2 Biggest things to look for when buyin cpus is the front side speed and the l1/l2 cache size.
The biggest changest youd see on a 32bit machine with a 64bit cpu is um speed, The l1/l2 cache size. The more memory on those things the faster the cpu will go cause it can store information on the cpu and access it much faster than ram memory and deff far away harddrive.
Sizes of l1 and l2 cache are much better on 64bit cpus. You dont need to have a 64bit operating system and applications to take advantage of the new cpus.

Quote Originally Posted by dodgyedgy
Dont shake your finger at me young man... ;)

You arent really telling the truth are you now...? It also depends on what platform you are on, Cubase SX3 can take advantage of hyperthreading, but isnt a 64bit application, and also you'd better have a 64bit version of windows xp if you want to take advantage. Besides i hadnt mentioned 64 bit as its pretty pointless unless you know of plugins that can take advantage of 64 bits. ;)

The majority of people who know much about computers will recommend AMD over Pentium.
Tsk, Tsk... thats not true either. Pentiums are good chips, as are AMD - im not interrested in the battle over saying which is best, you know full well its all about the code, NOT the chip.
Look @ my above.


Cpus i'd say go with something like a 939 chip with a AMD X2 dual core or even a 939 3500+ or higher.
If you can wait till these new cpus models come out, Conroe, the prices are gonna be halved for the AMD X2 i heard!

My other even better option would be the AM2 Chipset/motherboards. They are da hottest right now.
They use DDR2 and correct memory latency issues that the past DDR2 had ( Intel ). Suppose to be a memory speed improvement with DDR2 but wasnt. That's been corrected with these AMD AM2 chips.
They already have em in AMD X2 Dual core etc..
Check newegg.com for the AM2s.

Anyhows, Deff pick a 64bit cpu over 32bit, or you'll be maybe havin to upgrade again. Like i said, 64bit has better l1 and l2 memory cache, and when 64bit hits ( and it will give it time trust ) you'll feel like your running a pentium 2 or 3 compared to a 64bit.

:cheese:

Btw, AMDs chips archeticture has wider front side buses than Intels wich allows more data to go through the bus ( or pipe ) wich is y AMD has different readin cpu numbers than intels. So AMDs speed can be greater at lower reading speeds.
Like mentioned, when you relate the 2 cpus it comes down to just numbers.

In Short, AMD can push more data through there wider Pipes, sorta like a ho.