Hi Bluddy Pentium D 840 3.2GHz Dual Core are so popular there hardley any left in NZ. so i was thinking which AMD Processor is equivalent to the pentiumD.
The Athlon 64 X2 (the dual-core line) starts with the 3800+ and should offer equivalent if not better performance. You've also got the 4000+, 4200+ and the 4400+. I'm not sure what the availability for that stuff is over there.
The X2s are generally a bit more expensive than the Pentium Ds, although they do have a more elegantly achieved dual core.
Now, regarding your PM, if you're doing video editing, then you're gonna want to get ahold of a Pentium. While we generally do recommend over AMD due to the better price/performance ratio in most cases, video editing is where Intel shines over AMD's chips. The X2's are a bit newer and I'm sure as they saturate the market, we'll see the price drop...at least if AMD is going to compete with Intel on that level.
Since intel dual cores are 64 bit, i was told that it will require 64bit drivers to keep the system stable. and if i use 32bit then the system will be a bit slower. Should i be worrying about this?.
That's something I've not heard of, but since the Intel 64-bit Pentiums are also 32-bit compatible, I'm not sure you'd need to download a driver for it. There are drivers with Windows that come with the OS, but this isn't to say that there isn't an Intel-made P64 driver. The dual-core pentiums only come in LGA775. Socket 478 is dead and only the newer i945 and i955 chipsets can support the dual-cores.
ok....my final quote, the machine is ordered. PENTIUM D 3.2GHZ 2X1MB 840 DUAL CORE MSI 945P PLATINUM INTEL 945P SKT775 DDR2 DUAL CORE 2 x GEIL 512MB PC4300 DDR2 SEAGATE 200GB 8MB SATA HDD Pioneer DVR-110 16x DL TASK PSU 520W 34A MELTALLIC-BLACK (775 READY) POWERCOLOR ATI RADEON X800GT 256MB PCI-E DUAL DVIR]
are you thinking about doing lots of gaming? i would not go for intel, i have learn't that a 3500+ amd 64 is better for gaming than any current intel processor.
Most of the time, yes, I advocate AMD, but in your case, a Pentium is a better choice. The only thing that I'm not sure about is the power supply. I've not heard of Task brand power supplies, so I'm a little suspicious. You'd probably have Antec and Enermax brands available and probably Hiper and Tagan. Oh, I did stumble across the dual-core patch issue. From what I'm understanding it affected parts of the power management in Windows. It doesn't sound like that many people are running into trouble, but I guess it was a reproduceable, but fixable, error. If you have problems, download the patch off Windows update. Otherwise, you should be able to leave it alone.
