Sony Vegas software - AMD or Intel ?

[sdsumike619]

Looking to purchase a new system after having to encode 2 hours of video that took about 16 hours on my AMD 1.53GHz machine... Should I go Intel or AMD?

[canadateck]

AMD...Thats just me.

[sdsumike619]

Alright, one vote for AMD...I know AMD is less expensive, so that's a plus if it's better for encoding!

[edDV]

Vegas should do OK on either. AMD has had higher raw CPU power for the money up untill recently. P4 with hyperthreading gives ~10-20% boost to Mainconcept encoding but you need a HT version.

http://www.mainconcept.com/site/fileadmin/download_docs-&-pics/capabilities/adobe-solu...Mainconcept%22

I'm not sure how P4 dual core and core 2 changes the raw CPU power economics.

Premiere Pro is heavily tied to SSE2. Some AMD chips support SSE2 but not all.

[oldandinthe way]

Intel Core2

[sdsumike619]

what does core2 mean?

[ViRaL1]

Intel Core 2 Duo, their latest processor.

http://www.intel.com/products/processor/core2duo/index.htm

[sdsumike619]

how much are they?

[Bodyslide]

This one is 233.00, just the proc.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115004

[ViRaL1]

Starting at about $190

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?N=2010340343+1050722265&Submit=ENE&SubCa...core+2&Ntk=all

[edDV]

It's a good time to let it shake out a bit unless $$ aren't a concern. Intel is the new top dog with core 2, but their intro prices are somewhat high. Video software reviews aren't fully in. AMD will respond and Intel will respond to AMD. It may result in a price war or not.

I need to buy 3 machines but fortunately I'm not in a hurry.

Core 4 or quad core will be introduced within 6 months they say.

[sdsumike619]

All I really would want to achieve is real time encoding instead of 8X realtime encoding lol

[edDV]

All I really would want to achieve is real time encoding instead of 8X realtime encoding lol

Depends what you are encoding. The future is MPeg4 (H.264, VC-1 and other).

Yesterday Intel announced they will lay off 10,500 employees. They are getting serious and it looks like war.

[sdsumike619]

I encode MPEG2 for DVD, as well as some other stuff... but the 2 hour long stuff is always MPEG2 since that is the spec for DVD..

[edDV]

Just saying the price trend is down and may go way down.

[sdsumike619]

Yeah I saw that about the layoffs... What about this whole thing about Intel chips running really hot? Is that something to worry about? Are AMD chips better in this regard?

[edDV]

Yeah I saw that about the layoffs... What about this whole thing about Intel chips running really hot? Is that something to worry about? Are AMD chips better in this regard?

Core 2 are way down in power consumption. That isn't the issue in my mind. They went multi-core to avoid the heat issue.

The issues as I see it are:

- best motherboard + memory solution now
- price of the CPU + motherboard + RAM

That is for the first machine. Then I wonder if I should wait for 4 core for the next two machines.

[sdsumike619]

I see, well I was referring to the videoguys.com DIY challenge here:

http://www.videoguys.com/DIY1.html

So I'm guessing if I go with a motherboard they used, it should turn out alright...

[edDV]

The ASUS P5LD2 is a good solution if you need to move now.

[ViRaL1]

Older tech. You can do better now with the same budget. I'm sure everyone will have suggestions on specs.

[sdsumike619]

well that was february of this year.... have they (ASUS) released that many new motherboards since then ?

[ViRaL1]

From June...

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/06/12/your_diy_gaming_rig_for_720/

You might want to tweak some things for encoding.

...and that's with liquid cooling.

[sdsumike619]

something doesn't sit well with me with the idea of all that water next to all those expensive parts.........

[ViRaL1]

I'm sure you could skip that and go with air cooling and a lower clock speed and still get great performance.

[sdsumike619]

how do you even change the clock speed of the chip; i didn't know u could do that..

[ViRaL1]

There are a number of ways. Nowadays it's usually done through a Windows utillity provided by the manufacturer or set in the BIOS. Most decent BIOSes include an option to bump up the FSB (front side bus) for more performance. Granted it's not officially supported by either the mobo or CPU mfr, but as long as you're careful and make sure you have adequate cooling you can get performance comparable to a higher end system without paying for one.

[sdsumike619]

right on....same with AMD?

[edDV]

These are interesting times (in the Chinese sense of the words).

The immediate core 2 solutions represent a dramatic step but may seem a short term optimization when viewed a year from now. Motherboards are catching up. The Asus selection depends on your needs.
http://usa.asus.com/index.aspx

[sdsumike619]

according to what I'm reading these core 2 duo CPUs don't have Hyperthreading... I was told that Vegas takes advantage of the HT technology...