CPU for Digital Media Design

Well, I might be dropping my current major, and getting into digital media design. Which, I would be taking all the classes this coming fall. If I do make this decision, is it wise to try for a Quad Core instead of a Dual Core?

I am shifting between going with a e8400 or a Q6600. I was going to aim just for gaming, but I am starting to think ahead on more than just gaming now.

I mean if I went with this setup, I would go with the 4 gigs of ram, and just get a windows vista upgrade since I have XP full. I have the funds to purchase it very soon, and am just making a budget.

So with a Gaming/Workload focus in mind, and while not trying to go nuts and bust the bank.. what processor do you all suggest?

Go Quad if you'll be doing a lot of encoding. 4GB of RAM is good. The only reason to go VISTA is to get 64-bit so you can use all the 4GB of RAM, but XP-32 will still see almost all of it, so personally I would just stick w/ XP, and if anything run dual-boot.

^^x2

I do some encoding (hobby) and my setup is in the sig. I'm not dissapointed that I went vista, some of it's features I like better, it's going to take some getting used to though. My cpu's pretty quick right now, but if i were you i'd do the quad!

Do you know if the design programs in your curriculum will be multithreaded? I'm not up-to-date with the industry standards so if the answer is obvious I'm sorry.

For the price/performance I don't think you can beat the E8400 right now. However, it you will make good use out of the extra cores the Q6600 G0s are a beast. You might be able to snag the Xeon 3210 for a bit cheaper but it only has an 8x multi.

jason4207 said:

The only reason to go VISTA is to get 64-bit so you can use all the 4GB of RAM, but XP-32 will still see almost all of it, so personally I would just stick w/ XP, and if anything run dual-boot.

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There is no reason to go with Vista...there is a 64bit XP that works perfect (I've personally used it on my main machine).