For what things will CPU speed matter?

[ktrainman]

I'm new to the whole DVD burning world and am trying to decide if I should upgrade my computer. I'm currently on a P3 1.5 w/ 512 of ram.

What kind of functions would I see significatnt speed improvements by going w/ a AthlonXP 2500+ (possible attempt to o/c to 3200+ speeds) and 1 gig of ram? I'm looking mainly to backup some DVD's, data and possibly do some authoring.

Thanks!
Keith

[johns0]

If you oc to xp3200 you should see at least a 50-80% speed increase in some aspects.

[whomacuddy]

CPU Speed is not the entire picture , however for most applications in Video encoding I have found the Pentium 4 to be superior to the Athlon , although I am sure many Athlon users will protest , when it comes to sheer speed the AMD is king , but often many video encoding applications used optimised instruction sets and the Pentium 4's SSE2 is ridiculously quick , I actually have 2 computers one a 2.4 P4 and an Athlon XP2400 and the P4 is always quicker on the encoding . The CPU should however be coupled with a good quality mobo and a nice fast memory system (Dual DDR , RAMBUS , DDR etc. ) and fast Hard Disks

[duhmez]

If you look at all the options and sections on the left of this webpage, everything there can use as mnuch cpu as you can throw at it. Video p;rocessing is the highest demand on cpu of anything you can do.

[johns0]

Wasnt the question of a p3 compared to a oc xp3200 the main concern?p43200 will be faster but that wasnt asked and the early p4 were dogs with speed.

[whomacuddy]

The old the P4 was indeed really awful I used to have one once , it was a 1.5 and was actually slower than a 1 Ghz P3 or Athlon . It still was faster with Video encoding as long as it used the SSE2

[jtommyj]

I have an XP2400 o/c'd to 2.4 GHz and it is much faster than my old P3. I also have a dual processor MP 1900 x 2.
If I were to do it now without money being a factor I would go with the fastest P4 if encoding with TMPGenc which is optimized for the SSE2 instructions. Also, HT can help on SOME programs. Nero Reencode now is dual processor capable.

If you were to do alot of video editing I would steer away from an overclocked processor. There is nothing more disheartening than setting up an overnight 2 pass encoding session that takes 8 hours and waking up in the morning finding the computer crashed because it was unstable due to being overclocked. I use mine for fun and games but not for reliability.

Honestly, I would wait a little while until you find out what "niche" of the DVD burning you end up being in more. If you are just going to copy DVD's, a much faster processor isn't neccessary unless you want to shrink it, etc. If you are going to be doing a lot of encoding, then a faster processor would save you much time. It also depends on your patience. If you can sit while your computer shrinks a DVD for 2 hours, sit tight. If you're impatient get a faster processor. It won't make your DVD burner any faster. Plan on 15 minutes for a 4GB DVD burn @ 4x no matter what processor you use.







Tom

Tom

[ktrainman]

Thanks for the quick replies guys. I was initally wondering if a cpu/mobo upgrade would be benefitial because I bought a unlocked barton b/c of how cheap they are, but after this thread I think I will go w/ a P4. I totally forgot that the P4 generally comes out on top for compression or anything there is a high degree of predictability.

Anybody interested in a week 34 Barton? :P

[whomacuddy]

I certainly agree that overclocked CPU can be very frustrating with video encoding , however if you can achieve a tried and tested overclock that works safely no matter what you throw at , it makes a little bit of a difference , I run my P4 2.4 @2.7 a very mild overclock admited but it's perfectly reliable even after 12 hours of encoding .

[jtommyj]

I certainly agree that overclocked CPU can be very frustrating with video encoding , however if you can achieve a tried and tested overclock that works safely no matter what you throw at , it makes a little bit of a difference , I run my P4 2.4 @2.7 a very mild overclock admited but it's perfectly reliable even after 12 hours of encoding .

Newer P4's generally have a much higher overhead for overclocking than Bartons and XP's and therefore are generally more stable. His OC'ing question referred to an AMD processor of which I am familiar. I have an Abit NF7-S with a watercooled set-up and can get STABLE a 350 MHz (2350MHz) with VCore raised to about 1.9 volts. 1.9 volts on your P4 and you better be running a Prometia or a good watercooling system. In reality, you probably didn't even have to bump up your core voltage for a 300 MHz boost, huh ?

[whomacuddy]

Certainly not but my limiting factor is the DDR Memory I use which doesn't like going above 150 on the Front Side Bus , however quite correctly sugessted the P4 is generally a lot tougher than most Athlons . Like the idea of watercooling , beats screaming fans I must say .

[jtommyj]

Yeah ,the memory. I use 2 sticks of Buffalo DDR 400 and run my FSB at 204 x 11. Makes it a little snappier for games, etc.

Next proc will be a P4 though. I also am working on a dual Xeon 3.06 machine that will be up and running soon which should be smokin' fast for processing.


Good luck on your P4.

[Bennybone]

For some, money is not a factor in hindering your next mb/cpu/mem upgrade. If you are one of those that doesn't mind constantly throwing 500.00 into a system yearly then ignore my comment below

In my opinion I would save my "upgrade request" (everything must pass the family NEEDS budget accounted for by the wife) for at least another year or two. In the next two years you will be able to upgrade to a 64 bit platform with perhaps 'fingers-crossed' the new Microsoft OS. Also with the value for the buck constantly increasing you may be able to get a whole new system for near 1000.00

My reasoning for this approach is I recently tested the "technology curve" by calling my PIII 600 into service as a DVD backup system. Of course everywhere you look you see minimum system requirements above 800 Mhz, but my system did fine ripping/transcoding (2 pass analysis)/and burning DVDs. All in all it takes right at 2 hours for the process. But my thoughts are based on not being in a hurry when I am able to retain money in the "upgrade request" fund.

Also in regards to the DVD authoring question, if you decided to stay with your current rig you would probably have to get an encoding setup that has a chip to handle the process. One such as the Pinnicle Studio Moviebox, or the ADS USB Instant DVD 2.0, Adaptec VideOHDVD, or Plextors Convert X.

It would be my guess that an upgrade now would only save someone 30 minutes max on current DVD processes.

[whomacuddy]

Why thankyou I shall possibly look at water cooling some time soon as the PC sounds a bit like the hoover . Maybe get some better Memory as well that looks like it works out well for youself .