Software for editing gameplay footage

I am an aspiring youtube Let's-Player (for lack of a better term) and I am attempting to create the best content I can. I record using FRAPS on the highest quality I can put out, 60 FPS at 1080p, 1920x1080. As it is FRAPS these output files are huge!

I have successfully used WLMP before (I use successfully liberally) to get HD content out, but it never fails to take less than an hour to render, and is not very user-friendly with its output either. I have tried also using Kden Live on both windows and linux to edit, to no avail. If it is just me using the video editor to turn it into a file youtube knows how to take, Kden live always works for the first 10 minutes, give or take, but then the video just freezes. Basically a still with no audio for about 3-5 minutes, then a black screen for the rest of the video time.

What are good programs, that are hopefully free, that I can use to make HD quality videos? I am mostly going to be using it to just turn massive FRAPS files into youtube material, but having an intuitive editing for cut/paste and text would be nice too.

EDIT: I have also tried VirtualDub (to some extent) and Avidemux

EDIT MK. 2: I'm mostly looking for software that is reliable and easy-to-use