Pentium or AMD?

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Babycham

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I was told by a few people, that AMD processor is better than a Pentium for doing music. MY question is why is it better and how?
 
I donno if one processor is better than the other for recording, but I can tell you that AMD gives you better bang for the buck which is ultimately what most of us are after. An Athlon based DAW will be by far less expensive than a Pentium one, I dont say cheaper because that word gives a negative connotation about quality which I assure you it is not the case with AMD. AMD rules!!!:D
 
I don't think buying the AMD to save a couple $$ is the way to go especially if you are setting up a computer for DAW work. First of all, most P4/Intel chipset mobo combinations are pretty much guaranteed to be stable and reliable. You can coun't on not having too many issues/incompatabilities and conflicts with your audio cards,etc. The same is not true with Atlhons and certain mobo chipsets that are intended for those processors. Just do a search here and you'll see how many times people have run into these problems.

Secondly, the Athlon is a power hog. It generates absurd amounts of heat and requires a hefty CPU fan and a power supply with no less than 400W power capacity. What does that translate to? One NOISY computer that you probably don't want in your recording studio.

If your primary use for a computer were anything else other than DAW work, I'd say go for the extra performance AMD gives you, but in this case the cons outweigh the pros IMO.
 
brzilian said:
First of all, most P4/Intel chipset mobo combinations are pretty much guaranteed to be stable and reliable. You can coun't on not having too many issues/incompatabilities and conflicts with your audio cards,etc. The same is not true with Atlhons and certain mobo chipsets that are intended for those processors.
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Was true for some older VIA chipsets but it appears not to be for what's in the shops today.


Secondly, the Athlon is a power hog. It generates absurd amounts of heat and requires a hefty CPU fan and a power supply with no less than 400W power capacity.
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Bull. A 300W PSU is more than sufficient. And the P4 is about just as power consuming as an Athlon. They both produce roughly 60 Watts of heat.
 
I'm running a Duron 1200 MHz on a 250W power supply. All the audio works with no problems. The mobo is a Giga-Byte with a VIA KT-133 chipset. The CPU cost $98.00, including the cooling fan. My machine isn't any noisier than any Pentium machine I've ever owned or used.

It used to be hard to find software that wasn't optimized specifically for Intel, but that has changed, too. For the performance and the cost, I'm sticking with AMD.
 
I think there's something with the math processor on the AMD that is more accurate than the Pentuims' .

Don't remember exactly what it is but there is something in it's structure that makes the AMD better for music puposes ...
 
With both AMD and Pentium if you dont have quiet Case fans and heatsinks, you are gonna have the same annoying noise level. The thing to be careful abiut AMD is that if the HEatsink is not AMD approved, you might burn your system if you are not careful
 
brzilian said:
First of all, most P4/Intel chipset mobo combinations are pretty much guaranteed to be stable and reliable. You can coun't on not having too many issues/incompatabilities and conflicts with your audio cards,etc. The same is not true with Atlhons and certain mobo chipsets that are intended for those processors.
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These problems are generally associated with older chipsets. Most newer ones are just fine. If you do some homework first and ask your sound card manufacturer what MoBos they recommend you won't have any trouble with compatability.
 
brzilian said:
I don't think buying the AMD to save a couple $$ is the way to go especially if you are setting up a computer for DAW work. First of all, most P4/Intel chipset mobo combinations are pretty much guaranteed to be stable and reliable. You can coun't on not having too many issues/incompatabilities and conflicts with your audio cards,etc. The same is not true with Atlhons and certain mobo chipsets that are intended for those processors. Just do a search here and you'll see how many times people have run into these problems.

Secondly, the Athlon is a power hog. It generates absurd amounts of heat and requires a hefty CPU fan and a power supply with no less than 400W power capacity. What does that translate to? One NOISY computer that you probably don't want in your recording studio.

If your primary use for a computer were anything else other than DAW work, I'd say go for the extra performance AMD gives you, but in this case the cons outweigh the pros IMO.
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I also think this is quite misstated. While I can understand the general point you're making (kind of),... it's still pretty misleading. (read "wrong") :D

Basically... if you don't care aboot price.. and don't care aboot performance.. and don't feel like doing the slightest bit of homework, then sure... you can get a P4 and an Intel based mobo and you'll get decent performance with good stability.

But if you don't feel like paying 200+ dollars more than you have to and want to get more performance for your dollar and actually feel like taking the time to understand your purchase,.. then you should get an AMD. When I bought my first real soundcard (Delta 44) I had to do homework. I had to understand why it was a better value than some of the other cards.. the same went for when I bought my first condenser mic... everyone in this business of home recording should be prepared to take some time to do a little research aboat their purchases. The same goes for what kind of PC to get.

In addition... the argument that AMD's must be run on 400+ W PSU's is completely incorrect. I run a 24 hour server on 350W. My last server ran on 300W. (both were 1.4GHz(and higher) machines).

As for heat, yes,.. it is true that the Athlon generates more heat than the P4... but this does not automatically translate to a noisy machine. There are plenty of low noise HS/F's that are available to cool AMD CPU's. I myself use the Silverado.. there is also the Alpha PAL8045 and the Thermalright AX-7, both of which can be used with 80mm fans that are quiter than your average P4 HS/F.

Saying that Pentium is "just better" than an AMD because it's "more compatible and more stable" is just like saying a Mac is better than a PC for the same reasons. It's an old argument that just doesn't apply any more.

WATYF
 
...and don't care aboot performance...
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What are you, a Canadian?;) Anyway, it should be mentioned that the fastest processor you can buy is a Pentium 4.

Another thing that's good about Pentium 4's is that they have temperature sensing mechanisms and will throttle down or even shut off to prevent cpu damage from heat. AMD has no such feature, which is kinda silly.
 
I know it's old technology, but it's worth mentioning. Avoid the older AMD K6 based systems, especially for music applications. The processor has problems with a floating point error. I have one of these dogs and I can't run any real-time effects because it crashes the system.
I have heard good things about the newer chips though.
 
I think you need to select your audio card first. Then determine which cpu + mobos are proven to work with that card.

Also, there are some issues where P4 machines may get bogged down with certain combos of VSTs. There are issues where some Athlon machines with certain chipset mobos where they cannot take advantage of the ATA-100 and ATA-133 speeds as well as problems with certain audio cards where nothing works. In essence, there is no right answer.

If you go P4, then get an Intel mobo that takes DDR memory. If you go AMD, then I'd go with an AMD 761 chipset mobo such as the ASUS A7M266. Stability is the name of the game in a DAW so the fastest chipset mobo may not be the best, for example.

The price difference is from cpu/mobo combos I'd use is about $60 more for the P4.

Other things I'd suggest:

Seagate hard drives -- They are quiet;
Quiet PC power supplies -- Again, quiet;
TDK, Plextor and Yamaha CDRWs -- They support audio rip which you need for a DAW.

Good luck.

Steve
www.piemusic.com
 
Most problems people have with setting up AMD based systems are caused by two factors:
1. Insufficient processor cooling. This has already been discussed above, and you can get effective and quite cooler with no problem.
2. Low qualilty unstable power supply. This is not an issue of wattage, rather an issue of power stability. Good power supply will keep power ratings on each rail within allowable plus/minus limits under changing load. Poor power supply, even if it is 450 watts - may not. That is why it does make sence to make sure that you get "AMD approved" power supply. You can get full list of those at AMD website.
 
elevate said:

What are you, a Canadian?;)
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Hhhhmmm.... could beeeeeeee......

:p
elevate said:
Anyway, it should be mentioned that the fastest processor you can buy is a Pentium 4.

Another thing that's good about Pentium 4's is that they have temperature sensing mechanisms and will throttle down or even shut off to prevent cpu damage from heat. AMD has no such feature, which is kinda silly.
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Oops... did I forget to mention that?? ;) :p Yeah.. it's kinda stupid that AMD doesn't have that.... yet. And it is clearly true that P4 has the faster chip at the moment. But my advice for anyone looking to buy is "wait". All sorts of new stuff is gonna be comin' oat soon (fall) and prices are gonna be goin' through the floor on lots of stuff. The new AMD chip is comin', as well as DDR400, etc. etc. etc. AMD should regain the "crown" soon enough. :p

WATYF
 
But my advice for anyone looking to buy is "wait".
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It's my opinion that this strategy just doesn't work. Something is always coming out soon. AMD's new chip is actually a bit delayed and besides, their 64-bit desktop cpu will be even later. Intel also recently unveiled their new Itanium which appears to be finally living up to the hype - preliminary benchmarks show it to have insanely high floating point performance, easily besting IBM's Power 4 which has 43 times more L3 cache. And all this at a mere 1Ghz. Anyway, point is you can play the waiting game forever and when you do decide to make your purchase, you will regret it in two weeks when prices drop.
 
I also heard that those new AMD processors are delayed and it´s true, if you wait more than a couple of months, chances are that something newer will be coming out and it would turn into a never ending story before you buy what it that you needed in the first place
 
elevate said:


Another thing that's good about Pentium 4's is that they have temperature sensing mechanisms and will throttle down or even shut off to prevent cpu damage from heat. AMD has no such feature, which is kinda silly.
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Every damn motherboard on the market comes with software that does this...Its no big deal....
 
Oh, and evan if I felt like I wanted to throw money away on an intel board, I would never buy a sound card that was incompatible with AMD. It only shows that the company didnt take the time to develop thier hardware/drivers properly, and who knows what other incompatibilities aregoing to rear thier ugly little heads....The first thing people should do when looking at a new sound card is look at the compatibility list. IF there are a bunch of boards they recomend you stay away from, that means they dont know what they are doing.....Thats why I went with Delta, it works with damn near anything.
 
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