P4 540 or 630 for Rebuilder?

[t00ld00d]

I'm building a new computer and trying to decide which intel CPU to go with. The 540 is 3.2 GHz with 1 MB cache, the 630 is 3.0 GHz with 2 MB cache. They're similarly priced and in the range I want to spend.

My question is which would be better for DVD-RB using CCE? The 540 seems to have an advantage with the faster clock speed. On the other hand the extra cache on the 630 might be useful. I just don't know enough about how RB and CCE work down at the nuts and bolts level to make a determination. Any RB experts here that can help me out?

[borgraf]

With Intel MHz is king :D So if you want the fastest right now, go for the 540. But the 600 series has it's advantages:As a general update to the Socket 775 series, all 600 series and Extreme Editions have the 64 bit EMT 64 expansion, No-Execute Bit (NX) and Speedstep functions available.So if/when CCE goes 64 bit, the 630 will probably jump ahead.



But, in your price range I would certainly go for the AMD 64 3500+ (winchester) 2.2 GHz. It's equal to the 630 in features, has the same video encoding speed and is better than both Intels at everything else :D



edit: for the record I don't consider myself an RB expert

[QuantumLeap]

I would go for the 630 for its cache and power saving features. Tom's Hardware reviewed the 6xx against the 5xx and found the 6xx a couple ticks faster in video encoding over the 5xx. They used a 6xx that was one step slower than the 5xx in their comparison too.

I would skip the AMD for video encoding. I don't think they have a desktop CPU that supports SSE3 yet. I realize CCE doesn't yet, but TMPGEnc Xpress currently does as well as some video editing software. Intel Prescotts are really the processors for video editing and encoding.

[borgraf]

Originally posted by QuantumLeap
I would go for the 630 for its cache and power saving features. Tom's Hardware reviewed the 6xx against the 5xx and found the 6xx a couple ticks faster in video encoding over the 5xx. They used a 6xx that was one step slower than the 5xx in their comparison too.I haven't read the test you're referring to but looking at the cpu charts (http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20041221/cpu_charts-18.html) tomshardware updated just a few days ago, the 540 beats the 630 in all 6 video encoding tests. So it seems tomshardware is in disagreement with themselves :D But the AMD I mentioned holds it's own against the 630.

So where does that leave us.. looking at those charts the 540 is the fastest encoder right now, the AMD is the best allround right now and the 630 is the most future proof. It's never easy.. good luck t00ld00d :)

[t00ld00d]

Thanks for the link to that CPU chart. Very interesting info there. It seems a 5xx will outperform even a 6xx of the same model number sometimes. I also found the other comparison mentioned earlier, more good info. When you throw the 6xx series major heat problems into the mix the decision gets even easier ;)

I appreciate the AMD suggestion and seriously considered AMD at the beginning. Since this comp is going to be pulling double duty as my HTPC (heavy ffdshow and descaler processing) I had to rule AMD out.

Thanks again for the link and other advice.

[rayvt]

As far as cache size....larger size is important up to about 128KB or 256KB. After that, the improvement is negligible. In real-world applications, 2MB won't give you any improvement over 1MB. So go with the faster clock speed.

[QuantumLeap]

The 600 series incorporates the 64 bit extensions on all processors in the line-up and has enhanced speed stepping that the 500 series does not. The 600 is slightly quicker than a 500 of equivalent speed in most benchmarks and the 660 was a tick faster than the 570 in the synthetic benchmarks. There is a DivX encoding benchmark that I cannot find at the moment showing the 660 faster than the 570.

I would buy a 600 series processor for the enhanced speed stepping with the 64 bit extensions and additional cache as a bonus.

[AndyP]

Hi

I had the same question last week and decided for the 630. Although the 540 is marginally faster (the 630 sits between the 530 and 540) it has the 64 bit extensions. The enhanced speedstep is largely worthless as it only drops the speed to 2.8MHz from 3.0MHz. If not interested in 64bit then go for the 540J (J=NX bit support).

Cheers
Andy