[MEncoder-users] Fwd: Questions on Mencoder performace

[larrystotler at netscape.net]

   Hello everyone. I apologize if this has been covered before, but 
after a lot of fruitless google searching and that fact that I couldn't 
find a way to search your archives(probably something I overlooked), I 
have some questions.

  I'm using Mplayer/Mencoder under SuSE Linux. I have the following 
machines:

  Dual Xeon P3 500Mhz, 2MB L2 cache(each), 512MB PC100 SDRAM, Registered 
ECC, SuSE 9.2, GCC 3.x, compiled from source
  Dell Laptop, P3 Mobile, 256k L2, 256MB PC100 SDRAM, SuSE 10.0, GCC 
4.0.2, Packman RPMs
  Celeron Mobile 2.4Ghz(in a desktop board), P4 based, w/ 256k L2 cache, 
256MB PC133 SDRAM, SuSE v9.3, GCC 3.x,compiled from source

 I used the following command to re-encode:

  mencoder file -alang en -oac mp3lame -ovc xvid -xvidencopts 
pass=1(pass=2:bitrate=1536) -o file

  On my Xeon system, I get 49% CPU usage, but I can start 2 encodings at 
one time. I generally get about 10 frames first pass, 5 2nd pass.
  On my P3-900, I get similar results. This mobile proc has 100Mhz 
external bus
  On my CeleronM 2.4Ghz, I get 13-15 frames first pass and then 13-15 
frames second pass.

 My questions are:

  How much does L2 cache impact performance? Is 512k L2 a huge benefit 
over 256k? Would a real P4 be better than the Celeron Mobile?
  How much does memory speed impact performance? Would switching the 
CeleronM to DDR make a small or huge difference?
  How much does Hard Drive speed affect performance? I have a SATA and 
SCSI 10k/80M/s drives in my Xeon, and ATA100s in the other 2
 Are there further command line arguements that I need?

  I prefer XviD since it seems to work better on slow cpus(my kids have 
300-400Mhz laptops, and Xvid doesn't drop frames that bad but X264 did 
in my testing. I'd rather not sacrifice quality in pursuit of small 
file sizes....

  I'm really not that worried about re-encoding on the laptop, but I 
have more mobile Celeron chips that I would like to make use of and 
they have the advantage of having 256k L2 instead of the standard 
Celeron's128k.

 Any guidance would be greatly appriciated. Thanx
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