Intel Processor ....

[Y2Kanjar]

Can anyone advice me on what processor I should get

Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 (2 x 3.3 GHZ) 1333FSB - 6 MB

or

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 (4 x 2.66 GHZ) 1333FSB - 6 MB

I'm going to use it for Films and Video Editing.

I heard that most software an't capable to use the Quad processor.....

My spec so far if you wanna know:

Computer Case ANTEC Nine Hundred Gamers Case - Black CPU Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 (2 x 3.3 GHZ) 1333FSB - 6 MB Motherboard ASUS P5Q 1600FSB (Intel P45) Memory Corsair XMS2 4GB PC-6400 800 MHZ (2 x 2 GB) - Lifetime Warranty (DDR2) Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS - 256 MB - VGA/DVI/HDMI (Palit) Power Supply OCZ 600W Stealth XStream - Low Noise Hard Drive 1 1 TB (1000 GB) SATA-II HDD UDMA 300 7200 32MB Optical Drive 1 Samsung (SH-D162D) 16x DVD-ROM Black (IDE) Sound Card Motherboard Integrated 5.1 Sound Networking Motherboard Integrated Ethernet Lan (Broadband Ready) USB Ports 4 X USB 2.0 Ports CPU Heatsink Cooler Master Hyper Z600 - Silent Backup Solution Standard Operating System Backup

any help in making a chose would be helpful :)

[DJ Wozza]

I would go with the quad core, as you can still multi task well when it is doing number crunching on another task.

Only my opinion though (am prepared for Geoffers to shoot me down )

[Y2Kanjar]

I was leaning on the Quad, but I need to find a list of what's compatible with quad processers

if i was game playing i would go for the Quad...but i don't

[Mark W]

Quad core is always going to be more future proof but you havent mentioned the prices for either - If its hugely more expensive then I'd debate whether was worth it....

[Y2Kanjar]

i'm getting form computerplanet

price is here

View Photo & Specification Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 (2 x 3.3 GHZ) 1333FSB - 6 MB item selected

View Photo & Specification Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 (4 x 2.66 GHZ) 1333FSB - 6 MB + £ 8.00

View Photo & Specification Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 (4 x 2.66 GHZ) 1333FSB - 12 MB + £ 55.00

View Photo & Specification Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 (4 x 2.83 GHZ) 1333FSB - 12 MB + £ 68.00

View Photo & Specification Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 (4 x 3.0 GHZ) 1333FSB - 12 MB + £ 206.00 would like this

Base unit cost at the mo is £654.48 FREE DELIVERY!

and i will be getting my 2.5% on vat back

[reganlives]

where are you getting the system from? have you thought about making it yourself? check out somewhere like www.microdirect.co.uk for components ;)

btw..i'd go for a quad core.

[Y2Kanjar]

I would like to, but i wont get the time.

i'm getting it from computerplanet

[Tigurce]

I would go with the quad core, as you can still multi task well when it is doing number crunching on another task.

Only my opinion though (am prepared for Geoffers to shoot me down )

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 (4 x 2.66 GHZ) 1333FSB - 6 MB

[Geoffers]

I'd go for quad core if cost isn't a great concern.

Although there still isn't a lot of software specifically written for it, it is the internal threading capability that makes the difference. Non specific software will cause an overhead but will still be faster than the duo. Graphics programs are the first to take advantage, surprisingly enough over the majority of games. Photoshop, 3D Studio Max and all the biggies have taken advantage.

[Geoffers]

I would go with the quad core, as you can still multi task well when it is doing number crunching on another task.

Only my opinion though (am prepared for Geoffers to shoot me down )

Nah mate - you are bob on.

[Y2Kanjar]

so the Duo is out, So i should go for :

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 (4 x 2.83 GHZ) 1333FSB - 12 MB + £ 68.00

rather than

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 (4 x 2.66 GHZ) 1333FSB - 6 MB + £ 8.00

if i'm going for a Quad it might as well be a good one.....and may be overlock it... :)

that would work out for a base unit 755.53

[Steviewevie]

Personally I would be leaning towards the fastest processor available, since as you say a lot of software can't make use of four cores, but if you've eliminated the Duo anyway ...

Don't forget the hard drive, if you're going to be doing video editing that's going to be hit very hard (and will probably stop you being able to do anything else productive whilst the editing is going on), so make sure you get as fast a hard drive as possible.

[DJ Wozza]

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 (4 x 2.83 GHZ) 1333FSB - 12 MB + £ 68.00

it'll be a flyer that one :winky:

[Geoffers]

so the Duo is out, So i should go for :

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 (4 x 2.83 GHZ) 1333FSB - 12 MB + £ 68.00

rather than

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 (4 x 2.66 GHZ) 1333FSB - 6 MB + £ 8.00

if i'm going for a Quad it might as well be a good one.....and may be overlock it... :)

that would work out for a base unit 755.53

At these speeds and software you aren't going to massive a difference, especially with the periphery components - you are at the point of diminishing return. Overclocking will just add increased risk for so little benefit.

As steviewevie is saying, better off now looking towards your drive and stuff. I'd say get a sas card and 2TB sas station (6G per sec) but guess you haven't a spare £4k hanging around...

[Anees]

As steviewevie is saying, better off now looking towards your drive and stuff. I'd say get a sas card and 2TB sas station (6G per sec) but guess you haven't a spare £4k hanging around...

In the unlikely event that you don't have a spare £4K for a Sas (Serial Attached SCSI), then I would recommended the WD Raptor Drives. They spin to 10K RPM (most standard SATA/SATAII drives are 7200RPM) and have a large cache and low seek times. I use two in RAID as my system drive for Windows Vista and its great. Saying that however, they are expensive, so if you can afford it, I'd buy one (or two and RAID 0) and just use it for Windows and then get the largest reasonably fast hard drive you can get for storing your video files once you have finished working on them.

EDIT: Looks like the drives I have have been replaced by the new WD VelociRaptor:

http://www.wdvelociraptor.com/

Best thing is they look cool.............

[Y2Kanjar]

As steviewevie is saying, better off now looking towards your drive and stuff. I'd say get a sas card and 2TB sas station (6G per sec) but guess you haven't a spare £4k hanging around...

My Lexus might cover it lol

so i should stick to the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 (4 x 2.66 GHZ) 1333FSB - 6 MB + £ 8.00 and not the upgrade

i don't think i would overclock.

[Y2Kanjar]

i've looked at the HDD you say and i think i might have to give it a miss.

i'm trying to keep to my buget of £500 (as you can tell i'm doing a good job of it)

for got to say i will be running xp and NOT Vista

[reganlives]

As anees said, the wd velociraptor drives are stupid fast and I think thats the best option. If you can also have a RAID array. A raid 0 striping array will make 2 drives act like one massive drive and data transfer rates will also be boosted but if data integrity is of concern then a raid 1 mirroring array or even a raid 0/1 striping with mirroring would be useful.

[Y2Kanjar]

As anees said, the wd velociraptor drives are stupid fast and I think thats the best option. If you can also have a RAID array. A raid 0 striping array will make 2 drives act like one massive drive and data transfer rates will also be boosted but if data integrity is of concern then a raid 1 mirroring array or even a raid 0/1 striping with mirroring would be useful.

Please explain in dummy terms as i do have the option for a RAID set up for £5, i'm not sure what is does and how it works

can i do this on the normal 1TB or does it have to be the stuip fast drives lol

[Anees]

As steviewevie is saying, better off now looking towards your drive and stuff. I'd say get a sas card and 2TB sas station (6G per sec) but guess you haven't a spare £4k hanging around...

My Lexus might cover it lol

so i should stick to the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 (4 x 2.66 GHZ) 1333FSB - 6 MB + £ 8.00 and not the upgrade

i don't think i would overclock.

If its an extra £68 on top then I suppose it depends how tight your budget is. The larger cache is handy, but I don't really think their will be much in it in real world use.

:off-topic: What video editing software do you intended to use then? Any that can take advantage of a quad-core?

[Y2Kanjar]

:off-topic: What video editing software do you intended to use then? Any that can take advantage of a quad-core?

i'm not sure off the top of my head, Sony vages, VSO convert dvd, WinAvi, and a few others. and also al types of media players

SO hows this then

Computer Case ANTEC Nine Hundred Gamers Case - Black

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 (4 x 2.66 GHZ) 1333FSB - 6 MB

Motherboard ASUS P5Q 1600FSB (Intel P45)

Memory Corsair XMS2 4GB PC-6400 800 MHZ (2 x 2 GB) - Lifetime Warranty (DDR2)

Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS - 256 MB - VGA/DVI/HDMI (Palit)

Power Supply OCZ 600W Stealth XStream - Low Noise

Hard Drive 1 1 TB (1000 GB) SATA-II HDD UDMA 300 7200 32MB

Optical Drive 1 Samsung (SH-D162D) 16x DVD-ROM Black (IDE)

Sound Card Motherboard Integrated 5.1 Sound

Networking Motherboard Integrated Ethernet Lan (Broadband Ready)

USB Ports 4 X USB 2.0 Ports

CPU Heatsink Cooler Master Hyper Z600 - Silent

Backup Solution Standard Operating System Backup

£663.88

[reganlives]

As anees said, the wd velociraptor drives are stupid fast and I think thats the best option. If you can also have a RAID array. A raid 0 striping array will make 2 drives act like one massive drive and data transfer rates will also be boosted but if data integrity is of concern then a raid 1 mirroring array or even a raid 0/1 striping with mirroring would be useful.

Please explain in dummy terms as i do have the option for a RAID set up for £5, i'm not sure what is does and how it works

can i do this on the normal 1TB or does it have to be the stuip fast drives lol

Now you've set me a task lol...well if you were to have a RAID 0 array then this is 2 drives which act as one drive. Both drives need to be of the same make/model/capacity as far as I remember as well. With both drives acting in sync with one another with their read/writes at the same time the performance is therefore increased. The negative point of having a RAID 0 array though is that if one drive were to fail then all data would be lost as they act as one drive. On the other hand, if you have a RAID 1 array which is known as mirroring, you have 2 drives but effectively you only have use of one as the second drive is used as a backup system. When data is written to one drive, the same data is written to the "mirror" drive therefore continually backing up the system. I've not used a mirror array before so am not sure how this would affect system performance. A RAID 0 array needs 2 drives btw. Also, theres RAID 0/1 this is a combination of both striping where 2 drives act as one big one and mirroring where data is continually backed up. In the case of RAID 0/1 you will need 4 drives IIRC as 2 will perform the striping and 2 the mirroring.

Its been a while since I done theory on RAID so if I've made any mistakes and anyone wants to add anything then feel free.

Hope you understand it better though mate.

[Y2Kanjar]

so mirror option is get 2 drives the same and it will use the 2nd one as a back up...

sweet

don't like the 1st raid op

[Anees]

Have a look here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_arr...dependent_disks

Unfortunetly your Motherboard (basic P5Q which is a good choice!) doesn't support RAID.

I also have Sony Vegas and it doesn't support my Quad Core :(

PS Good effort at explaining Reganlives, I'm just lazy and went for the Wiki option :)

[reganlives]

yup, thats mirroring or in other words RAID 1. you dont need stupid fast drives but just make sure they're decent drives I'd say. I've not built a pc for a while as have got a laptop that I use for my uni work but my pc at home is well...getting old and still performs bloody well. I've had mates with much better machines look at mine and wonder what I've done with it. Its only a P4 1.8Ghz machine as well lol. 2x 120GB Western Digital JB drives in a RAID 0 array as well ;)

Oh yeh, as for the raid array that they want extra money for, this is a bit interesting...they want money just to configure the onboard raid controller i'm guessing...this can be done very easily yourself.