Sorry, previous message cut off the the Athlon choices.
I'm looking at buying a new system and I've sort of settled on a HP m1050y media center, running Windows Media Center 2005. With HP you have the option of configuring your system with a limited set of options. I plan on doing a lot of video editting and burning on CD/DVD's using software like Pinnacle Studio 9. Other main uses will be for watching DVDs run through a DLP projector and a bunch of other mulitmedia stuff. I don't really play a lot of games.
The main choice to make is the CPU selection of which the following are the choices:
Pentium 520 - Base CPU
Pentium 540 - +$90
Pentium 550 - +$200
Pentium 560 - +$410
or
Athlon 64 3200 - Base CPU
Athlon 64 2400 - +$60
Athlon 64 3700 - +$185
If you choose the Pentium platform, the best video card you can get is the ATI X600 and if you choose the AMD platform, the best video card you can get is the Nvidia 5700.
From what I have read on this forum, the 560 seems like a bit of overkill for these kinds of applications, especially for the $410 premium. I've read a lot of good things about the 3400, however, these are all related to the gaming performance.
What would you guys recommend for the CPU also taking into consideration the video card it comes with?
Thanks.
I'm looking at buying a new system and I've sort of settled on a HP m1050y media center, running Windows Media Center 2005. With HP you have the option of configuring your system with a limited set of options. I plan on doing a lot of video editting and burning on CD/DVD's using software like Pinnacle Studio 9. Other main uses will be for watching DVDs run through a DLP projector and a bunch of other mulitmedia stuff. I don't really play a lot of games.
The main choice to make is the CPU selection of which the following are the choices:
Pentium 520 - Base CPU
Pentium 540 - +$90
Pentium 550 - +$200
Pentium 560 - +$410
or
Athlon 64 3200 - Base CPU
Athlon 64 2400 - +$60
Athlon 64 3700 - +$185
If you choose the Pentium platform, the best video card you can get is the ATI X600 and if you choose the AMD platform, the best video card you can get is the Nvidia 5700.
From what I have read on this forum, the 560 seems like a bit of overkill for these kinds of applications, especially for the $410 premium. I've read a lot of good things about the 3400, however, these are all related to the gaming performance.
What would you guys recommend for the CPU also taking into consideration the video card it comes with?
Thanks.
