Your current 3800 X2 will work quite well with HD. Going to the 4400 will make it more fun, not mainly because of the MHz upgrade but because the 4400 has twice the on-chip cache, which makes a bit of a difference.

As others are saying, if you go with the newer CPUs, quad etc, you need a new motherboard, new CPU and probably also new RAM.

I just went through some Q&A on this topic with one of our client's engineers and here's the scoop on the Phenom.

Phenom uses socket AM2+ to support a higher Hypertransport 3.0 speed and better power management. Motherboards equipped with AM2+ will support Phenom but may not at this early stage support HT 3.0. So watch out for that.

Phenom is pin-compatible with the slightly older AM2 socket but the board still needs chipset and BIOS support so you need to confirm with the manufacturer that your board actually supports the Phenom. If you can use Phenom in your AM2 socket, it will be limited to HT 1.0 bus speeds and won't have the enhanced power management. This may not really be so terrible unless you really have use for the higher throughput HT 3.0 provides. My guess is that HT3.0 will be more useful on systems with multiple PCIe x16 slots in use. If there were a GPU coprocessor for Vegas this would be useful, but there isn't.

Rob Mack

According to Gigabyte tech support - they are suppose to release a BIOS update for my motherboard to allow the phenom to be recognized. I understand about the reduced HT as you stated Rob. Vegas doesn't support GPU so it isn't any big deal as far as I can see.

Given that, I'm still wondering if it's worth being a Guinea pig with the first versions of the Phenoms...

Cliff Etzel - Solo Video Journalist
bluprojekt

If you end up upgrading the motherboard anyway, it sounds like the Intel Core 2 Quads are performing better than the Phenom (comparable price point, not even including the $1K+ Extreme versions). While I love an underdog and am a current AMD owner, Intel has finally made up for their earlier missteps. While their "quad" isn't a "true quad" like the Phenom, the power consumption and heat generated are on par and the overall performance is better at the same price point. My current motherboard (ASUS A8N-SLI Premium) is giving me fits, so I'm going to be switching to the dark side soon. Conveniently I have to wait until January before I'll have time, and the new 45nm versions (Yorkfield) should be out then.

I don't think the Phenom is a bad chip, just Intel is better these days. If you have a cheap upgrade path with AMD then that's probably your best bet. If you're starting from scratch then you might consider the alternatives.

Brian

To touch o n the cache topic - will twice as much cache make any difference with regards to editing with any of Sony's apps???

Cliff Etzel - Solo Video Journalist
bluprojekt