tough question, not sure which way to go...

kodiak_kid

New Member
I hope this is the right section to post this in, anyway, I have the following setup:

Intel 955X chipset
P-4 @ 3.6Ghz (prescott 660)
2 gigs RAM
ATI Radeon X850X PE
10K RPM WD HDD


The question....I do a lot of gaming as well as a lot of video editing, etc...which would I benefit from the most?

1) Inted Pentium D @ 3.6 (960)
2) ATI X1900 series video card?
3) Nvidea 7900 series video card?

I have asked a buncha people with all different opinions. My brother just got a Pentium D @ 3ghz up from a P-4 2.8 and he swears that its the way to go...But the guys at Best Buy (yes, I actually asked the geek squad), told me a better video card would be the better option. As far as how much $$$ I am putting into this...I figured $500 or less should last me a year or two :D

Opions????

KK
 
Well, the question, really, is this: Do you value more - Gaming or Video Editing?

Gaming - Get the X1900 Series.

Video Editing - Get the CPU.

:)
 
Is the X850X PE that bad of a card though? and would the CPU upgrade not help at all? based on my stats....I normally have 52 or so processes running and 530-540 threads running all the time. I am pretty dumb when it comes to CPU's, but when it comes to networking...well, that what I do for a living ;)
 
No thats really not that bad of a card, if you can play on the settings you like, then stick with the card. The dual core cpu will not help you with gaming, since there just aren't enough games that support dual core, well it could a little bit, by allowing more backround processes run on the second core. But for video editing the cpu is the way to go. Its also a cheaper upgrade, so I would just upgrade your cpu now, and wait until you will get a bigger performance boost from a $300 gpu upgrade.
 
No thats really not that bad of a card, if you can play on the settings you like, then stick with the card. The dual core cpu will not help you with gaming, since there just aren't enough games that support dual core, well it could a little bit, by allowing more backround processes run on the second core. But for video editing the cpu is the way to go. Its also a cheaper upgrade, so I would just upgrade your cpu now, and wait until you will get a bigger performance boost from a $300 gpu upgrade.

Ok, that is pretty much along the lines of my thinking....

also, since I can't find it anywhere...is it true that the Pentium D 3.6 is really just two 1.8Ghz processors? I heard that from the guy at bestbuy...but I am not really buying it (no pun intended :D )
 
for the $500 dollars a new mobo and a C2D processer would be better than the PD. E6300 and a Gigabyte mobo.
 
Ok, that is pretty much along the lines of my thinking....

also, since I can't find it anywhere...is it true that the Pentium D 3.6 is really just two 1.8Ghz processors? I heard that from the guy at bestbuy...but I am not really buying it (no pun intended :D )
Ahhem... No :P

It's two cores running at 3.6 Ghz, but it doesn't double the speed.

Unless your into gaming at max settings, upgrade your processor. I'm sure you cn fit in a core 2 duo and compatible mobo for $500.
 
Ok, that is pretty much along the lines of my thinking....

also, since I can't find it anywhere...is it true that the Pentium D 3.6 is really just two 1.8Ghz processors? I heard that from the guy at bestbuy...but I am not really buying it (no pun intended :D )

Its closer to having 2 3.6 GHz processors that can't work together, they can just split up the work.
 
Ok, that all makes sense now.... The 960 will be ordered and then in 6 months or so, I'll up the video card :) Thanks you guys A LOT for helping me out
You_Rock_Emoticon.gif
 
Whats the dif b/t a core duo and a pentium D? aren't they both dual cores? plus, I have a dell XPS gen 5, and the MB will support the Pentium D...not sure on the core duo though:confused:
 
No it won't support core duo, you will need a different chipset. Yes they are both dual cores but to put it simply, the core duos are just the newest dual core cpus from Intel, which are insanely fast I might at, a e6300 oc'ed beats a FX-62. :P

Oh yes and they are built off of whole different architectures. Look on wikipedia for more details.
 
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