Opteron 270 vs. Xeon 3.4ghz Irwindale / Which is better?

Which is better?

AMD Opteron 270 Dual Core 2.0ghz with/
Tyan Thunder K8WE motherboard = $1,395

or------

Intel Xeon 3.4ghz Irwindale with/
Supermicro X6DAE-G2 motherboard = $1,371


Strickly for video editing. 2GB of ram in each. Both will have dual Processors on the motherboard -prices reflect this. So far I have read the Sep 2004 Toms Harware guide article on Opteron vs. Xeon :
http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/09/27/amd/
It sugests the Opteron 250 over the Xeon Nocona (at that time) Opteron was better. Is this still true of these newer Xeon Irwindale vs. Opteron 270 processors? Thanks!

That Opteron 64 system will crush the Xeon in performance. I have used both Opteron 64's and Xeon's, the Opteron 64's beat Xeon's in everything, Price/Performance wise. If you're getting the K8WE, put 2 512MB sticks in each 4x DIMM's per CPU, that will be the best performance.

~~Mad Mod Mike, pimpin' the world 1 rig at a time

The Opteron will perform much better!

HOWEVER Tyan makes the Jaguar of motherboards meaning that they are top performing but their reliability leaves much to be desired.
Supermicro makes an equivalent Opteron in their Aplus line.

Then again....

I wish I could test the Opteron 270 with the Tyan Thunder K8WE and my matrox video card and see if it works, and if it dosnt send it back, but as i can guess; you cant return a Processor once youve opend it and stuck it on... - Right?

( Theres got to be a better way! )

Well I already orderd the Xeons and Motherboard with Ram and video card...

I guess I could call them tommrow and see what they say?

Is it too late to cancel your order?

Or at least exchange it for the Opterons?

They will perform so much better.

There should not be any compatibility problems unless they are artificially created.

Mad Mod Mike,
is this true of the dual Xeon system as well: that it will perform better with 4 sticks of 512mb rather than 2x 1GB? -or does it not matter.

No, that is only true for Opterons.

Each time you add an Opteron CPU you increase your memory bandwidth.

With 2 CPUs and 4 sticks your memory bandwidth is 2x

With 4 CPUs and 8 sticks your memory bandwidth is 4x

With 8 CPUs and 16 sticks your memory bandwidth is 8x

Athlons are better than P4's
X2's are better than P4's/EE
FX is better than EE
Opteron is > all

the proper term is "scale" but yeah, when you add another cpu to an intel system the bandwidth goes down for each cpu 1/2 then 1/4 LOL

the proper term is "scale" but yeah, when you add another cpu to an intel system the bandwidth goes down for each cpu 1/2 then 1/4 LOL

The proper term is "Google.com Intel Fanboy".

~~Mad Mod Mike, pimpin' the world 1 rig at a time

Alright, due to everyones advice here -I have decided to return the Intel Xeons rig to Newegg and go with the Opteron System. Im tired of trying to build a system around the 4 year old matrox RTX100. That card is way too picky and I need something that is going to last another 3 years plus. So I will just throw in the towel on the matrox RTX100 and get a new RT editing card. So...Heres what Im getting. Any advice or recomendations other than this please let me know.
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MB = TYAN K8WE S2895A2NRF Dual Socket 940 NVIDIA nForce4 Professional SSI EEB v3.5 Server Motherboard - $409
CPU = (2x) AMD Dual-Core Opteron 270 Italy HT 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket 940 Processor $495x2 = $990
RAM = (4x) CORSAIR 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM ECC Registered DDR400 (PC 3200) System Memory - $69.00x4 = $276.00
System HD = Maxtor EIDE133 250gb Hard drive - I already own.
Video HD = (2x) Maxtor S-ATA-II 250gb in RAID 0. = $96.00
PSU = Antec TP2-550 EPS12V 550w power supply. = $99.99
GPU = PNY Quadro FX540 proffesional video edition 128mb DDR PCI EXpress 16x Video card = $229.
Case = Thermaltake XASER, Armor Series VA8000BWS Black Full Tower = $149.99