I'm interested to buy a new desktop computer.  How can I find out if I
really need a Pentium IV or can I do just as well with a Celeron or an
AMD athlon XP.
I don't play games nor use high end graphics but I do intend to edit digital
home video.

The new p4's with hyper threading technology work great. But if you
don't want to purchase top of the line then I would go with AMD. While
AMD is known for running hotter, they in comparison are much better
than a pentium. Comparably a Amd 2.0 would be comparable to a P4 2.3.
Celeron however is a bad choice unless it is mailny for office work.

I concur.  Possibly aside from hyperthreading, the AMD averages fewer
cycles per instruction, meaning for processors running at the same
speed, the AMD would get more done.  A celeron processor takes a whole
lot more cycles per instruction, and it usually doesn't have enhanced
and multi-function features, such as MMX, making it a bad candidate,
aside from cost.

And I think the learned above would also have comments on graphics
card for digital video editing. As you are probably very well aware, a
good card and sluggish CPU can work out better than a poorer card and
the latest CPU.

Best

Friend,

         Before choseing a system , you may think how would you use it
if u want to use it for PROFESSIONAL work + GAMES + MOVIES ETC then i
will prefer you to buy P4.

mohdasim87, unless mendee wants to go top of the line the Amd is
proven to be a much better choice. It isn't just about my personal
preferance it is purley about the numbers and in exception of the new
p4's with hyper threading technology, Amd is a much cheaper and better
proccesor. I am currently on a computer runind Amd, my last computer
however was a p4. Vut to my point I do run video, animation, and web
page design software etc. on my computer and I have no problems what
so ever.

Slow Down !

Mendee what you really need to do, if you edit video, is to go to the
hardware / software vendors "qualified equipment" or "recomended
configurations" or "System requirements" pages. All the components in
a digital video NLE system MUST work in concert with each other, so
beware. Even more critical if you are adding in video compression
boards etc.

Check out:

http://www.avid.com/products/xpresspro/specs.asp          avid
http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/systemreqs.html    adobe
http://www.matrox.com/video/support/rtx100xtremepro/rec/sys_rec.cfm   matrox

Note: I am a video systems engineer, just trying to save you some grief.

Good Luck and Have Fun

Methodical

i would opt for a pentium 4 processor, amd is mostly used for gaming
and overclocking, pentium is more commonly used for video editing and
things like that because of the extra addons to the prossessor
ie:hyper threading, sse2, sse3, and so on.  if you are on a tight
budget, i would go with a athlon 64 processor, which are just as good
as the pentium 4's, the benchmark differences are not that great
between the 2, just make sure that you have about a gig of ram, as it
will run a lot smoother, and plan on getting a very big hard drive. 
as far as graphics cards go, a basic 128 mb, ati or geforce card will
do just fine, the cost of a good graphics card for your purposes will
run you about 150-200 dollars, but p4 would be better for video
editing

I havent had the pleasure of using a atholon 64 as of yet. As why I
wouldn't have recomended it myself.

Hay you all seam to care about Graphics so much Mendee-ga said  "I
don't play games nor use high end graphics but I do intend to edit
digital
home video." I know you guy's want to talk web design, Game's & what
not as do I but let's help this person. I have PC's laptop's & Desk
top's. Same with Mac's which is what I am weighting to you on PowerMac
G5 2.0 to prove how good it is I am using VPC 7.1 to type this would
mostly be the best choice you can get a 64 Bit G5 Processor in a iMac
G5 1.6 to 1.8 with a 17 or 20 inch Display bit in (Mac sells the
Displays they think are not perfect to other companies use them as
there best) with a NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
64MB DDR video memory & it's so fast High-performance it is only all
in one that you can take out the PCI & PCI-X and upgrade them (I CUT
AND PASTED FROM APPLE ON SUN JAN 23) $1,299.00
Estimated Ship: Same business day
Free Shipping
17-inch widescreen LCD
1.6GHz PowerPC G5
512K L2 cache
533MHz frontside bus
256MB DDR400 SDRAM
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
64MB DDR video memory
80GB Serial ATA hard drive
Slot-load Combo Drive
Apple Credit Account -- payments as low as $29 per month
$1,499.00
Estimated Ship: Same business day
Free Shipping
17-inch widescreen LCD
1.8GHz PowerPC G5
512K L2 cache
600MHz frontside bus
256MB DDR400 SDRAM
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
64MB DDR video memory
80GB Serial ATA hard drive
Slot-load SuperDrive
Apple Credit Account -- payments as low as $34 per month
$1,899.00
Estimated Ship: Same business day
Free Shipping
20-inch widescreen LCD
1.8GHz PowerPC G5
512K L2 cache
600MHz frontside bus
256MB DDR400 SDRAM
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
64MB DDR video memory
160GB Serial ATA hard drive
Slot-load SuperDrive

Apple Credit Account -- payments as low as $42 per month

The display is the computer
Innovative engineering makes iMac G5 a beauty to behold and a beauty
to use. Form truly follows function with all of the computer,
including power supply and stereo speakers, enclosed within the
widescreen flat-panel display.
Faster brain
Tuned for speed, the G5 processor makes everything faster. You?ll love
composing music, making movies and burning DVDs ? at the same time ?
and forget you ever waited for your computer to do what you said.
Included software
Mac OS X version 10.3 ?Panther?, the world's most advanced operating
system, iLife (includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD and GarageBand),
AppleWorks, Quicken 2004 for Mac, World Book 2004 Edition, Nanosaur 2,
Marble Blast Gold, Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Test Drive, Apple
Hardware Test and more
Gorgeous graphics
The NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra graphics processor with 64MB of DDR
SDRAM delivers unparalleled 2D and 3D graphics performance and an
immersive, photorealistic gaming experience with three times the frame
rate of previous-generation processors.



(OR if you want a Tower for only $1,499.00 The Single PowerMac G5
The new 64-bit PowerPC G5 processor)
Powered by up to two PowerPC G5 processor at speeds of up to 2.5GHz
each, the Power Mac G5 delivers exponential computing power. Jointly
developed by Apple and IBM, the PowerPC G5 includes Velocity Engine
and dual 64-bit floating point units for computational excellence.

64-bit breakthrough
The new 64-bit PowerPC G5 processor enables the Power Mac G5 to break
through the 4GB barrier and support up to 8GB of main memory ? four
times more than a typical PC.

Bandwidth to burn
An all-new high-bandwidth system architecture features up to 1.25GHz
frontside bus ? one on each processor ? for maximum throughput of an
astounding 20GBps. And we?ve boosted the bandwidth even further with
an AGP 8X Pro graphics bus and the option of three PCI-X slots, giving
you the benefit of advanced in PCI technology ? increasing speeds from
33MHz to 133MHz, and throughput from 266MBps to 2GBps.

High-speed AGP 8X Pro graphics bus
AGP 8X Pro graphics bus effectively doubles the maximum transfer rate
and doubles the amount of data transferred in a single AGP bus cycle.
The 66MHz AGP 8X Pro bus strobes eight times per clock cycle,
achieving a 533MHz data rate and a maximum bandwidth of 2.1GB per
second ? ideal for the ultrafast graphics cards you can choose, like
the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra and GT DDL, ATI Radeon 9800 XT, 9600 XT
or NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra. All cards support for both extended
desktop and video mirroring modes.



High-performance I/O
Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire 400 and 800, USB 2.0 and optical digital
and analog audio are all integrated through two bidirectional 16-bit,
800MHz interconnects for a maximum throughput of 3.2GB per second.


Designed for whisper-quiet operation
The Power Mac G5's enclosure houses four discrete thermal zones to
compartmentalize the primary heat-producing components. Fans in the
zones spin at very low speeds resulting in a system twice as quiet
than the Power Mac G4. Dual 2.5GHz systems include an innovative
closed-loop liquid cooling system that provides a continuous flow of
fluid over the processors to draw away heat quietly and efficiently.

8x SuperDrive
Every Power Mac G5 comes with a SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW) that lets you
burn both CDs and DVDs that can be played in most consumer DVD
players. The SuperDrive now writes to 4.7-gigabyte DVD-R discs at 8x.

Go wireless
Wireless networking is equally simple using the optional 54-Mbps
AirPort Extreme Card and AirPort Extreme Base Station or the new
AirPort Express. The optional Bluetooth module and antenna allow you
to connect wirelessly to a range of digital devices like cell phones,
PDAs and printers.

Optical digital audio
The Power Mac G5 comes with audio capabilities that are not usually
found on personal computers. The state-of-the-art optical digital
audio in and out ports use the S/PDIF protocol over Toslink cables for
connecting to 5.1 surround-sound speaker systems and more.
Built for Mac OS X
All Power Mac G5s now ship with Mac OS X v 10.3 "Panther", the world's
most advanced operating system.
Included Software
Mac OS X v 10.3 "Panther", iLife (includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie,
iDVD and GarageBand), Art Directors Toolkit, EarthLink TotalAccess
2004, GraphicConverter, Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Test Drive,
OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, QuickBooks for Mac New User Edition, Zinio
Reader, Mail, iChat AV, Safari, Sherlock, Address Book, QuickTime,
iSync, iCal, DVD Player, Classic environment, Xcode Developer Tools
Hardware accessories
Apple Keyboard, Apple Mouse, USB keyboard extension cable, DVI to VGA
adapter, modem cable and AirPort antenna.
Plugged in
It?s easy to plug printers, scanners and other devices into the Power
Mac G5. In addition to sporting a full complement of ports on the
back, the front panel has FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 ports, as well as a
headphone jack.

$1,499.00
Estimated Ship: Same business day
Free Shipping
Single 1.8GHz PowerPC G5
1.8GHz PowerPC G5
600MHz frontside bus

512K L2 cache
256MB DDR400 SDRAM 
Expandable to 4GB SDRAM
80GB Serial ATA 
8x SuperDrive 
Three PCI Slots 
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
64MB DDR video memory 
56K internal modem 

Apple Credit Account -- payments
as low as $34 per month
$1,999.00
Estimated Ship: Same business day
Free Shipping
Dual 1.8GHz PowerPC G5
900MHz frontside bus/processor
512K L2 cache/processor
256MB DDR400 SDRAM
Expandable to 4GB SDRAM
80GB Serial ATA
8x SuperDrive
Three PCI Slots
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
64MB DDR video memory
56K internal modem

Apple Credit Account -- payments
as low as $45 per month 
$2,499.00
Estimated Ship: Same business day
Free Shipping
Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5
1GHz frontside
bus/processor
512K L2 cache/processor
512MB DDR400 SDRAM
Expandable to 8GB SDRAM
160GB Serial ATA
8x SuperDrive
Three PCI-X Slots
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
64MB DDR video memory
56K internal modem

Apple Credit Account -- payments
as low as $56 per month
$2,999.00
Estimated Ship: 5-7 business days
Free Shipping
Dual 2.5GHz PowerPC G5
1.25GHz frontside bus/processor
512K L2 cache/processor
512MB DDR400 SDRAM
Expandable to 8GB SDRAM
160GB Serial ATA
8x SuperDrive
Three PCI-X Slots
ATI Radeon 9600 XT
128MB DDR video memory
56K internal modem

Apple Credit Account -- payments
as low as $67 per month

Answer is Apple look on Ebay  Apple's trade for 3x as much as the IBM MS Clones

macapple-ga, most of us realize the benifits of owening a IBM
compatable computer, this is why we are talking about pc's. I am not
trying to turn this into a huge debate about the differences. But the
facts are in the numbers. Ibm compatable computers are cheaper the
software is cheaper, you have a bigger variety, add ons for your
computer are not set in stone, by that i mean you have alot more
varity on what you want or need for anything on your computer. And so
there are no rebuttal about why pc's are so cheap. They are beuse they
are the standered. The more a product sales the cheaper it becomes.

I would concur with the general view, P4 ideally or AMD as good second runner. 

I really think it a bit unfair to dump the whole PC/APPLE situation on
this poor guy. He has decided PC and presumably arrived at that
decision because that is the conclusion most people arrive at.  Apple
make a great product, but as they won't allow fair competition it's a
monopoly supply situation selling to a largely niche market. OK for
experts, but for a newbie (beginner) to try to change the OS....!!!!

For that matter, trying to find an independant and reasonable service
facility for Apple product can be a full time job.

My advice to the original poster of this question would be to buy the
best they can afford, keep the processor spec fairly high and then can
always add video card, increased HDD or RAM as time goes by. You can
add to the specification in most respects, but you are usually locked
in with respect to the processor.

Thats my thought for the day

This is a bit off topic, but as you seem to be a bit new to computers,
I'll throw this on the table.  One big question you might want to ask
yourself is how big are the video files you will be editing?  If you
are editing a large ammount of data at once, it's always a good idea
to have lots of RAM.  For general purpose editing and everyday use,
512MB of RAM is sufficient; however, if you are looking to edit files
more than a few hundred MB in size, I would ask you to get 1GB of RAM
or more if you are dealing with HUGE files.  But I would agree with
most of the others, with the exception of the mac guy, the AMD is the
processor of choice for gamers and people on a budget, but for your
purposes, I think either the P4 or the AMD would be good.  Just please
don't get yourself a celeron unless all you plan on doing is writing
e-mails and word processing.