Dual Athlons or Single P4

[Fuboy]

I need some advice for a new system. I haven't kept up with the processor scene since the P3 was introduced so I have no idea which way to go. The system will be used solely for video production - mpeg2 encoding, DV editing & rendering, Adobe After Effects, etc. - lots of power hungry apps. For the money, would it be better to go with a single P4 setup or dual Athlons? Should I look at MPs or mod some older XPs? What mobo would you recommend for either setup? What ram? Anything else I should consider? Any help or links you could provide would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Mike

 

[onza]

P4 w/ HT?

 

[Necrolezbeast]

P4's are far superior in video editing as most all of the software is optimized with SSE2...get a P4, go for around 2.53ghz or one of the newer 800mhz fsb and HT...also get as much RAM as possible and a DCDDR mobo, vid editing will love 1gb of ram and use it with ease.

 

[JonnyBlaze]

i was in the same boat as you a few weeks ago.

i was still using my abit vp6 with dual p3 866's. never even wondered about upgrading till these new 800 mhz bus systems started coming out.

now im running a p4 3.0ghz and its amazingly fast. i hated having to give up the second cpu, but its worth it. i use alot of heavy apps as well and i cant seem to make the system choke up. i run autocad, inventor, solidworks and some other 3d rendering software. they all run great.

well, i would recommend a p4, the motherboard would depend more on you. i went with the abit ic7-g because this is my home machine and i want to play with some overclocking. its a good board either way.

for ram, you would want atleast a gig, maybe 2. you should know how much you need alredy tho. get the pc3500. i got the corsair xms.

other than that you need a cpu. 2.4's are cheap. but if you need the most speed go with the 3.0

make sure you get a decent video card and psu also.

i could run some encodes and let you know the performance if you wanted.

Matt

 

[TerryMathews]

Originally posted by: onza
P4 w/ HT?

HyperThreading is useless for really CPU intensive tasks.

To answer the original question, if you're careful there are SMP-aware tools that will work wonders for your tasks. TMPGenc goes 80% faster on my dual Athlon.

I'd reccomend getting some Tbred B 2100s, mod em and OC em. The best board you can still buy at retail is the MSI K7D Master-L. Best board overall is the Iwill MPX2. It'll hit 166MHz FSB, but you'll be driving all your stuff way out of whack as it's only got a 1/4 divider.

 

[Fuboy]

So far it looks like 3 votes for P4 and 1 for dual Athlons. The slowest part of my workflow is the mpeg2 encoding. It can take over a day to encode footage. Thank you everyone for your input.
Mike