What's good to look for in a CPU?

[ToiletDuck]

I'll admit I know a lot about computers. but when it comes to CPU's i only have general knowledge. I was wondering what's teh best qualities to look for in a CPU for encoding? For instance I have dual athlon 2000's. Would Dual Xeon 1ghz or 800mhz with a meg or 2 megs cache be better for encodin? let me know. I found a 4 processor system on Ebay. Nothing big. Just 4 200mhz processors that total 800mhz with 1mbcache each. for al ittle side machine. just wondering.
Duck.

[ToiletDuck]

also would like a mac be good to encode with?

[Enchanter]

IMO, a single CPU will suffice for the task. The extra bucks spent on the second CPU does not justify the not-so-considerable increase in encoding speed. In fact, I could spend the money on other components which would serve to make viewing more enjoyable. For example, that 17in. LCD or 21in. CRT I have been eyeing.

[ToiletDuck]

lol yea those 21inch are nice. The other day I had a motherboard fry on me so while i was looking at ones to get I decided to get the dual motherboard because almost all encoding out there supports it. I'm running dual athlonXp 2000+'s btw. And XP chips are so much cheaper than MPs. I managed to get it all for a bout $330. Not too bad for a machine pushing 3.4ghz. I have a great increase in speed using programs like vidomi. %100 believe it or not. Now I'm using RV9 and new GUI's for it. RV9 is great but it is one system hog when it comes to encoding. I don't like have to wait all day just to see if the movie looks good or not. I would like to keep one machine going all the time that way I could just check it once a day and see how many it has finished. I'm glad I got the extra one though. works great. I also have one other question. BTW I coppied and pasted from a nicec forum I have been on for a while. I figued this place is more divx oriented and they are more computer oriented. So might as well try both places.
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Ok as some of you might know I am a very big into divx. Encoding a movie however is extremely resource heavy. It pulls every ounce out of my CPUs. There is a program available called vidomi. You can find it at www.vidomi.com. If you want to start doing this I would definately go there first. Vidomi is a unique program because it does something that not very many others do. It is capable of network encoding. Where you install the program on other computers. Share the files. Then go to the "head" computer and start from there. This is possible because if your like me, directly connected to another computer using a crossover cable or just on a network in general, you can transfer up to 100mbps. My divx are usually anywhere from 700 to 1400 mbs over a couple hour timespan so the network can easily keepup. Right now however I am using a new codec created by Real called RV9 and it doesn't have that option. So what i'm wondering is, is there a way for me to take another computer, hook it directly to mine with a crossover cable, share everything on it, and start encoding on my computer and that one at the same time. So that when I click start encoding the DOS window would appear on my computer and the other one and they would both work on the same file together? I mean not that much information goes through the wires. Just a 4gb .vob file over a 2 hr span. that comes out to about 33.33mbps. so technically I should be able to do 3 movies at a time. Is there some way, some program out there that will let me basically fool the program into thinking that it is on just one big computer so I could encode faster??? Thanks Duck.

PS. I'm sorry if I didn't explain it very well. Just ask me any questions if you have any on what I am trying to do and I will do my best to answer them

[Enchanter]

I'd have to wait for my yearly (Or make it biannual) upgrade before I can even come close to your level of system performance. For now, my system is adequate for the ripping tasks I set for it.

Too bad I haven't got much time to experiment around with (or even muse about) the other available video compression technologies. Perhaps at the end of the year or early next year, when I'm done with my thesis works. By then, I hope some of you guys can tell me a lot of things (or point me to new guides) so as to get me started. Some of you know that I did ask a lot of questions as well when I first joined up...