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I'm going to purchase a new computer which I want mainly for audio recoording and possibly video editing. I would appreciate any suggestions of whether to get a system with an AMD or Pentium processor. I'm considering going with PCI Express and would like to know if this is the route to go. I'm also considering maybe getting a Power Mac G5. Thank You

Comments

Massive Mastering Wed, 10/06/2004 - 21:32

I would HIGHLY suggest contacting the tech guys at the company that supplies your "main" software and find out what they suggest.

Some programs just like Intel better. Some seem to work better with AMD's. I use both here.

I'm having a new DAW built currently that's a P4 - Samplitude tech suggested that to me while I was about to purchase an AMD64.

If the Samplitude guys say it, dammit, that's where I'm going.

Big_D Thu, 10/07/2004 - 15:59

The P4's benchmark better on audio and video and the Athlon's benchmark better on gameing. Does it make a big difference, no at least not from your perspective. You would never notice the difference. The P4 might compile a 60 minute video a split second faster than the AMD or the AMD might run 1 or 2 fps faster on a game. The more important thing to consider is to keep everything in the system in balance. In other words if your buying a P4 3.2 don't go cheap and buy high latency RAM and a 5400 rpm HDD or you will never realize the processor's true power. If your spending the money on a high end processor buy matched pairs of low latency RAM (Corsair's twin X is good choice) and at least 1 - 7200 rpm SATA HDD w/ 8mb cache. Some might suggest WD Raptor 10,000 rpm drives but the drives are small, expensive and the performance gains are minimal so I'd stick with 7200rpm unless money is no object. If you can you should buy 2 HDD's a smaller 40 to 80 GB for programs and a large 200 to 300 GB for storing music and video files. Since you said you intend to do video also, I would get the biggest SATA drive you can afford as video eats up HDD space quickly. I would also suggest Mobo's from ASUS and ABIT with the 875 chipset if you go with the P4. For most DAW's PCI Express is a waste but if you intend to do video it might not be a bad idea. Hope this helps.

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