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Hy there,

I'm assembling a new pc as I'm getting ready to install a Pulsar I next to my Luna II and could use a little more CPU muscle. But I was wondering if I should stick with the PIII especially the Tualatin as it is available at 1.4 Ghz for only 560 € and the P4 Northwood 2.0 Ghz is only 600 € at my dealer. I'm wondering what would be the best setup for me, I'm using quite a lot of heavy duty stuff for the cpu but if the PIII is best with the creamware cards I might as well stick with that.

If anyone has experienced the use of both, plz comment on the performance of these so I can get mine properly setup for my needs ...

Thx in advance

Valium

I have both.

1: the tualatin has a better floating point unit than the p4. looking at sandra results for example, the tualatin at 1.5 FPU results without SSE2 are as good as the p4 1.7 WITH SSE2 optimised benchmark!

2: the p4 makes up for it with higher GhZ

3: The p4 can use DDR or RAMBUS memory for better performance, which the tualatin can not use even if it is there.

4 whatever you choose, get an intel chipset.

I guess if you put it that way I'll get myself a P4 2.2 ghz, that should get me the fastest available unit for DAW setup right?

And the most stable one....

as for stability i do not think there is any difference at all

I don't think that stability is a big difference between the two cpu's, there both intel, and they both have rock solid chipsets you can use ...

I guess the northwood 2.2 would be the fastest even if the p4 doesn't match the p3 as to floating point at similar speeds, it still is 2.2 against 1.4 for the fastest tualatin, and you get the greater memory bandwith wich only benefits the overall performance I guess, correct me if I'm wrong ...

But unless anybody brings up a serious con I'll go for the p4

How about the price?
You can get more DSPs for the extra, a p4 system will cost you. But ofcoarse, it depends on your way of working.

Immanuel

Hi Immanuel,

well 'bout the dsp's, I just bought myself a Pulsar I to add to my Luna II so that gives me 4 extra dsp's and about the cost, at my local hardware store the pIII goes for 560 € while the p4 goes for 601 € so it's not that big a deal. And since I was building a new system from scratch, the price won't be that higher compared to a new pIII system.

thx for the replies ...

Greetz

Ok, but personally, I would save a couple of houndred euro, be picking a smaller P4. I was unpresice before. I just thought of, that the top-of-the-line CPU is allways far more expensive, than the 2 or 3 extra % overall performance, you gain.

I know, gamers stuff is different, but a friend of mine clocked his 1,4GHz T-Bird down to 1,2GHz and lost 2% 3DMark rating, and for most people, when you hit that level, the CPU is no longer the bottle neck. Maybe for your use, it is different.

Immanuel