which cpu?

[flaamer]

I know this topic has been covered ad nauseam but I'd like to know the current experiences with setups and using DVD2SVCD with CCE in particular.
I'm considering building a new computer especially to speed up encoding speeds with DVD2SVCD. It's taking me @11.5 hours to do a 3pass on a 96min movie with a p3 800 512mb setup. Which do you think would be a faster processor for this, a p4 1.9ghz or an athlon xp2000 both with 512mb ddr? Would the p4's SSE2 support affect this?
Please post your encoding speeds if you have similiar configurations. I'm not interested in a "which processor is better" debate, just some real life experiences. Thanks

[chainsaw135]

I think the xp2000 with a sis type motherboard would be faster then a p4 setup.

I have 2 agree with mark on the prices of the xp2000 chip i would get like xp1800 or maybe the xp1900 ..i have a magazine and seen on some sites where the xp1800 did win 3 out of 10 tests against the 2ghz pentium 4 chip but the xp1900 won 7 out of 10 of the same tests against it..mostly for encoding or playing games the xp1900 will beat the 2ghz pentium 4 chip..plus its cheaper so heck you win both ways;) ALso you can buy a sis board for around $65.00 "they run a little better then the via chipsets thats only my opinion..." But the Via chipsets are normally better for overclocking .... and cost a bit more because of that reason.

[markrb]

The Athlon has a stonger FPU and a little better design. It is also a bit cheaper as well. In my opinion the XP 2000+ is a bit overpriced compared to the others in the line. You do not loose much performance by dropping 1 or 2 levels. Each CPU is only about 67mhz faster then the previous.
If you do get a P4 make sure to get a Northwood version. They come only in 2, 2.2Ghz and soon faster. Much better CPU then the older P4 which also comes in 2Ghz so make sure you get one marked with an "a".

Even though the Via chipsets have a PCI latency flaw they are still a good choice for people that don't need server type disk performance or use SCSI drives.
I have a Soltek DRV2 motherboard with the 266a Via chipset and it's a great board and cheap too. It can be had for under $100 now.

The new 333 or nforce chipsets based boards might be worth a look.

In the end if you are computer savy and don't mind tweaking and can deal with occasional incompatility issues then AMD is a very good lower cost and faster choice.

If you are not any of the above the P4 is a safer choice.

Check out www.anantech.com and www.amdmb.com both have very good forums and see for yourself the potential problems, fixes, successes and failures of each type of board. Most of the people there are AMD fanatics so be prepared for it.

Mark

[flaamer]

Thanks for your replies, I'll give the advice careful consideration.

[Mozart]

da franksta said
Or...
...if you're considering going dual, check out the forums at
www.2cpu.com

[24hourloop]

Tom's hardware is always a good choice for this type of research:

http://www.tomshardware.com