Processor (CPU) for a Multimedia PC
Because this is a multimedia PC, you don’t need the high-end processors. The current middle of the line processors will do just fine playing mp3s and videos. However you don’t want to get the lowest model either because unless your video card can hardware decode videos, your CPU is going to have to do that. If you have a slow CPU, the video playback will be jerky.
We recommend a Pentium 4 3.0E GHz (B000184BLU). Be sure to get a Prescott core model which gives you a 1 MB L2 cache, SSE3, 800 MHz front-side bus and hyper-threading. On the AMD side, you can still stick with an Athlon 64 (B00067L02O), just at a lower clock speed. A 3000+ will offer about the same performance as our Intel choice but at a lower price.