Question about the Socket T

[Ardan]

Here's a little background, to explain why I am asking about it. I'm starting to get into doing music encoding/decoding, video editing and encoding/decoding and the like. This is mainly because i'm getting involved with a record company my brother and 8 others have started. Well, things are going great, and for now i'm going to be doing a lot of the technical aspects of it. I have evaluated choices for an upgrade, and i've seen an Athlon 64 and a Pentium 4 do what I need to do, and honestly, it seemed like there wasn't much of a different. The Pentium 4 did get the encoding of video done faster (but hasn't HT gave them an advantage in that area for quite a while?), which is huge for me.

We have found that an ideal choice for us would be either an Athlon 64 3400+ or a 3.0Ghz Pentium 4. The problem is that there is such a big price difference. See me, I make sure I keep purchasing decisions unbiased, so I wouldn't dare choose something just for the brand. A friend that also has been doing this has had great success with his setup. So i'm wondering, would be getting a 3Ghz Pentium 4 be a decent choice? I really can't wait too long for 939 prices to come down, and I don't want to buy a Socket 754 Athlon 64 knowing that they've already moved past the 939. The three PCs at home here are all Athlon XPs, but it looks like that might be a decent choice.

I do play CS:Source (will play HL2), Doom III and NFS:Underground on a Radeon 9600 XT, but audio/video encoding and decoding will be done much more than those games. How decent are those Socket T CPUs? I really like the price in comparison to the performance I have observed first-hand with what I'm doing, and someone mentioned that it wasn't too hard for them to install. Would an LGA775 Prescott be a decent choice? I use two 120mm fans, I have a PowerStream PSU That works great and really i'm not worried about heat. I have the PC in a basement room that is around 68 degrees, even when it is 100 degrees out in August . I have told my dilemma to some people, and they always mention "well, the Athlon 64 gets more fps in games" and yes, its nice, but that doesn't do me any good . My computer doesn't do game benchmarks, it does video and audio.

Do you think I should try for Socket T next month, or should I just stick with Socket 478? Does anyone have any REAL reason for me to wait longer than I should to get a faster Athlon 64? I'm all ears, but I think a Socket T upgrade wouldn't be too bad of a choice, given the work it would do. Correct?

 

[LTC8K6]

I can't fault your logic. An LGA775 P4 system should be fine for what you want to do.

As far as worrying about sockets and longevity, it always seems to turn out that you really end up wanting a new board anyway because of new features.

Just make sure you check up on video card slots, agp or pci-e, and memory, ddr or ddr2, when you pick out a board.

 

[Ardan]

Well, I was thinking of an i865PE board that has the LGA775 on them, because they're about $105 and they've always been great boards. It also keeps me on AGP, since I have no need for PCI-e or DDR2 (at the moment anyway). I might try and wait a little bit longer, because I saw how startlingly good the new 90nm Athlon 64s are. I would prefer an Athlon 64, but of course, you can't ALWAYS have what you want . Especially when you have deadlines to meet . I just wanted to make sure using an LGA775-based P4, if it came to that, was an okay idea. I was shocked at the overclockability as well, and I would definitely take advantage of that.

Thanks for weighing in on my dilemma in a very professional manner!

 

[nitromullet]

That is a tough call. Personally, at 3.0GHz, I would opt for a socket 478 Northwood core chip. The Prescott chips were designed to scale better at high clock speeds, but run slower than an equivalent Northwood at clocks below 3.4. I agree with you that the i865 chipset is the way to go, but the LGA77/ i865 mobo's are kind of a hack developed by mobo manufacturers so users could get into an LGA775 chip without having to get into 915/925. I'm not saying they are bad, but I personally don't like "transition" products, especially for business use. The socket 478/i865 is a mature, stable, high performing platform for your intended primary use and would be my choice if I was in your situation. As LTC8K6 said, you will probably want to get a new motherboard when you replace the chip anyway...

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: nitromullet
That is a tough call. Personally, at 3.0GHz, I would opt for a socket 478 Northwood core chip. The Prescott chips were designed to scale better at high clock speeds, but run slower than an equivalent Northwood at clocks below 3.4. I agree with you that the i865 chipset is the way to go, but the LGA77/ i865 mobo's are kind of a hack developed by mobo manufacturers so users could get into an LGA775 chip without having to get into 915/925. I'm not saying they are bad, but I personally don't like "transition" products, especially for business use. The socket 478/i865 is a mature, stable, high performing platform for your intended primary use and would be my choice if I was in your situation. As LTC8K6 said, you will probably want to get a new motherboard when you replace the chip anyway...

^ I agree with this assesment 100% - heck, I don't really need to say what I was going to say because he already said it for me.

For encoding, I think getting an 865 chipset paired with a 3 Ghz socket 478 Northwood would be the best choice, both because it can be found for much cheaper, and (more importantly) because SSE2 and Hyperthreading help immensely in many encoding applications.

For gaming, the P4 3 Ghz is definately going to suffer, especially against a 3400+ Athlon 64, but with the money you save you could upgrade to at least a 9800 Pro or 6800nu if desired. Also, you have to consider what is the 'primary use' for the computer. If it's games, get an A64; if it's video editing/encoding/decoding/etc, go for the Intel.

 

[Ardan]

Well I don't think i'm going to care if I get 89 fps instead of 100 fps, or if I get 325fps in Quake 3 (which I don't play) instead of 400fps . Gaming is REALLY a low priority. I decided on this: If I can wait, I'll get a 90nm Athlon 64. If I can't, a Socket 478 3Ghz Pentium 4 with an 865 chipset. It isn't my primary business, this is a brand new outfit, and my main job is being a pharmacy technician for Allina in Minnesota. I know that using a P4 will 'suffer' in games compared to a CPU I probably won't buy anytime soon, but I use an Athlon XP 3200+ (well, 2500+ at 3200+ speeds) with an ATI Radeon 9600 XT 128mb and I love the speed and quality it gives me at 1024x768 in CS:Source and Doom III. Its not like i'm flying high right now, CPU-wise . Not to insult the Athlon XP...I use it in 3 PCs!