Really can't stand it anymore, got to get this answered!

[Cheesed]

I need to..
Run Photoshop/Dreamweaver
Play Doom 3/Half-Life 2, etc
Encode from my new Canon XL2

My idea was to get Dual Intel Xeon Processors 3.0GHz w/ EM64T 800 MHz FSB w/1MB Cache (I'm fairly knowledgeable in computers.. just not hardware) but some people tell me it's a waste of money and I should stick to the single processor instead as dual processors don't increase speed only help with multitasking quickly. Is this true? Just one processor fills up and the other takes over? I want something bleeding fast but I don't want to overspend for no reason.

Also, which would be a smarter choice for my above necessities?
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1300 PCI Express 128MB DDR w/Digital and S-Video Out
or
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT PCI Express 256MB DDR3 w/Digital and S-Video Out

Any help or advice would be most appreciated.

 

[ardy891]

i fu want fairly good gaming but good aspeed in applications u will have to get a pentium 4 with ht technology!! as graphics cards are concerned which of the these do u do the most: gaming or editing? I would personally get the 6800 coz its a fairly good alrounder! anybody else got any opinions!

 

[Cheesed]

I appreciate the reply! I'm still looking to understand if dual processors means faster response or if I'm spending too much for doing so little. I just figured with encoding video and trying to work at the same time would be a serious processor/memory hog.

 

[Windwaker222]

if your doing encoding video and stuff, editing, the xeons would be a dream.. you really shouldnt need that much, a 3.2-3.8ghz with HT should be fine and the 6800GT is an awesome video card

 

[ardy891]

yeah definitely get ht, it tricks ur operating system into thinking u've got two processors!! that is cool!

 

[Charchris]

i don't think you would need Dual Xeons!

 

[ardy891]

no, not less u have a business that uses editing and stuff!

 

[zero4zero]

If you want speed without spending all that money on dual processors. Get a PIV 3.x with an ASUS motherboard that supports DDR2 PC4200 (533 Mhz) , 2- 1024 PC4200 and 2 WD 74 G 10,000 RPM, configured RAID 0 with the Nvidia 6800.
With the XP hyperthreading, and this type of hardware, if this ain't fast enough, well just wait 2 or 3 years; then they will probably have come up with faster products and what you have now will be considered slow! Remember what type of computer you had 4 or 5 years ago, that super fast PIII 600 Mhz with the massive 32 Meg video card !?

 

[Cheesed]

Thank you for the input, guess I'll leave the dual processors to the servers and stick to the single.

 

[The_Necromancer1]

no, XEON prossesors have to use registered ram(read:slow) there was a reveiw in PCGAMER and they reviewed an aleinware PC with dual-XEON and they said it was not worth the 4 grand b/c of the slow registered ram. get FX-55 bet 3.8 gh intel 11 out of 23 test Pentiem E.E won 3 and 3.8 won 8, and the 4000+ won 1, thats in non gaming apps.