Maximum PC

I will be buying a new machine ($3,200-3,800k range w/o monitor) and need some words of wisdom. Mostly workstation used for Video creation/editing, web/graphic design), minimal gaming.

Is dual-cpu worth it vs. upgrading in other places on a single proc machine?

Plan A:

Thunder K8WE
Dual Opteron
2 GB Ram
PCI-e nVidia GT 256mb or Quadro (one card)
Dual WD 200GB main, 250-300gb storage drives
1Dual layer DVD+-R, 1DVD/rom/CD
Sound Blaster Live Audigy 2 ZS
Logitech Z-5500

Plan B:

Abit AN8 Athlon 64 939
Single AMD 64 +4000 or FX55
2 GB Ram
PCI-e nVidia GT 256mb or Quadro
Dual WD 200GB main, 250-300gb storage drives
1Dual layer DVD+-R, 1DVD/rom/CD
Sound Blaster Live Audigy 2 ZS
Logitech Z-5500

Plan C:

Asus P5AD2-E Premium P4 775
P4 3.4 w/ EM64T
2 GB Ram
PCI-e nVidia GT 256mb or Quadro (one card)
Dual WD 200GB main, 250-300gb storage drives
1Dual layer DVD+-R, 1DVD/rom/CD
Sound Blaster Live Audigy 2 ZS
Logitech Z-5500

This will go into either the Thermaltake VA3000 Dream Tower or Lian-Li PC-V1000 Mid-Tower.

I've researched this too long and now the time has come to decide.

There are obvious tradeoffs to each one.

Thanks!!!! Please indicate WHY you like one over the other and what you'd swap out for something else.

(I wish I could afford this - http://www.pugetsystems.com/liquid.php?symbol=y).
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All systems are amazing but i'd have to give it to the fx-55 just because of the video capabitities it has, even if your not going to use games with it. But however i have no idea on any dual processor computers but would most definetly would like to no more if someone could help out. One recommendation to you is get a faster hard drive with mass storage, you won't regret later. suggesting a Maxtor Diamond Max 10 300gb or the Hitachi drive coming soon that also has 500gb with SATA 2 capabilities while both have the performance from a 16 mb cache.

Thanks for the advice. I was looking at those drives as they are only marginally more expensive than their 8mb counterparts.

I've heard mixed reviews from Maxtor drives however.

Maybe others have had use/experience with them.

go with dual opterons. i've been doing same MAJOR video encoding and i'm saving up for a dual opteron rig right now.

What Motherboard would you use with dual Opterons?

What about non-buffered / non-registered RAM?

I'd like to build a top end workstation.

The only thing I'm really concerned about is the RAM.

I read that Opterons need Buffered and Registered RAM.

time to do research ........list out the software you'll be using for your work then research to see if those programs are designed to take advantage of multiple processors........

If the software you'll be using thrives on SMP....then get dual proc

If not....go with fastest single processor you can get

bear in mind though that if you run multiple programs that are single proc friendly at the same time then the dual proc system will be faster.....

Tyan KW8E comes to mind (very expensive though) - MSI makes one as well, but is a little older.

I'll be using multiple dual proc aware apps, so dual proc is still where I'm headed. There's also a Tyan board that is cheaper (non-scsi, non-sli).

don't forget to get RAMdisk

bought a dual Athlon system 3 and a half years ago that was dual Athlon 1800MP on a Tyan Thunder board.....

was more than adequate for doing my work until a couple of months ago

with the quality and speed of SATA HDD today SCSI may not be a neccessity......

with projects of about a GB or so you can load the file into RAMdisk and have the temp file in RAMdisk also.......ttoally eliminates the need for the PC to keep going back to HDD when you're working on a project and the speed at which it does a task with this setup will blow your mind....also saves HDD wear and tear......that is assuming 3GB or more of RAM.

quadros are more for cad type designing arn't they? if you're not doing that save yourself some money and go with a regular card.