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Upgrading from 3500+ help?

StevenG

StevenG

StevenG

Soldato
Joined
25 Jan 2006
Posts
3,071
Location
Gateshead, Newcastle
as the title said i want to upgrade from my 3500 as it just isnt cuttin it anymore. it takes ages to encode video and dvd's.

i need something that is ubber quick to handle the encoding. but not too expensive

i am wanting to keep the cost down so i am using my current board. msi K8n Neo 2 platinum NF3

i was looking to spend arround £300 on the chip. - if its dual core i will need some dual core encodin software??? any ideas?

and i need some ram to make overclocking a possibility??? any ideas???
looking at arround £200 for the memory

thanks in advance for any replies!
 
msi k8n neo 2 platinum
1GB or twinmos ram
running the chip at 2.3 (Newcastle core i believe)
it takes about an hour and a half to 2 hours for a full dvd with menus and chapters and stuff using WinDVD Creator 2
and about an hour with WinAVI Converter
 
Ouch!

Having never tried WinDVD Creator i wouldn't have any comparison but i do convert quite a few DVD's and AVI's to DVD using WinAVI.
I have an old system running a 2.4 P4 and that takes approx 30 mins to do.
The 3400 your using should handle the task in under 2hrs i should think - is the 3500 64bit?
And also wheats the rest of the system like - possible Format might help...

If your looking to Upgrade you need to be a little more specific - such as Current CPU support (Socket type) etc
 
yea its the 64bit chip and its skt 939

the rest of my systems is OKAY running a sata drive with a "system" partition of 40 gig and a 140GB editing drive to store images and other crap.
 
in winavi im using the highest quality and what looks like direct ac3 sound :confused: i am converting on a speed preference rather than quality. god only knows how slow it would be on quality

just found out im using 192000 bitrate on the audio...
 
Last edited:
If the quality is "Bumped" up to maximum on Converstion then patience is something you will need.
I have a 4800 64 chip and it takes anything upto an hour to convert movies in full quality... also you also have to weigh up the file type, converting from Avi to DVD may only take 25 - 30 mins because the compression is not that dissimilar, how ever converting files from Mpeg2 to say Avi files will take forever due to the way the original file has been encoded and the output has to be re-encoded.

Try encoding a movie in 128 kbit sound as opposed to 160 kbit, the quality difference is hardly noticed and the output file is dropped by a hell of a lot.

As for output settings - a standard TV works at 300x300 pixels - i do most of mine at 1000 kbit i notice no difference from that of a dvd (Except blocking at places - very un-noticable)

Before diving in and buying another CPU whats the time difference from when you fresh formatted the PC?
 
i cant remember the last time i formatted my pc :confused:
im doing a convert now at the lower bitrate as you suggested and i dont have the option to chage the output size..
my cpu is at 50'c
 
CPU RUNNING AT 51'C AND IT TOOK EXACTLY ONE HOUR TO CONVERT A FULL MOVIE TO DVD.
STILL THINK I NEED AN UPGRADE?????
 
50 degrees aint bad under full load (I presume your running on a stock cooling system) you might find that formatting the PC is a good idea especially if you haven't done any house keeping for a while.

As for the upgrade within a £300 budget i wouldnt go for dual core...
64 4000 at about £230
or if your gonna go dual core 4400 for a little over £325

Personally for £300 i would ditch the NF3 motherboard and Look at going up in the world...

Gigabyte SLI Pro mobo with a 64 4000+ (Approx £300)
 
well i think i will see what i get paid and re-post when ive got the money... ive just got 468 in 3d mark 05 lol
 
Black_Widow said:
50 degrees aint bad under full load (I presume your running on a stock cooling system) you might find that formatting the PC is a good idea especially if you haven't done any house keeping for a while.

As for the upgrade within a £300 budget i wouldnt go for dual core...
64 4000 at about £230
or if your gonna go dual core 4400 for a little over £325

Personally for £300 i would ditch the NF3 motherboard and Look at going up in the world...

Gigabyte SLI Pro mobo with a 64 4000+ (Approx £300)
Click to expand...

I dont think the NF3 is a bad board at all to be honest i can still hit 3ghz with it with my opteron if i want to put 1.55 volts through it (normall i run 2.8 @ 1.4V). Although it may not hit the high HTT of the newer boards (mainly DFI) it can still hit 305-310 without any instability so i think your comment is a little unfair.

For encoding i would recommend the 4400+ if you can afford it and overclock it to 4800+ speeds as this chip is going to be fast enough for one maybe two years at least and you dont pay too much premium for it compared to the 4800. Alternatively you could try and track down a opteron 165 or 170 but you will need to overclock it more to reach 4400 at stock but if your cool with overclocking this might be the best route.
 
4400 £325
PCX BOARD????
7800GT????

- could get the chip now and the board and card later??? or should i go it the other way arround?
 
StevenG said:
4400 £325
PCX BOARD????
7800GT????

- could get the chip now and the board and card later??? or should i go it the other way arround?
Click to expand...

Get the chip first and mobo/graphics card later as you will get an immediate benefit from the cpu which you wont do if you say, only upgrade the motherboard. If you want to game then get the mobo/graphics card at the same time and cpu later if you can afford them both then your games performance will be greatly boosted. For encoding though, i would go cpu first.
 
okay sounds good.. but should i get the 4400 or a opty and overclock it??? bare in mind that i dont know how to overclock...
 
Well it depends on if you're willing to learn. Personally I'd go for the 4400+ but then I am biased but like the higher stock clock speed. If you go for the opteron and want to get decent clocks from it, you'd probably want to upgrade your ram and mobo. Perhaps a DFI nf4 board and a gskill 2gb kit?
 
Find out what your max HTT on your board is first. If you can get 280+ then probably the opteron is your best bet. If you are hitting less than this the higher multiplier on the 4400+ will help you get a better clock.

Other factors to consider is how good your cooling is or will you be using the stock cooler, how good your RAM is and if your dividers are stable, case airflow etc. Once you have worked all this out then decide which cpu would best suit you out of the opteron 165 or 4400+. Bear in mind that at the same clock speed these 2 cpus are equally fast, both having 1mb/core of lvl 2 cache. However if your ram can take high HTT then the opteron will be faster due to the higher HTT at equivalent clock speeds.
 
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