ive got an athlon and a pentium, athlon is 1700 (about 1470 mhz) pentium is a 1.6. i think with athlon u get more power behind your vst performance etc for the money but my pentium has been a lot more stable so i use that as my sequencer now. i think for a budget or mid range budget athlon is the way to go for music making as you get a fair bit of power for the money but if perhaps your willing to pay a little more the stability of the pentium is well worth it. thats just from my experience with them anyway.