time to upgrade?

[jarthel]

my currect system is in my sig.

I'm thinking of upgrading it to a P4 3ghz with HT. Of course I also need to upgrade the motherboard and I'll need to get another stick of RAM for dual channel.

Would I notice considerable speed increase(I will overclock the CPU) with the upgrade? I'm using avisynth and Xvid with the following avisynth filters

----
mpeg2dec (will full processing, ipp=6?)
trim
IVTC or deinterlace
smoothuv (for rainbows)
undot
awarpsharp
lanczosresize
---------

Thanks for the replies.

jayel

[Sulik]

The main difference will be the 800MHz FSB. Because of the added memory bandwidth, you can expect an increase linearly proportional to the cpuspeed (probably 20% faster). HT is goodness, but mostly because you can still use your PC while encoding, not so much for great performance boosts.

[jarthel]

well I can burn, surf and watch a divx/xvid while encoding at my current setup. I guess I'll upgrade next year with the new prescott and it's new packaging.

[Solo]

Wow you've already got a nice setup going!

Where to start ... The 800 FSB CPU's do encode faster for sure. Whether the HT is as beneficial is debatable though. If you are going to overclock the CPU you will be able to get the same speeds from a 2.4C CPU. The 2.4C will overclock just as high as a 3 Ghz with normal cooling. I am able to get mine to 3.6 Ghz. I would not add another stick unless you are 100% sure that you can get EXACTLY the same chipset or you will have dual channel problems. Rather get a dual channel pack, which are tested and guaranteed to run together even though a bit more expensive. For motherboard there are only two choices in my opinion the Abit IC7 and the ASUS P4P800. For overclocking though you should be aware that some memory like newer Kingston HyperX PC3500 has issues. The Corsair XMS3500 would also be excellent or even better the Mushkin Level 2 Black PC3500.
http://www.mushkin.com/epages/Mushkin.storefront/3fbb3ce809f51682273fc0a801050648/Product/View/991097