think of a processor upgrade?

Go get yourself another 1,5 GB of RAM. An external graphics card will add nothing to your upgrade. You may want to rethink the processor as well, it'd be okay, but go get some more RAM first!

gotan

Well here's the deal...

I have a 1.7 ghz processor and things are swell. If you bother to upgrade your processor I don't think it will worth it. It will speed things up but from my personal experience anything near 2 is alright.

I do, however, have 1 gig of ram... 1 or higher will make a difference so go for what you can afford.

Yes. The ram upgrade is going to give you the most bang. It's not even expensive.

Yeah, yeah yeah... cheap!
But if we keep saying that a loud, manufactorers will see it fit to raise the price! Rethink what you guys say sometimes!

But seriously... that wasn't funny.
I also vote for more RAM right off the bat. What's a faster processor gonna' do? Speed up final renders? You're going to be going for a walk during renders anyway, so what's one beer when you can have two?

Well, it depends what you mean by external graphics card. I've got a Canopus ADVC 110, which inputs RCA in and out. I use that as my preview monitor, but most DV cameras can do this as well. That COULD be beneficial.

Go with Ram. I'm running a 1.8 Ghz processor, 1 GB of ram on my primary computer, and it flies. I love it. My 3Ghz is a little bit faster, but to be honest, it wasn't that much faster that I'd be willing to move my hard drives, a firewire card, and a bunch of other crap. I network render quite nicely with it though.

So RAM... RAM it in there.

::snicker::

Depending on how much RAM you put in to your computer,you might want to think about an additional fan to keep it cool or a heat sink for the RAM. Nothing gets a computer CPU and the RAM hotter than rendering -at least it's up there for processor heavy apps. Depending on what you want, Crucial.com is a good place to start looking for RAM, even if you decide not to buy Crucial RAM, they can give you recommendations of RAM for your specific motherboard.

Actually, word on the street is that Crucial is THE store to go for regarding RAM. It's a really terrific site layout, which really, really really minimizes your chance to mess up and buy the wrong spiff.