My hobbies of graphic design and video editing have become more of a part time job for me and I need a little more power. I plan on building a workstation, but what processor/s/ should I go with? At first I was thinking of using dual AMD opterons(200 series), but will this be the best value for the money? These are the programs I use: adobe premiere/after affects, photoshop, 3dsmax, combustion, flash, cubase, propellerheads reason, and some others. I usually have at least 3 of these programs open at the same time also, as well as winamp. Also, would I be better off putting my money in more memory or a faster processor? As graphics cards go, do they also play a big part in running these programs, or do they matter more for gaming? Srry for all the questions, its been a long time since I've researched hardware
Also I've been reading a couple threads and am now under the impression that opterons need registered memory. Is this true of the new opterons?
All Opterons require registered memory. The other Athlon64 chips don't. Not too sure about whether or not Opterons would be best for you, as I'd have to reasearch all of the other hardware needed for it. It does sound like you're definitely in need of a dual-core or dual-CPU setup. Might want to look into the new Athlon64 X2s. Memory vs. Processor is another tricky question. You have some memory-hungry apps, and some processor-intensive apps (and some that are both). I'm leaning towards processor simply because it's easier to add in more memory later. Video cards I can answer. Most of what you're doing doesn't really hit upon the power of modern gamer graphics cards. Unless you're very heavily into 3DSMax, you can skimp on the video card quite a bit. A discrete graphics card with a DirectX 9 capable chip would probably suffice. Even if you were heavy into 3D modeling and not going to game, skipping the consumer cards and going straight for a low-end workstation card like the ATI FireGL or nVidia Quadro would be much better for you.
The fact that you run more than 2 threads points to 1 of 3 options. Firstly the AMD route - getting Dual cored Opeterons. Will give a total of 4 cpus, so should allow you to run the 3 apps at the same time happily enough (if windows is actually willing to balance the load properly) Second route is Pentium D XE with HTT. Again will give you 4 threads, but over only 1 cpu. Another option is to use "normal" dual cored cpu's each with 2 physical processors. Might notice a little slowdown when using 2+ apps at the same time, however it'll be faster than a single cored chip, and cheaper than the opteron or Pentium D XE route. Look to the Pentium D 8xx range, or the AMD X2's. Yes the opterons all need registered memory iirc. Its a feature of the 940 chips/boards. Memory wise, 2gb is pretty much a must I'd suggest, more if you can. 2*1gb sticks will give you the option to add another 2gb+ later if required (unless you choose the opteron, in which case you can add even more) GFX wise, firegl/quadro would probably suit you fine.
In my personal experience, the Pentium D XE is a monster. However, buy the motherboard from Intel or you will have many headaches in your future, specifically having to do with correctly recognizing your processor. I had it running 64-bit Windows Vista and it ran like no tomorrow in the applications you mentioned.
Would anyone recommend dual xeons over opterons(not dual core, 2 physical processors)? Also, would you guys happen to know if it would be better to go with xp pro 64bit or 32bit. I hear there are some driver issues with 64bit. Thanks for all your help.
32-bit would be best for 32-bit apps atm, simply because the 64-bit XP has driver issues atm, that's when you can actually find the drivers...
Yes, XP-64 is craptastic. I couldn't even get SLI running with the latest (at the time) drivers for it. Driver support is utterly horrible. Don't bother unless you would REALLY benefit from 64bit, which I doubt. As was noted, wait for Vista/longhorn I'd consider something like what coolmeister did in his Dualmaster - dual dual-core opterons. If that's a bit too pricy (as you'd need a supporting mobo, registered ram and probably a good chunk of it, etc), a single Athlon X2, maybe 4800+, would do quite well. With the PEE (hehe, but that IS the abbreviation for the Pentium Extreme Edition), you have two cores, each with hyperthreading. However, H/T doesn't actually give you twice the proc to work with, as you only have one ALU and FPU (or something like that) to work with (per core, of course). So assuming one app is ALU-intensive and the other FPU-intensive, you'll do well with it, otherwise it's not worth it. A64 pwns it. I wouldn't bother with dual xeons, the opterons will kick it in benches and I think will end up less expensive too.
