Pentium 4 vs dual Processor

[giveintome]

Which is better for digital vedio editing and 3d modelling graphics, between a pc running a pentium4 2ghz processor on an Intel 854 chipset board and a Dell poweredge server running 2 Intel Pentium3 500mhz/512mb processors.

 

[CitrixEngineer]

The P4 is better suited to the purpose. CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.uk

 

[crisc]

All things being equal, I'd have to say the P4 2 gig will outperform the dual p3 500s

 

[Guest_imported]

Well that all depends on the software you are running. If you are running SMP aware programs, the Poweredge might beat out the single P4 not only due to the more balanced thread loading characteristics of the dual processor machine, but also due to special motherboard features in the server hardware that typical P4 boards don't have in the intrest of cost competition. That is assuming that all other hardware is equal, ie drives, VDO cards, etc. Having said that, a P4 2.0 GHz with DDR-RAM and the new 133 quad pumped FSB probably would have an edge in Maya or Pro Engineer, but it would also be more susceptable to loops that can lock up the machine or at least cause long frustrating delays. Moreover the new P4 chipset probably has at least an AGP 4x bus and the Poweredge might not even have an AGP slot; causing it to give miserable performance due to VDO limitations, not processor limitations.