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X2 3800, X2 4400 or Pentium D ?

M

Mixman

Senior member
I am planning another build for a music recording machine. I think I'll need a dual processor setup. As you can see from my sig, I already have an X2 3800, which is running at 2750 1.5V, prime95 stable.

I was going to use this machine for the music but I gotta admit I got used to the speed. Now I am wondering should I just get another X2 3800 and clock the hell out of it like I am now, go for the X2 4400 with the 1 MB cache or try an Intel Pentuim D 820 or 830 and OC them (dont' laugh) ? The reason why I mention the Pentiums is I just wanted to try a different system, maybe it will be better at some things than the AMD system ???

Out of these choices what looks best ? Keep in mind, I don't want to break the budget !
 
Stick with the X2, especaily if you want it for music. You don't need a loud cpu cooler to distract you. Not that my pentium-d is completely useless, it keeps my room warmer than my single core prescott did, but the X2 is so much better. I had to put a loud 120mm 108cfm fan in with the pentium-d 830 to keep the load temps below 65c, while already using an after market cooler. My X2 4200+ runs at 51c under full load, with the stock cooler, overclocked to 2.618ghz and is almost completely silent.
 
I would probably go for the 4400 and keep the system quieter. If you do this for a living, then you don't need to risk an OC on it...JMHO
 
What is slow on it? If you are serious about doing music, maybe you should spend the money there? Upgrades to M-Audio add-in with some real monitors? I am not the audio engineer, but there are folks around at AT who can help.
 
X2. As stevty said, they are hard to cool, and much slower at everything that I have tested do far.
 
This isn't my total livelihood, but I can make money on the side with a Digidesign system. I guess nobody likes the idea of a OC'ed Pentium D ?

How far has everybody been overclocking the X2 4400 ? Also is a similarly OC'ed 4400 faster than a 3800 because of the extra cache ?
 
I have mine at 2500 on 1.475, and its stable. I was hoping to get to 2640, but I believe cooling, and the motherboard are holding me back. I think you can assume 2500+ will be stable for you, from what others have been reporting. There are some 2.6 and 2.7 clocks out there that are stable. Check out the scores in the Crystalmark thread in this forum for a sense of what some people are doing with these chips (and also for a sense of how the X2 line currently owns all other architectures, at least on that bench.)
 
Originally posted by: Mixman
This isn't my total livelihood, but I can make money on the side with a Digidesign system. I guess nobody likes the idea of a OC'ed Pentium D ?

How far has everybody been overclocking the X2 4400 ? Also is a similarly OC'ed 4400 faster than a 3800 because of the extra cache ?
Click to expand...

As you can see, I have all three. The 4400 doesn;t seem to OC much better than the 3800, but has more cache. The OC'ed 820D@3.43 gets destroyed by the 3800 OC'ed to 2550 in every benchmark I have run so far, and is hot even with much better air cooling than the 3800, and with the case cover off.

X2 !!
 
Originally posted by: Markfw900
Originally posted by: Mixman
This isn't my total livelihood, but I can make money on the side with a Digidesign system. I guess nobody likes the idea of a OC'ed Pentium D ?

How far has everybody been overclocking the X2 4400 ? Also is a similarly OC'ed 4400 faster than a 3800 because of the extra cache ?
Click to expand...

As you can see, I have all three. The 4400 doesn;t seem to OC much better than the 3800, but has more cache. The OC'ed 820D@3.43 gets destroyed by the 3800 OC'ed to 2550 in every benchmark I have run so far, and is hot even with much better air cooling than the 3800, and with the case cover off.

X2 !!
Click to expand...

Which X2 system feels faster to you ?

 
Originally posted by: Mixman
Originally posted by: Markfw900
Originally posted by: Mixman
This isn't my total livelihood, but I can make money on the side with a Digidesign system. I guess nobody likes the idea of a OC'ed Pentium D ?

How far has everybody been overclocking the X2 4400 ? Also is a similarly OC'ed 4400 faster than a 3800 because of the extra cache ?
Click to expand...

As you can see, I have all three. The 4400 doesn;t seem to OC much better than the 3800, but has more cache. The OC'ed 820D@3.43 gets destroyed by the 3800 OC'ed to 2550 in every benchmark I have run so far, and is hot even with much better air cooling than the 3800, and with the case cover off.

X2 !!
Click to expand...

Which X2 system feels faster to you ?
Click to expand...

Well, hard to say. The 3800+ is a dedicated F@H machine, while the 4400 is my primary work computer. The F@H unit times seem to be the same, and just loading up, and opening windows and stuff, you can;t tell a difference. Just check the benchmarks and trust them I say. 2% I think ? maybe more on some things ? If I had it to do over, I would have gotten 2 X2 3800's for the price I paid for the 4400 (almost) For me, the 3800 is fine at 2550 for anything I have done, and the 4400 is at the same speed !
 
Wow your rich. Building a new system with top quality parts just so you can do some music recording????
 
Originally posted by: Hacp
Wow your rich. Building a new system with top quality parts just so you can do some music recording????
Click to expand...


Not at all. Considering that I can bulid two PC systems for less than the price of one Mac system, which is the most widely used in music, it's easy to have separate computers for separate things.
 
Originally posted by: Mixman
Originally posted by: Hacp
Wow your rich. Building a new system with top quality parts just so you can do some music recording????
Click to expand...


Not at all. Considering that I can bulid two PC systems for less than the price of one Mac system, which is the most widely used in music, it's easy to have separate computers for separate things.
Click to expand...

If I were you I would go with a laptop for the music recording. There's nothing like jammin' on a MIDI board with a powerbook at a friend's house, 2GB of ram, and some massive soundfonts. 🙂
 
I would tend to disagree with the laptop statement, depending on how many tracks you are looking to capture simultaneously. I would also not OC a dedicated recording rig. Naturally, this is my personal opinion, but absolute stability and a very quiet machine are more important when in the middle of recording sessions. There are so many variables... are you using all plugins for effects and processing, or are you offloading some of that to a DSP card? Again, it really depends on how many tracks, how many effects running, and things of that nature. I also recommend a very fast hard drive... I personally used a 15,000 RPM SCSI RAID setup and that worked very well. Oh yes, and I would vote for the 4400+ at stock speeds. 🙂
 
Maybe look at the new 939 dual core optys? I hear the lowest end model is a little cheaper than the 4400+ and has as much cache.
 
Well I am going to probably get a Protools 002 system. I sold my Mix3 system about a year ago, so this one will be native and I will need lots of processing power. I am trying to keep the costs down so I can afford a the Digi system sooner. A $500 processor doesn't help and I will go for a a little OC as long as I can get it prime95 stable. I used to OC my Mac 9600 all the time. Sometimes you have to weigh stablity vs getting things done quicker (song load time, more plugins and quicker load time).

Would a really fast single processor like an Opteron 146 or 148 be just as good ?

Also, I guess a Pentium D shouldn't even be considered ?
 
Well, the Pentium D is OUT ! And you have a 3800@2.75. Has it ever been unstable ? If not, get another one for this new system. a 3800 even at 2.4 would blow away any single core on multi-threaded apps, whick I assume you are using.
 
Originally posted by: Mixman
Which motherboard ?
Click to expand...

I am confused. I look at you sig, and you have a X2 3800+@2750 Is it stable ? Has it ever given you a problem ? If not OC the new music box and get another X2 3800+ !!!!
 
No trouble at all, I was just looking different solutions, even Pentium (no laughing !) for this new build. I also won't need the extreme nature of my DFI board for my music rig.
 
Yeah the more I look at the overclocks of the 3800 vs the 4400 I see that the 3800 is probably not only the better bargain but the better performer too, once OC'ed to the max.
 
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