Best processor for video/photo editing?

[aliasjanedoe]

I was originally thinking I'd go with the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, but now I'm confused and not sure. I mainly plan to use Adobe Premiere and Photoshop CS3. Suggestions please?

[The Wise Monkey]

Quad core is definitely the way to go for video and photo editing, as most of these programs support multi-core CPUs now. You may want to look at the Q6700 - just dropped in price, and is a very good CPU.

If you want the best performance, then the Q9450 is head and shoulders above everything else in it's price bracket - it's £250 here in the UK, so will probably be about $400 in America.

[aliasjanedoe]

Quad core is definitely the way to go for video and photo editing, as most of these programs support multi-core CPUs now. You may want to look at the Q6700 - just dropped in price, and is a very good CPU.

If you want the best performance, then the Q9450 is head and shoulders above everything else in it's price bracket - it's £250 here in the UK, so will probably be about $400 in America.

Newegg lists the Q9450 as a "Deactivated Item" - do you think they're just out of stock, or they quit carrying it? And is it really worth the higher price tag? The Q9550 looks so pretty... But that is definitely beyond my budget.

The Q6700 will meet my needs just fine, right? Has anybody tested it with Adobe Premiere CS3?

Also, it seems like more people are running into problems with the 45 nm processors as opposed to the 65 nm. Anybody know why?

[RickyTick]

The Q9450 is a new, and a very hot item. Its just out of stock everywhere because of its great performance and price. It should be back in stock soon.

The problems with the 45 nm is a bios issue. So many motherboards have an older bios and just need to be updated to accept the newer processors. At least thats the way I understand it.

[The Wise Monkey]

You are probably best going with the Q6700 or the Q6600 - the performance increased justifies the prices increase, but only just. They are both excellent processors.

Even though the Q9450 performs a lot better, it is still way too expensive at the moment. It will probably drop in price eventually, but the performance gain over a Q6600/6700 isn't accurately reflected by the price increase.

From what I have read, APCS3 offers very good support for quad core processors, so you don't need to worry there - most professionals use two quad core Xeon processors. :O

You may want to check this out as well:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb402169&sliceId=1

[aliasjanedoe]

That's a helpful link, thanks. And I think I'll go with the Q6700.