Question about rendering HD videos

Is anybody familiar with Sony Vegas? Well, If you are smart and know what you're doing I have some questions. First of all I just want to say I know how to edit a video, I know how to render the video at the best possible quality that I need. BUT. I want to know what in your computer makes you able to render videos faster?

Right now I do the whole YouTube commentary over game play thing. Madden, COD etc. It takes me around 30 minutes to render out a 5 - 7 minute video. It just seems like a rather long time and I'm sure there are ways to speed it up.

My computer specs are not the best by any means so I am wondering what I'd need to upgrade in order to get these videos rendered faster.

I would THINK it's the processor that would determine your speed rendering videos and such but I'm not sure. I was thinking of getting myself a laptop for video editing once I figure out what I need. Probably an i7 processor. Here are my current specs.

Running Windows 7 Home Premium
Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU E5400 @ 2.70 GHz (2 CPUs)
4 GB of RAM
Intel(R) G41 Express Chipset



Simplified question: What in your computer is used to render videos? Processor? Graphics card?

 

Got it. So if I bought a laptop that has an i7 processor and a medium to high end video card it would be great then?

 

It's just a few minutes? Meh, I might just stay with what I got then. I thought it'd be a huge difference. I wish I could render in real time. 5 minute videos taking 5 minutes to render would be ideal. Oh well.