What is the best computer processor for music production?

I would have said a Core 2 Duo (it is the best) but we'll have to settle for second best. Your choices are:

Pentium D 945 for $168

the whole list, http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Subm...

Athlon 64x2 4200+ for $187 (available in both Socket 939 and AM2 configurations), http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Orde...

These processors are in my opinion the best values on the market. If you mean can video tasks from the same program be split, the answer is no, unless the program is multithreaded (meaning it can run on both cores at once but most are not). Now, it is up to Windows how the processes are split between the cores and you cannot set how it works. It is up to the scheduler to balance tasks between the cores and they will be. Meaning you could technically run two or more video tasks at once but I wouldn't recommend doing anything else at the time.

As far as how the processors stack up against each other, Tomshardware is the FINAL authority on all things hardware, http://www.tomshardware.com/

Oh, I just noticed that you had already checked Toms Hardware. Well, I'd say go for the Athlon 64x2 4200+, yes the 3800+ is cheaper and you may not even notice a difference but it doesn't hurt to one up a bit since the price difference is marginal.

Best Processor For Music Production

Well if Core 2 Duo is out of your budget (I think the cheapest one is around $215) then AMD Athlon64 X2 is the best way to go. Pentium Ds are inferior. They just don't match up well and have overheating issues.

The cheapest X2 on the market now is the X2 3800 for about $145. As mentioned above you can get it for a socket AM2 or Socket 939 AMD motherboard. Intel processors are much pickier about motherboard compatibility.

Well, the Pentium D isn't a great chip- if you want dual-core power for doing multiple tasks at once but aren't looking at Core 2 Duo, consider an AMD Athlon X2.

Prior to the recent release of Core 2 Duos, AMD chips were king of the hill in terms of bang for your buck, not Intel.

when you're attempting to placed a severe foot ahead contained in the song marketplace, you'll want a Mac. it truly is basically how that's. Macs are a lot, a lot more desirable proper with sound and video, plus they already comprise all the improvements and whatnot so that you received't might want to purchase something more desirable. listed lower than are some specs on the means Mac G5 which i exploit: twin layer DVD burner, 250GB not straightforward stress, sixty 4-bit OS, NVIDIA images card, 2.3GHz twin-center processor unmarried PowerPC G5 processor 2.3GHz with 2 processing cores, twin-pipeline 128-bit speed Engine, a million.15GHz bidirectional frontside bus and 1MB x 2 L2 cache 512MB PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRAM for multitasking means, expandable to 16GB Slot-loading DVD±RW/CD-RW SuperDrive with double-layer help information as a lot as 8.5GB of information or 4 hours of video utilising compatible DVD+R DL media it is basically the proper laptop to purchase in case you want to get severe with song. for sure, that's $2,500. in case you may want to favor to stay the laptop route, definately boost your RAM up round a million GB. it truly is going to bypass a lot more desirable smoother and crash tons a lot less.

why always go on intel???? try AMD 64 or AMD FX. its a bit cheaper but better.