Buying a new desktop...

[Sole Signal]

I'm thinking of purchasing a Athlon 64 4200 2 gig of RAM (with monitor) for 780 bucks. Is there a big difference between a 4200 and, say, a 4600 or 5000 when working with a lot of samples?

I'm kinda not in a great position to spend a lot of money right now, but I do need a new computer that will hopefully last me quite some time in my music work. Is this similar to anything you guys use? Thanks.

[OverCoat]

anything 3+ GHz should last you a while for now.

[Pyrion]

Is there a big difference between a 4200 and, say, a 4600 or 5000 when working with a lot of samples?

I would think RAM would have a greater impact than CPU speed.

Not much difference, IMO.

[Sole Signal]

Yeah, I guess CPU would matter more with running effects that are loaded anyways.

I just wanted to get something that will last me for a good couple years. I bought it yesterday, and now it's time to play with it. :)

[Effef]

anything 3+ GHz should last you a while for now.

fyi processor clock speed is not really the best way of measuring power nowadays

With the P4 it was because they basically got exponentially faster with every increase in clock speed. This still applies, but more modern procs (Core 2, Core 2 duo, most AMD processors) rely on memory speed and the amount of cache that they have onboard more than raw clock speed.