Hello.
It turns out my query to HP did not go through, so I called their Sales Department. They put me in touch with atech repnamed Jesus (“Hey-Soos”), who seemed fairly knowledgeable.
Jesus said that the only people who reallyneed Z800’s are people who do full-on 3D (like Dreamworks). He said that the reason there was no performance difference with CS4 (whether the second processor was on or off) was probably just that the machine did not get taxed hard enough.
He said thatthe way the architecture works is that the primary processor does not send anything to thesecond processor unless it starts to reach a certain load point. Since regular video editing does not tap processor speed like full-on 3D or serious heavy-duty CAD, the primary processor never exceeds the threshold. In other words, it handleseverything within the primary processor itself, and never ‘calls for backup.’
He recommended that unless I was going to do some serious full-on 3D or some ultra-heavy-duty CAD (which I’m not planning on), that all I would really need would bea fast single-processor model, like a 3.2 GHz Z400, and a graphics card with 1GB to 1.5GB RAM. Then he also recommended large hard drives, etcetera.
He seemed like a decent guy. Does it seem like what he said makes sense?
Norman
