Building new system -- which CPU?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Joe Befumo
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J

Joe Befumo

I'm about to put together a new workstation, and would appreciate advice as
to the most suitable CPU. My primary use is for sometimes hungery apps,
such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Cakewalk Sonar -- I rarely use it
for any kind of gaming.

My first and foremost concern is stability. The machine will be on 24X7,
and I don't want anything that's going to be sensitivity to ambient heat or
that's in any way finicky.

My second requirement would be compatibility, but I suspect that anything
capable of running Windows will probably be compatible with major Windows
apps.

Finally, performance. I regularly have a bunch of apps running at the same
time. (I'll probably fit it with either 2Gig or 4 Gig of RAM & the fastest
drive(s) I can find).

I'm hoping to keep the price under $1k, so I'm targeting around $300 or less
for the CPU.

The two that seem to fall into that price range are: the

Intel Pentium 4 3.6 GHz CPU P4 660 HT EM64T , and the



AMD Athlon 64 3700+ /

Any comments, observations, or tips would be greatly appreciated. I haven't
really kept up with the hardware, and don't want to make a mistake.

Thanks,

Joe
 
Any comments, observations, or tips would be greatly appreciated. I haven't
really kept up with the hardware, and don't want to make a mistake.
Click to expand...

You know running Photoshop and multiple apps etc the new dual X2
sounds like its perfect for you. Im going for one probably in Dec or
Jan when prices fall a bit more I hope.

The Pent D or X2 AMD 3800 are the cheapest dual cores.
The Pent D is lower than 300 for the chip supposedly but I havent
really priced the motherboard and mem to see if it comes out much
closer than just the CPU price difference. You can use the AMD X2 on
most nforce4 boards which have gotten pretty cheap. My Chaintech VNF4
ultra is on the list of compatible boards and its been as low as $78.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1843629,00.asp
http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q3/athlon64-x2-3800/index.x?pg=15
http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/200508011/athlon_64_x2_3800-13.html
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2484&p=13

If you shop wisely you can get some big rebate deals on harddisks,
memory and cheap prices on MBs so you might be able to squeeze in
the AMD X2 3800.
 
Joe said:
I'm about to put together a new workstation, and would appreciate
advice as to the most suitable CPU. My primary use is for sometimes
hungery apps, such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Cakewalk Sonar
-- I rarely use it for any kind of gaming.

My first and foremost concern is stability. The machine will be on
24X7, and I don't want anything that's going to be sensitivity to
ambient heat or that's in any way finicky.

My second requirement would be compatibility, but I suspect that
anything capable of running Windows will probably be compatible with
major Windows apps.

Finally, performance. I regularly have a bunch of apps running at
the same time. (I'll probably fit it with either 2Gig or 4 Gig of RAM
& the fastest drive(s) I can find).

I'm hoping to keep the price under $1k, so I'm targeting around $300
or less for the CPU.

The two that seem to fall into that price range are: the

Intel Pentium 4 3.6 GHz CPU P4 660 HT EM64T , and the



AMD Athlon 64 3700+ /

Any comments, observations, or tips would be greatly appreciated. I
haven't really kept up with the hardware, and don't want to make a
mistake.
Thanks,

Joe
Click to expand...

There is only one machine that fullfils your requirements - I'll give you a
clue, it doesn't run Windoze...
 
Miss Perspicacia Tick said:
There is only one machine that fullfils your requirements - I'll give you
a clue, it doesn't run Windoze...
Click to expand...

Then it also won't properly run the vast majority of software
out there.

Luck;
Ken
 
I'm about to put together a new workstation, and would appreciate advice as
to the most suitable CPU. My primary use is for sometimes hungery apps,
such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Cakewalk Sonar -- I rarely use it
for any kind of gaming.

My first and foremost concern is stability. The machine will be on 24X7,
and I don't want anything that's going to be sensitivity to ambient heat or
that's in any way finicky.

My second requirement would be compatibility, but I suspect that anything
capable of running Windows will probably be compatible with major Windows
apps.

Finally, performance. I regularly have a bunch of apps running at the same
time. (I'll probably fit it with either 2Gig or 4 Gig of RAM & the fastest
drive(s) I can find).

I'm hoping to keep the price under $1k, so I'm targeting around $300 or less
for the CPU.

The two that seem to fall into that price range are: the

Intel Pentium 4 3.6 GHz CPU P4 660 HT EM64T , and the



AMD Athlon 64 3700+ /

Any comments, observations, or tips would be greatly appreciated. I haven't
really kept up with the hardware, and don't want to make a mistake.

Thanks,

Joe
Click to expand...

Your price target is low for what you want to do. I'm pretty sure
Photoshop is multithreaded so you want a dual core CPU, specifically the
Athlon 64 X2 4400+. The 4400+ cost $540 but it's worth it, it really will
be 2X faster then anything else you can buy (with the exception of the
4800+ but that's twice as expensive and only 10% faster). I have a 4G
4400+ that I got from MonarchComputer for $1800, it's solid as a rock and
with both cores running at 100% (doing Verilog simulations and FPGA place
and routes) the CPU temperature is only 44C (I have a Thermaltake A1838
CPU cooler on it and the case is a Thermaltake VB1000BWS Soprano which has
a side fan). You can save $500 by getting 2G of RAM instead of 4G and
going with an Athlon X2 3800+, of course you have to pay for Windoze (I
use Linux so there was no OS in the price of my system).
 
There is only one machine that fullfils your requirements - I'll give you a
clue, it doesn't run Windoze...
Click to expand...

The Amiga is still around?

Apecial effects for the TV series Babylon 5 were rendered on Amigas.



--

Greatest Movie Line Ever
http://home.houston.rr.com/rkba/MovieLine.wmv

"What is history but the story of how politicians have
squandered the blood and treasure of the human race?"
--Thomas Sowell
 
;^)

I've messed with Linux over the years, but never kept it for long. Aboutsix
months ago, I installed RedHat 9 (I know, it's not the best release), and am
now running several of my websites on it. It's an old Pentium 450, and it
hasn't missed a beat. On the other hand, other than having got Samba working
on it, I haven't really done anything technical. My main problem with Linux
is that not only would I have to learn the new OS (not that big a deal), but
I'd have to replace and relearn several high-end apps, and realistically
speaking, that's probably not going to happen. Thanks for the suggestion,
thoug.

Joe
 
Thanks to all for some great advice. I've pretty much decided on the AMD
route.Since I'll be retiring my existing system (probably will insall Linux
on it), I can use my existing copy of XP pro. A lot's going to depend on
how much I get for my 1987 AMC Eagle ;^)

Joe
 
Thanks to all for some great advice. I've pretty much decided on the AMD
route.Since I'll be retiring my existing system (probably will insall Linux
on it), I can use my existing copy of XP pro. A lot's going to depend on
how much I get for my 1987 AMC Eagle ;^)
Click to expand...

One last comment. Don't overlook the Celeron D. It is a Prescott chip
and it compares quite favorably with my son's P4 3.2 GHz Prescott.

For example, one of the more CPU intensive tasks we do is compress
DVDs using DVD Shrink. It takes over the CPU at 95%-99%. My Celeron D
takes about the same amount of time as his P4 to compress a Double
Layer DVD without authoring for a video DVD.

Keep in mind that AMD fudges their descriptions - a so-called "2800"
is not 2.8 GHz. Anyway, as the experts will tell you, designated CPU
speeds are not reliable for deciding on which one to buy.

The primary advantage of the Celeron D is price. I got mine for under
$75. My son paid several hundred. Maybe the P4 is better for certain
tasks like 3D games, but for my purposes the Celeron D works well in a
SOHO Internet box.

FWIW.


--

Greatest Movie Line Ever
http://home.houston.rr.com/rkba/MovieLine.wmv

"What is history but the story of how politicians have
squandered the blood and treasure of the human race?"
--Thomas Sowell
 
Bob said:
The Amiga is still around?

Apecial effects for the TV series Babylon 5 were rendered on Amigas.
Click to expand...
So were those in Terminator 2 and a host of others.
Jurassic Park creatures were designed (but not
rendered) on 25MHz Amigas.

My A1200 is still taking up space on my desk, though
I seldom use it nowadays. I just don't have the heart
to put it away. I sometimes take out the HDD and run
it on my PC via the UAE Amiga emulator.
 
Thanks to all for some great advice. I've pretty much decided on the AMD
route.Since I'll be retiring my existing system (probably will insall Linux
on it), I can use my existing copy of XP pro. A lot's going to depend on
how much I get for my 1987 AMC Eagle ;^)

Joe
Click to expand...

Someone mentioned eWiz with a $360 or so price for the dual core X2
3800 AMD their cheapest dual core.

However I noticed Monarch Computers one of the popular places to buy
online has it for 359

http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merc...ore_Code=M&Product_Code=120244&AFFIL=FRG&NR=1
This place has it for 359
http://www.xpcgear.com/ada3800bvbox.html

And ZipZoomFly another popular place has it for 358 with free shipping
so they beat everybody by a hair at least tonight.
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80721-1&affiliate=yahoo

Newegg has it for 370 or so plus shipping.

The problem is Newegg and ZZF use these pricing systems that change
very quickly to some kind of supply and demand algorithm I think so it
jumps up and down sometimes the next day radically. You might see
Newegg respond to ZZFs price if people start ordering there by
radically dumping down less than 350 or you might see ZZFs price jump
up if they suddenly get a rush of orders,
 
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