Newbie CPU question....

[imported_MrRoboto]

I'm a proud owner of a FIC AU13 motherboard that I got in Frys a while back. It's got a AMD Athlon XP 2000+ CPU right now, running at 1.7GHz. The system is running fine, but I'm doing a lot of movie editing lately and it takes quite a while for the rendering to be done. So, I decided to upgrade the system by getting a new CPU and some more memory. My question is, what CPU should I get? I see you guys refering to Bartons as the best bang for the buck, but I'm not sure what I should be looking for. Also, should I just upgrade the entire motherboard and go for 64 bit system? Will this help in gaming and video editing? Any help would be apreciated.

 

[charloscarlies]

Mobile Barton 2400, 2500 or 2600 ($77, $91, $99 respectively I believe)

The 2600's supposedly overclock better, but the 2400's seem to be doing ok as well. I don't know about your board, but mine's at 11 x 220 = 2420 mhz until my new PSU comes in. And yes you will notice a difference.

 

[Mik3y]

well, if you are willing to move into the athlon 64's, it'll mean you will be willing to pay the price for them. since you want to do a lot of video editing now, then i say go intel on it then, since everyone's always saying its better. IMO, i wouldnt really care, i'd rather go amd. editing will still be fine on it.