Rank these CPUs...

[Antoneo]

Hey guys I'm trying to figure out which CPU I should purchase.
Things I do the most on the computer:
Web browsing [lots]
3D Studio MAX 6.0 [lots]
Photoshop CS [lots]
Adobe Premiere [lots]
Microsoft Office 2003
divX/Xvid playback [lots]

How would you rank the processors for my needs?
In order of best to worse at stock speeds:

In order of best to worse overclocked (using generally accepted "guarantees"):

And I also take posts with a single CPU answer.

 

[kuangs168]

mobile 2x00+ better oc good for all those applications... just not intensive 3d gaming

 

[Antoneo]

Originally posted by: kuangs168
mobile 2x00+ better oc good for all those applications... just not intensive 3d gaming

I don't play games at all so I just need a workhorse CPU. Hrmm, I thought Intel 2.4C might be a worthwhile chip for me (but am unsure). IIRC Adobe/discreet liked P4s better but maybe they are now optimized for both companies.

 

[AnandThenMan]

This is what I would go for:
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 1.8GHz, 512KB L2 Cache 939-Pin 64-bit Processor - OEM
or
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.0GHz, 512KB L2 Cache 939-Pin 64-bit Processor - OEM

both are 90nm parts.

 

[Necrolezbeast]

Are you a heavy multitasker? If so the 2.4c would be benficial...otherwise I would say one of the A64's that TheMan posted, because if any of those applications do have any optimizations it would be SSE2, which the A64 and 2.4c have while the others do not.

 

[iversonyin]

1. A64 2800
2. P4 2.4C
3. Mobile 2x00
4. Sempron

i'm guessin you doing alot of picture editing? isn't mac better in term of graphic/ video edit?

 

[Antoneo]

Multitasking meaning I like to do everything at one time? Traditionally no because I am afraid that the CPU will get caught up in a certain application/thread and it might bail out [crash]. But having extra "responsiveness" would be nice. I am on a P4 1.6@2.1Ghz now and would like to see an even zippier system. And Mac is just plain expensive. I'm not a serious user of the graphics applications in the sense that it puts bread on the table but would simply like to see a faster system than the one I use now.

 

[charloscarlies]

I'm going to say you might be unhappy with an A64 or the Sempy. I personally love mine...but I don't do a lot of multi-tasking. Multi-tasking w/ the A64's is pretty bad though. HT is definitely a nice addition.

The 2.4C's have finally gone down in price and *most* overclock very well. A dualie mobile Barton setup wouldn't be half bad either.

 

[dguy6789]

Originally posted by: iversonyin
1. A64 2800
2. P4 2.4C
3. Mobile 2x00
4. Sempron

i'm guessin you doing alot of picture editing? isn't mac better in term of graphic/ video edit?

Thats it right there. HT helps, but it does NOT help THAT much. The Pentium 4 2.4C multi tasks good for it's cpu class, but an Athlon 64 2800+ would blow it away in ANYTHING at stock, multi tasking or not. HT is way to over rated.

Heck, my system seems MUCH smoother in multi tasking then my uncle's 2.6C, which would come to a crawl when doing some of the things i do normally.

 

[broly8877]

1. A64
2. Sempron 3100+
3. 2.4c
4. Sempron Socket A


The K8 based Sempron is only marginally slower than the A64 2800+

 

[charloscarlies]

Originally posted by: dguy6789

Originally posted by: iversonyin
1. A64 2800
2. P4 2.4C
3. Mobile 2x00
4. Sempron

i'm guessin you doing alot of picture editing? isn't mac better in term of graphic/ video edit?

Thats it right there. HT helps, but it does NOT help THAT much. The Pentium 4 2.4C multi tasks good for it's cpu class, but an Athlon 64 2800+ would blow it away in ANYTHING at stock, multi tasking or not. HT is way to over rated.

Heck, my system seems MUCH smoother in multi tasking then my uncle's 2.6C, which would come to a crawl when doing some of the things i do normally.

The problem is he said overclocked.

The 2.4C's have been known as very good overclockers...many hitting 3-3.5 ghz on air. If you have good ram and a good board that will do high fsb...the 2.4C is a great little chip.

And HT is not over-rated for everybody. Try encoding mp3's while watching TV w/ a tuner card...it's awful. The A64's are blazing fast...but they don't multitask very well at all.

And like somebody pointed out above...the K8 based Sempys are very fast. I had some benchies showing my 3100 vs. the A64 clock for clock...it's very close. The Semprons seem to OC a *little* better too.

 

[Antoneo]

Hrmm, this is a bit wierd. I'm trying to get a good value CPU [$90-130], money saved on the processor can be spent on memory as I need to get 1 GB for the new machine and a 512MB for my old one, the overclocked 1.6A. Do you guys think my applications are more processor intensive or memory intensive?

Windows XP is pretty stable and while I do run lots of programs at the same time, I dislike the lag it takes from switching from one application to another. Will Hyperthreading help with that? I know people who have run dual CPUs testify to the smoothness, but from what I read HT is just not equivalent.

My post above stating that I do not like to multitask does not mean I do not want to. I tend to avoid running two programs that compete for CPU time because both wind up running slower than usual and I'm just left staring into space. However, I always have attributed that to a slow CPU, but if HT can aleviate that problem to a noticable degree then I would probably side with it.

 

[dguy6789]

Originally posted by: charloscarlies

Originally posted by: dguy6789

Originally posted by: iversonyin
1. A64 2800
2. P4 2.4C
3. Mobile 2x00
4. Sempron

i'm guessin you doing alot of picture editing? isn't mac better in term of graphic/ video edit?

Thats it right there. HT helps, but it does NOT help THAT much. The Pentium 4 2.4C multi tasks good for it's cpu class, but an Athlon 64 2800+ would blow it away in ANYTHING at stock, multi tasking or not. HT is way to over rated.

Heck, my system seems MUCH smoother in multi tasking then my uncle's 2.6C, which would come to a crawl when doing some of the things i do normally.

The problem is he said overclocked.

The 2.4C's have been known as very good overclockers...many hitting 3-3.5 ghz on air. If you have good ram and a good board that will do high fsb...the 2.4C is a great little chip.

And HT is not over-rated for everybody. Try encoding mp3's while watching TV w/ a tuner card...it's awful. The A64's are blazing fast...but they don't multitask very well at all.

And like somebody pointed out above...the K8 based Sempys are very fast. I had some benchies showing my 3100 vs. the A64 clock for clock...it's very close. The Semprons seem to OC a *little* better too.

2800s tend to oc very well also. I know some ppl on the ocforums have their 2800s at 2.5ghz with very small volt increase, and on stock air coolin.

 

[superkdogg]

Like you said, crashes due to having too many open threads are pretty much a thing of the past. That being said, the C's do perform better in multitasking, but most of the apps you listed would be run one at a time IMHO. It's pretty difficult to compose a document and edit photos at the same time! The thing about memory plays in here-in order to maximize a Northwood, and OC it-you'l need ram that can do at least 250 FSB and more like 280 to have a better chance of a good OC in 1:1. Those CPU's love memory BW and that will bump up your memory cost especially since you need a gig of it. Contrarily, the A64's aren't as handicapped running with multiplier (4:5, 5:6), but I'm sure there is still some effect.

IMHO it's basically a toss up between the Northwood and the A64. Judgement call between those two-Sempron and Barton aren't worth the little bit of $ you'd save. Unless you go dual Barton-that would be interesting.....maybe I'll head to pricewatch and price out one of those for me

Edit: I can't stand looking @ spelling errors in my posts...

 

[Steg55]

The Sempron 3100+ (754) overclocks REALLY well.
But I have to agree with AnandThenMan - go with a 3000+/3200+ 939 - you cant go wrong

Steg

 

[stevty2889]

The A64 2800+ and the P4 2.4C would both be good choices. I had a 2.4c that ran at 3.1ghz on air, so I know some of them can overclock well. For the applications you are using, I would really recomend 1 gig of ram, of 512mb. I wouldn't bother with an Athlon XP, I think the P4 and the A64 2800+ would be better than it for any of those applications. The sempron would probably OC pretty well, but it is a budget chip, so I wouldn't really choose it if your looking for good performance.

 

[Zebo]

this should'nt even be a question if you're ocing, a skt754 a68 2800 @ 2500 is like a 3700Mhz P4. And a paris sempron is'nt too far off from that.

1. A64 2800+
2. Sempron 3100+
3. tied for equal levels of poor value.

http://www.behardware.com/articles/525/page10.html

 

[Neptune3000]

LIES LIES LIES

Multitasking does NOT suck w/ A64. People are just repeating the "general consensus" without any experience. Thats the same nonsense that make people assume intel is better for encoding. people in the computer community have become quite lazy and just repeat whatever myths they hear.

from EXPERIENCE i can say this:

My AMD athlon 64 2800+ OC's to 2.54ghz on stock cooling, after I get a XP-120 I'll tell you what te max is.

I run more programs than anyone else i know. My taskbake is always hiked up to half of my screen to accomodate all the different programs I run. These programs unclude BROWSING, IMING, MAYA, PHOTOSHOP, WMP, WORD, etc.

W/ my athlon 1800+ things were quite bleek. However, w/ my athlon 64 i can run whatever I please without any problems. Multitasking IMO is more a matter of ram. When I upgraded to a full gig from 512 I also noticed an increase in speed. Photoshop loads in LITERALLY 2sec and so does maya.

I also encode video files. Using a optimized sse2 prog I encoded a 15gig file in 10-15mins. 15GIGS!!


So as far as i'm concerned, theres nothing my athlon 64 cant do. It even lets me play games like far cry, doom, hl2, and COD w/ high quality settings and no lag using A RADEON 8500LE!!!!

 

[Antoneo]

Why is the Sempron 3100+ rated higher than an AMD 64 2800+? It's the same frequency but has more L2 cache (double). Should be same K8 core, same memory controller (single channel). I don't get it.

 

[cryptonomicon]

the sempron uses the AXP PR rating scheme.

 

[carlosd]

1. A64
2. Sempron 3100+
3. 2.4c