If you’re looking to build a budget, but still want to get a fast computer, you might want to look at the AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Core Brisbane CPU. By comparison, of course, you can go even faster for a few more bucks, but for this case and my latest home construction and video editing use, I chose this CPU.
The Athlon AMD 64 X2 5200+ runs dual core at 2.7 Ghz for a computer having the same power as having two CPUs on board. Building either a buying a computer with a dual CPU core or with two separate CPUs actually increases the ease with which your computer can run on multiple – acceptance of the environment. I can rip a DVD video format to Mpeg4 or Divx in the background while working on other things without even noticing the CPU work going on in the background.
How does it match up? Just to compare the video compression, I set up four computers with the same source in Divx, then compressed the same DVD VOB video file on each computer and noted the results. The settings for this test Divx in the Home theater profile would be set to 900kbps and the sliding speed to 3 . Using FlaskMpeg and doing only bi-linear filtering, keeping the video size, Deinterlacing on, and audio compression set to 220050 stereo 48 Kbps. Four computers were equipped for this comparison with a Pentium 4 3Ghz, an Athlon Turion 64 X2 1.6 Ghz, and an Athlon XP 1800+. All three comparison computers have 1 Mb of RAM, and the new build has 2 Gb of RAM.
From the slowest to the fastest events are these;
AMD 1800+ / 14.5 fps (Frames Per Second)
P4 3Ghz / 28 fps
Turion 64 X2 1.6Ghz / 37 fps
Athlon 64 X2 5200+ / 61 fps
At the higher settings I can compress one hour from DVD to Divx format, about 30 minutes to 2 hours for 1800+ opposites, saving times. Even in these areas the video quality is quite good, and the conscious effort to see the compression. For some purposes I can increase the quality to near DVD and still compress in almost real time, and similarly for things that are not important, I changed the compression settings and still make visible video speeds exceeding 140 fps. .
All in all, without spending a little more for Phenom Processors, or really spending big lions for the latest Intel offerings, 5200+ delivered valuable products at a comparable price special Walmart, (slow machine). Also, by buying correctly, you can have a motherboard that will not only accept this budget CPU, but since the prices for phenom processors have come down, I can easily change it and keep one step behind the latest technology without spending a lot of money. The AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200 Core Brisbane CPU is a solid performer, and I don’t dislike it at all. If you are looking for a budget computer, I suggest considering this CPU, I don’t think you will be disappointed.
