Faster way to edit movie?

Hi,

I'm just a beginner when it comes to converting or editing video files...
That's why I always have a bad time dealing with movies transfered from CDs
(2 separated DAT files when copied to HD). Converting to AVI format alone
really makes me 'cwal', can't wait any longer 'cause 600MB of DAT file takes
1 hour of AVI conversion... After spending almost 2 hours of AVI conversion,
I'm now going edit them to make it a one full length movie and that takes
another 1.5 hours! :'(

Is there any faster way of doing this? Greater software might help for me...
Im thinking of transferring 3 movies in one DVD so summing all this hous up,
it would take 8 hours including dvd burning! ha! that's a lot of bucks for
service's payment isn't it?

Here's my Hardware/software specs, maybe you could recommend to make the
best out of it. I don't Know if Im just doing all wrong!

Hardwares:
18X DVD Lightscribe
512MB DDR2
128 Geforce Nvidia
Pentium D 3.0

OS:
Windows XP

Video Editors/converters:
Nero 7
Movie maker
Total Video Converter
Muvees