Athlon or Intel - help please !! :-)

[griggar]

I'm looking to replace my existing machine to allow me to carry out video rendering work. I currently have an athlon xp2100+ which has served me well although its pretty slow when it comes to any video manipulation (have 1GB memory and 7200 120Gb 8mb cache hard drive) - however I am completely bewildered by the large number of mobo/processor combinations possible - any chance some of you guys can recommend a stable mobo and processor combi that would suffice for what I'm planning to do - it doesn't have to be top end spec tho - thanks

 

[Ned_Flanders]

N-Force 1 Chipset
Athlon (non-xp) 550


Not the Official Sicko of THG.

 

[etp777]

Video rendering system?

Pentium 4 Northwood, 800MHz FSB, P4 2.8(or faster as budget allows)
Intel i865PE based motherboard. The Asus P4P800 Deluxe is my choice, but has been discontinued. ANy of the major manufacturers will do you well though.

You will want a pair of PC3200 ram, if you don't have it already(for dual channel operation). Don't spend the money on an i875 chipset board, only real advantage is PAT(allows a faster, more aggressive memory path), but this has been enabled on i865 boards from most manufacturers too.

 

[jammydodger]

I agree with etp777, the P4 northwood C will prob be best for video rendering. Dont spend too much on the CPU, instead focus on lots of RAM and possibly a RAID array.

<font color=blue>P4c 2.6@3.25
512Mb PC4000
2x120Gb 7200.7 in RAID0
Waterchill KT12-L30
Abit AI7
Radeon 9800Pro
</font color=blue>

 

[HardWareBoss]

Ditto on the P4. Mobo Abir IS7. At least PC3500.