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Argh! Intel vs. AMD for next upgrade

S

slackerinabox

Lifer
I?ve been spending the past two weeks desperately trying to configure my next upgrade. This system will be a dedicated video editing rig and I will not be gaming. The problem is that all benchmarks seems to emphasize gaming ? if I was going to game I?d obviously pick an Athlon 64. Things get complicated when you look at the results for video editing.

Assuming I can only afford up to a 3.0ghz (3000+ on the 64) on either platform, it SEEMS like the P4 owns the A64 one media tasks (rendering video, encoding, etc.) Also, athlon 64 doesn?t really have the edge on price since 865 chipset motherboards costs significantly less than Nforce3 (or is it 4?) motherboards ? I don?t trust VIA so that?s not an option. Another factor that?s annoying is that a lot of the reviews seem dated and both the P4 and the 3000+ have had various tweaks since they premiered (as far as the 3.0e and the latest athlon64 stepping). Now I know that the Athlon 64 4000+ has the edge on media tasks but I can?t afford that.

So, what should I do? Here are the specs I?m considering:

Athlon 64 3000+ or P4 3.0ghz (e stepping)
1 gb ram (2x512mb)
200 gb seagate ata-100 drive (curious ? is serial ATA detected by the windows/bios or do I have to load drivers via windows setup?)
2x80 gb drives (my oldies western digitals)
The cheapest ATI agp video card that I can get
400 Watt ?true power? power supply ? I forgot which brand I currently own.
Thanks for any advice guys.
 
Encoding or video editing, I believe there is a difference. I think true video editing is AMD, and encoding depends on what codec you use, AMD wins half. More info ?

AQlso, the future is 64 bit (coming soon, available in beta now) leans heavily towards the AMD.
 
Originally posted by: Markfw900
Encoding or video editing, I believe there is a difference. I think true video editing is AMD, and encoding depends on what codec you use, AMD wins half. More info ?

AQlso, the future is 64 bit (coming soon, available in beta now) leans heavily towards the AMD.
Click to expand...


Well, I'll be doing a lot of different tasks. Editing using premiere/vegas video, rendering under After Effects (special effects, etc.), and encoding from DV avi to Mpeg2 for dvds. I'll also be encoding to quicktime but that's really not a big deal.
 
In the benchmarks I´ve seen. Intel does have a slight lead at media creations, but usually the differences are pretty minimal in my opinion (like a difference of what...3 to 50seconds???? something like that; going both ways), so it´s really a matter of budget and preferences.

If you could get an AMD with socket 939....then I would definitly get that, that platform should last quite a while for future upgrades while the Intel one is good but dated compared to s939....
 
I just went through the same decision process. 478 or 939 ??

I wanted to have future upward growth on my CPU processing power and felt that a P4 3.2 (865/875) offered a dead end upgrade path, while a 939 socket AMD offered me a much more future proof upgrade path especially with it's support for 64 bit OS.

I have to say that the A8V/3500 system I just built is just what I was looking for.
 
(curious ? is serial ATA detected by the windows/bios or do I have to load drivers via windows setup?)
Click to expand...
Depends on the chipset but worst case is you just hit F6 at the beginning of setup when it asks and install the drivers.

As to the platform choice, if you need to do anything else on the same system while those tasks are running I'd go P4HT. Otherwise 939 is a solid overall pick for just about anything now-a-days. Overclocking will add value to either as well.
 
Originally posted by: Markfw900
Encoding or video editing, I believe there is a difference. I think true video editing is AMD, and encoding depends on what codec you use, AMD wins half. More info ?

Also, the future is 64 bit (coming soon, available in beta now) leans heavily towards the AMD.
Click to expand...

Its still going to be quite a while until 64 bit windows is available for retail, on top of that there is still very little support for 64 bit games, there are some apps floating around however. I also hear windows XPs 32bit backwards compatibility isnt flawless either.
 
I think that you have spent alot of time thinking about CPU. However, I believe your decision on graphics card is more relevant and more important. How much do you want to spend on video and what ar eyou considering?

why ATI? Nvidia 6800 is pretty good too!
 
Originally posted by: frankie38
I think that you have spent alot of time thinking about CPU. However, I believe your decision on graphics card is more relevant and more important. How much do you want to spend on video and what ar eyou considering?

why ATI? Nvidia 6800 is pretty good too!
Click to expand...
Well since he won't be gaming a 6800 will be complete overkill. He said he is going to get the cheapest ATI card possible, which should be fine.
 
Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
(curious ? is serial ATA detected by the windows/bios or do I have to load drivers via windows setup?)
Click to expand...
Depends on the chipset but worst case is you just hit F6 at the beginning of setup when it asks and install the drivers.

As to the platform choice, if you need to do anything else on the same system while those tasks are running I'd go P4HT. Otherwise 939 is a solid overall pick for just about anything now-a-days. Overclocking will add value to either as well.
Click to expand...

HT is an excellent point - how many apps really support the function? Is there real world difference noticeable or is it marketing B.S.?

Thanks for all the info so far guys, I really appreciate it!
 
I've been p4 since the Northwoods. AMD before that. No fanboi either way, just jump on the bandwagon to whatever sounds good at the moment..

DDR2, 775, PCI-e do not interest me at the moment, and SLI just isn't worth the cost yet.

If I were you, I'd go AMD64, some nice TCCD RAM and a NF3 motherboard. The upgrade path should be a lot longer. Not to mention cheaper.
 
Hyperthreading is both actually, part marketing bullshat, part real deal. HT can show benefits in tasks that aren't optimized for it, but in some instances can evidently slow things down a little when not HT optimized.

I haven't played with a HT system but there are members here whos' opinions and testing I trust, that have showed nice gains in some diverse with HT. What it seems to boils down to is that HT multitasking is better than non-HT multitasking overall, and in some situations very significantly so.
 
Originally posted by: tallman45
I just went through the same decision process. 478 or 939 ??

I wanted to have future upward growth on my CPU processing power and felt that a P4 3.2 (865/875) offered a dead end upgrade path, while a 939 socket AMD offered me a much more future proof upgrade path especially with it's support for 64 bit OS.

I have to say that the A8V/3500 system I just built is just what I was looking for.
Click to expand...


Its not about an upgrade path, if you think about it. By the time you will want to upgrade your CPU. There will probally be another socket or CPU's your mobo wont support, plus you will want new motherboard features as well.

Athlon 64 3000+ and P4 3.0E are very close, you probally wont notice a differents with either or. Go with what your comfortable with. Most people will just tell AMD just cause it fits them best, find some benchmarks on the net then look and see how they perform in the programs you are going to be using the most.

A good bang for buck graphics card is the 6600GT. If you dont like Nvidia then get a 9800 Pro.
 
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