Wich processor is best for encode/decode ??

[LOBO_DK]

Well - since i am about to invest my money in a new motherboard - i was wondering if the Intel P4 or the New AMD is the best (fastest) for software mpg encode/decode ?

Anyone with an opinion ?

[pacmania_2001]

I would recommend a AMD XP. The P4 is meant to be faster at encoding then the XP. The XP is cheaper and is faster in most of the other things. Running dual CPU's is meant to be even faster when it comes to encoding so that could be an option if you have the money.

[Sefy]

This is just an opinion which is based on facts found anywhere on the net, the new Athlon XP cpu's run at the same speed of a P4 and on some Benchmarks even pass it, including Encoding!

But when you buy and want to compare prices, don't just compare CPU, compare the overhaul system which would be:

Motherboard+CPU+RAM

Because if you buy 512mb DDR it's only about 54$ and RDRAM for P4 is 219$, so you can see, it's a big diffrence!

[LOBO_DK]

Thx for info guys...
I hope i buy the right thing
(and it will be the AMD i think)

[Shabubu]

Please please please make a dual Athlon... that would be soooo much fun

[Sefy]

The only Dual CPU Athlon I know is the Tyan Thunder K7, and that thing costs over 200$ on it's own, I would personaly wait for the new nForce based boards, i've seen benchmarks of those and they practicly swipe the floor with VIA chipsets, and you get an onboard GeForce and AC3 decoder!

[K808]

Go with the AthlonXP, i have an Xp 1800+ and the Shuttle Ak31 rev 3.1 which is using thew newest via chipset, which is the KT266a. Im not biased towards AMD at all, right now i also have a P4 1.4ghz, P3 800, and a P3 500. The XP1800 (1.533ghz) works great, and its a lot cheaper then P4.

The Nforce chipset is good, but it wont totally dominate over the KT266a. Im not sure if you were just speaking about its benchmarks in general, or if you were just talking about its encoding performance. When looking at overall performance the Nforce and the KT266a come out about even, they both win their share of the tests. There's really no clear winner, they're both good chipsets, it just comes down to preference. Its onboard features are awesome, but if youre gonna add your own video card, and sound card then that doesnt matter much. If you were to compare a KT266a board to an Nforce board, both using a GF3 the difference in performance would be negligable.

Go with the AthlonXP, price to performance ratio is amazing. And the XP1800 equals the P4 2ghz in most benchmarks.

[Hiei]

a lots of people say AMD XP is better than Pentium 4. don't look at price look the Cpu overall. if you go to bed and leave your encode running and in the middle of the encoding your cpu fan smoke your amd xp and mobo are dead but if your Pentium 4 cpu fan smoke your cpu keep running and don't die like AMD CPU see the proof here.
Sorry for my English =)

http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/01q3/010917/heatvideo-05.html

[vitualis]

If you just have a fan failure, the Athlon will probably survive.

THG's test was on the issue of catastrophic failure (i.e., heatsink off rather than fan). This shouldn't happen on a PC that's just sitting there. The times it can happen is the first time you turn your PC on (i.e., heatsink wasn't on properly in the first place) or if the heatsink gets dislodged for some reason (e.g., if the PC has been moved).

Regards.

[Sefy]

1) I leave my PC online 24/7 and I only boot up when I need to install some application, but basicly my PC is never off, and i'm still using the same 1ghz Athlon and it hasn't fried on me.
2) I don't know who would be an idiot to remove the cooler from the CPU when the PC is still running, and if he is, well, it serves him right.
3) When I compare two systems, it's not just the CPU, if you notice, the price diffrence now is just 10$ more or less, but it's the rest of the system that makes the P4 hurribly expensive!