New computer for video/audio editing & encoding.

[kabanero]

Hello everyone,

I am going to upgrade my computer to improve audio/video editing and encoding with Vegas 5.
I will be buying new motherboard, CPU, and memory.
I have some questions for all you gurus.

1. What CPU is better for audio/video editing and encoding: AMD or P4?
2. If it is P4, then which one: Prescott or not?
3. What memory is better: 333, 400, 533, or 800fsb?
4. How much memory is enough?
5. Does chipset matter for editing and encoding?

Thanks in advance for all your suggestions.

[Capmaster]

P4 has longer processor pipelines than AMD CPUs ...slightly better for video work. Not quite as good for gaming and other branchy apps.

The Prescott is nicknamed the "Preshot" because it runs hot. If you buy one, make sure you have plenty of cooling (CPU fan/heatsink, PS fan and case fan). But I have a Prescott and it doesn't disappoint performance-wise. I have one with a 1MB L2 cache and I highly recommend that over a 512KB cache

And I think this belongs in the Computer forum ...

[lenti_75]

don't matter, but stay above 2 Ghz speed.
I preffer AMD because it is cheaper. I had intel before....the same.

at leadt 512Mb memory, at 400Mhz or higher

look for motherboards that support dual channel memory, this improves your speed.

if you mean by chipset, the motherboard chip, then that matter. go to www.motherboards.org they have rankings on mainboards, what is best and what you get.

that's it

[kabanero]

Thanks Capmaster,

I was not sure where to post it, and also missed computer forum.

I don't play games so that's ok.

What do you mean by "branchy apps"?

thanks.

[Capmaster]

Thanks Capmaster,

I was not sure where to post it, and also missed computer forum.

I don't play games so that's ok.

What do you mean by "branchy apps"?

thanks.

Business apps and games are branchy because they require constant user input and change points in the program code frequently. Video work is more predictable crunching ...repeating something over and over again.

The CPU will perform instructions in advance and hold the results for when needed. It gambles that certain ones will need to be performed.

Having a long pipeline means the CPU can perform many in advance, but the penalty is higher because if the program calls for a branch, the CPU needs to back those results out and start over. The longer the pipeline, the more clock cycles it takes to correct itself. So a longer pipeline is more of an advantage in a program that has a predictable path ...like video encoding. The CPU with a long pipeline can provide more of an advantage predicting and executing ahead of time because the program rarely branches away unexpectedly

[rallynavvie]

cap: That's an interesting way of putting it. The other way of looking at it is like the P4 instruction sets are the strongarm and the chipsets and resources are the rubber hose whipping the Athlon platforms. However when we finally have native support for 64-bit processors the tables will very likely turn.

Most important deciding factor when deciding to build a new computer is how much you're willing to spend on one. If you want to spend more than $2k...

My apologies to the AMD folks, I had to lay down here after seeing all these people building A64 systems. Your time has not yet come in the world of multimedia and DCC