Best CPU for Adobe, General, and Folding@Home use?

[Intelman34]

I am putting together a new system for myself and would like a bit of advice on my choice of CPU. I haven't owned an Intel system since my P233mmx so I would be new to the intel game. I've had a bunch of socket and slot Athlons and really liked them, but now I feel it may be time for something different.

It will be between the AMD64 3400+ or 3500+ (NF3 mobo?) and the Pentium 4 3.4ghz Prescott (915P mobo). I ordered an Antec case that can handle the Prescott heat (along with the necessary fans) and will be running the Antec 430 TruePower for the power supply. The hard drive will be a 74gb Raptor. Video will be one of the 6800 cards. Ram will be 1gb but make and speed will depend on the board.

I will be using it for general windows apps (office suite, internet, email), Adobe creative suite (and a few other design apps), and for running Folding@Home 24/7/365. If I like the system enough, I may even get back into PC games (havent gamed since Quake 3).

I honestly think the P4 would be the better CPU for what I will be using it for, but I am worried about the lack of 64 bit support. I guess I could upgrade to one of the 64bit P4's once they get a bit more popular (ever?) as long as Intel sticks with LGA775. Also, the DDR2 seems interesting and looks like it can only get better as more/better ram becomes available. PCI-E is a must have as well and is available on the 915P chipset. Hopefully the NF4 boards will be out soon so I don't have to wait for an AMD system if that is the case.

I'll be honest, right now I am leaning towards the P4 3.4ghz prescott. It seems to be the faster CPU in the tasks that I need it for.

So, please share with my your thoughts an opinions on what you feel is the best CPU for my situation.

Thanks for any and all input.

 

[scaryclownsarefun]

woah, you are going to get a 6800 card for office apps? and whats with the fast new CPU's? all you nead is an average cpu, and something like the 9800SE graphics card. I have found that the athlon 64 is really snappy in windows, and so that would be a good buy (if you want the 64 bit support) and even a 2.8GHz p4 would be fine.

If you want something really cheap, then get a 9800SE/ chaintec VNF-250 motherboard / athlon 64 2800

that should do anything you could throw at it from windows... and will even be able to do some light gaming

 

[Neptune3000]

chaintec VNF-250 motherboard / athlon 64 2800

that should do anything you could throw at it from windows... and will even be able to do some light gaming

I have that combo, works great. Loads photoshop pretty fast. BTW, get alotta ram i have 512 but will be getting another 512 when i can find the cash.

 

[Algere]

I agree with your thought process/assessment.

:thumbsup: P4

 

[carlosd]

For the price you get a P4 CPU, you will always be able to get a an A64 CPU that performs better.
Think about it.

 

[Algere]

But you don't get Hyper Threading (useful for F@H) with the A64.

Think about that 😛

 

[Accord99]

Originally posted by: Intelman34
I'll be honest, right now I am leaning towards the P4 3.4ghz prescott. It seems to be the faster CPU in the tasks that I need it for.

If your Adobe tasks include Photoshop and/or After Effects, the Prescott is significantly faster than anything else in x86. And Prescott is slightly faster than Northwood in Gromacs, which would give it the edge of the A64 there as well.

 

[CaiNaM]

Originally posted by: carlosd
For the price you get a P4 CPU, you will always be able to get a an A64 CPU that performs better.
Think about it.

if you had actually thought about it, you would have realized your statement is quite untrue before you posted it. the a64 is certainly fast, and it certainly outperforms a similarly priced p4 in many applications, but it all depends on what's most important to the person using it, as the amd doesn't perform better at everything.

 

[MDE]

Intel rules for DC apps because of HyperThreading and almost every Adobe app has an optimized for Intel sticker slapped on it. I'd have to say P4 here.

 

[Intelman34]

Thanks for the comments and info!

Heres one more thing though.... would it be worthwhile to wait for the 64-Bit Prescott's to become more commonplace? The 3.4ghz EMT64T enabled prescott is about $50 more by looking at the once place I found to order it from.

 

[KDKPSJ]

Originally posted by: carlosd
For the price you get a P4 CPU, you will always be able to get a an A64 CPU that performs better.
Think about it.

Your statement is just partially true, as people mentioned above. You should use word "better" more carefully. P4s outperform similarly priced A64 on video encoding. And also many Adobe softwares, which the article starter's one of main purposes for upgrade, are optimized for Intel as well. Contrast to those, A64s are definetely better than P4 at gaming, but for the article stater is not much gamer gamer as well.

 

[splogue]

Where did you find the EMT64T prescott available?

 

[Gioron]

True, Intel is better at some content creation suites, but Adobe doesn't seem to be one of them. Most of the applications mentioned look like an A64 can handle them better (though I'm not sure how well HT helps with folding@home). The specific benchmarks I'm looking at are here. A year ago you'd be right that Intel was better for content creation type stuff, but Intel fumbled badly on their latest chips and are now leading in only part of the content creation area (and seriously hurting everywhere else). Although this case isn't as clear cut as usual, I'd still recommend an A64 platform (but doublecheck those benchmarks to make sure you aren't actually doing something Intel is better at).

As for the rest of the issues... DDR2 is a waste right now, its best to wait a couple years till it actually offers better performance. PCI-E is nice, but not really that much better than AGP. As far as upgrades go, DDR2 down the road would be a useless upgrade, since it'll have to match your CPU/MB anyways and if you end up replacing your CPU/MB, you might as well upgrade the RAM as well. PCI-E might be more usefull for upgrading if you end up geting back into gaming, but my feeling is that the next gen cards will still come in AGP variants, if not the generation after that. If you're willing to wait, however, PCI-E on an nForce 4 board won't hurt and will give you PCI-E, but I'd personally just buy an nForce 3 board now.