:::Huge difference in encoding time H.264 between processors?:::

Hey,

Are quad core processors best/fastest/most economical way for encoding blu-ray file format to H.264 files? How big of a difference is it?
Will buying a more expensive processor make a huge impact on encoding time in H.264?

Answer away

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Awesome! Great advise!! Thank you

Rob

Looks like Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Quad Core is the winner for my CPU selection, for $189 in newegg, cant beat power/price ratio, especially in video encoding...

Cheers

If you have a microcenter nearby, get an i5-750 or an i7-920 instead. They have amazing discounts on those CPUs with in-store purchase.

If you go with the i5/i7, I'd get either 4GB (for a socket 1156 CPU) or 6GB (for a socket 1366 CPU), in the form of either 2 or 3 2GB sticks. DDR3-1333 or DDR3-1600 would be a good choice - either can be had for fairly low prices now. Make sure the voltage is rated at 1.65V or lower though.

That depends on if your board has a memory multiplier option for DDR3-800 - if it does, 1333 will work fine up to around a 222 bclk (higher than you are likely to ever need). If not, 1600 is definitely a good thing to have.

True, but if you are willing to spend the extra $50 (assuming a nearby microcenter), the i5 750 is a better choice. At stock, it's faster, and when overclocked, it should be faster still.

More cores/threads are always good. Personally, I'd look at two chips:

1. The absolute best bang for the buck would be the Athlon II X4 620, as it is a decent but very low-priced quad-core CPU. All of the other quads are far more expensive than this guy, and you won't come close to the Athlon II's encoding times with any other $100 chip, as it would be a dual or triple-core and not a quad.

2. If you want a good amount of bang for the buck but want a bit more bang than the Athlon II X4 620 offers, look at the Core i7 920 or i7 860. Both are a little under $300 and will be considerably faster than the Athlon II because they have 8 threads versus the Athlon II's four, plus more clock speed. But they are almost three times as much and i7 motherboards (especially LGA1366 ones for the i7 920) are more expensive than Socket AM3 motherboards for the Athlon II.

If you are still wanting more speed, look at a pair of Xeon E5520s or Opteron 2427s as those give you 8 cores/16 threads or 12 cores/12 threads, respectively. I haven't seen rendering benches between the E5520 and Opteron 2427, but the six-core Opterons generally hold their own against the higher-clocked, HT-enabled Xeons in other applications. However, those are going to cost you a pretty penny as each E5520 costs $385 and each Opteron 2427 is $449.

Hey,
Thank you for great advice!! I will definitely use your guideline when purchasing a new processor!
There are so many flavors of CPUs, person needs to be on top of this. Any recommendation on memory?

Thanx again!!

Thank you!