Pentium D 830 VS Opteron 170 ask, comparing, software, general

andy

I am thinking about whether I should get a Pentium D 830 or Opteron 170.

I usually encode movies from mpeg2 to xvid and wmv format. I will also encode movies from xvid to wmv format.

Anybody know which machine is faster?

you're comparing a server chip (opteron) against a desktop chip (pentium d). May I ask why? There's plenty of benchmark sites out there, for instance this: cpuchipsets...spx?i=2410amp;p=6

As a general rule, open source software generally favors AMD all the way (since it contains no excessive (and intel paid) processor optimizations but optimizations are generally assembly based), and when it comes to commercial software, you'll find both (as you can see by looking at the two wme graphs in the article I linked to). If architecture and or power consumption matters to you, there can only be one solution though and it's called AMD. The Pentium D is a cheap hack, and the Netburst architecture will be phased out in summer with intel's Merom (or something like that) chip (based on their notebook cpu design).

Thanks a lot. Since I actually don't buy the server, I rent the server instead. My services provider only provide me P D and opteron choices. That's why I compare a server clip with a desktop clip.

Architecture and power consumption doesn't really matter for me. The only thing that I concern is which one have faster encoding speed.

Most likely the Opteron will toast it on speed.

If Intel gave you upgrade discounts for old processors, it might be worth buying a P-D, but I doubt they're that desperate yet. xD Within six months they'll be the celerons of the dual-core world, with all the new models coming out.

Bear, you should think about Athlon 64 X2 4400+, instead Opteron 170.

Thats an interesting comparison
Opteron 170 - 2.0GHz - $396
X2 4400+ - 2.2GHz - $458

$458, lucky you. In Europe, X2 4400+ costs about 440 euros.

In Serbia, that price is incredible 680 euros.