AMD vs. Pentium

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silegnav
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AMD vs. Pentium

Post by silegnav »

hey everybody this is my 1st post on here. I'm in the market for a new laptop. Does anybody have experience with the AMD Athlon processors. i've read that they're faster then the Pentium 4s. can anybody confirm this? any compatability or stability issues with the usual softwares aka live, reason, FL, acid, etc? hardware: m-audio firewire 410, motu 828 mk1? hoping to hear from people who use the AMD's in their current setup. any recommendations will help. i produce hard, funky, & deep detroit influenced techno by the way, and some guitar rock and '70s style breaks.

thanks

v
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Post by adam »

Stability and consistant power: Go apple. If you are anything like me, you probably have some kind of deep seeded hatred for Apple right about now with no knowledge of why you hate those "pretty" computers, but once you try one, you'll probably never go back.

If you HAVE to have a pc, Pentium's seem to be more stable and compatible with everything. MAKE SURE you get an actual pentium and NOT a celeron. Alot of venders have a bad habit of telling you you are getting a pentium when it's actually a celeron which they mark as a "pentium celeron". Celeron's have no use for anything aside from casual gaming and word processing ;)


AMD - I haven't used one myself but everyone I know of that has used AMD has had some sort of trouble, especially when using lots of audio software and hardware. A lot of gamers take to AMD but from what I've heard, they don't belong in audio land. I could be wrong, but this seems to be the consensus amongst my locals.
plaster
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Post by plaster »

the only thing is the crashes now and then like adam said.
my neighbour is using a 64bit amd processor,which runs better than the pentium one,but sometimes he has crashes with the plugs i never had and stuff like that.
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AbstraKt
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Post by AbstraKt »

I too am thinking of putting a system together my current computer is outdated. I was thinking of the AMD 64 3500(at least) 1Gig RAM and that is as far as my knowledge in putting a computer parts together :lol:

I was leaning towards a Mac cause I don't have to pick out any core specific parts as they are used for multi-media but those PRICES :shock: Is putting something together with specs that are geared towards music production going to be the same price? If so should I just lean towards a Mac and get a good sound card. I've been so stressed trying to choose between cost and practicality. I don't know how to pic parts for a computer PLEASE HELP!

I know I want a desktop. No one here has to divulge any secrets to their set-up just a good base to build on. Something that won't get outdated in the near future. My production will more likely be software based first then get hardware as I progress and begin to understand what I need. Lastly sound cards any suggestions or helpful knowledge?

I know I'm asking a lot of questions but I know there are a lot producers in here. If I decide on a Mac what am I going to need? I will be using Ableton Live and as far as other software what other are the other essentials?
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mlexicon
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Post by mlexicon »

oops...wrong post
Last edited by mlexicon on Tue Mar 15, 2005 6:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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cyhl
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Post by cyhl »

I mostly agree with what adam said....

but you can have an amd-based system which works flowlessly....... I do! I bought all the parts and put the system together myself; for abstrakt, here are my specs:

mobo = tyan tiger k8w
cpus = 2 x opterons 244
memory = 2 x 512MB mushkin ECC reg PC3200
system harddrive = IDE western digital 80GB
data harddrive = SATA seagate 200GB
video card = Jaton GF MX4000 twin VGA 128MB
audio = EMU 1820m
dvd drive = plextor 712A

this thing rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've never crossed the 40% cpu usage with it, despite putting tons of fx everywhere!!!!!!

you can pretty much just replace the opterons (the server-grade amd processor) with some athlon64, and get a mobo that goes with it, and it should be ok... althought the emu soundcard I have (which is fantastic, especially for the price) has some compatibility issues with some amd motherboards, but I havn't had any problem myself... so yeah, if you wanna go with this soundcard, I'd recommend going intel (more details on the soundcard can be found at http://www.productionforums.com/emu/default.asp )
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AbstraKt
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Post by AbstraKt »

^^
THANKS!! Looking at your specs really gives me a good idea of what to looks for.
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- Plato -

"Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things. "
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cyhl
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Post by cyhl »

you should go visit the cubase forum for example, there's people talking about this, posting their specs etc. I learnt a lot overthere... http://forum.cubase.net/phpbb2/

there's other forums too, but I don't remember...

one piece of advice: I really recommend getting a dual processor rig, even if that means that you have to get processors that are a bit slower... getting two 6-months (or a year) old processor will be more or less the same price as getting one of the newest ones (for the same brand/type of processor), but you will work more comfortably with the 2 cpus...
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