AMD and Intel

[Adrenaline]

I am going to build a system and have everything picked out but the processor as I do more than just video games. I surf the web and use office applications a lot. I also run other small programs to do work with, usually having about 4-6 things running at once. I know AMD is better for gaming, but the question would be which would be better for doing both on a continuous basis?

50/50 split between games (50% games and 50% the rest) and then movies, burning, ripping apps and so on.

 

[buzzsaw13]

Whats your budget?

 

[stevty2889]

Depends on how much you want to spend. Might as well get a dual core if you can afford it. X2 3800+ would be the best of both worlds.

 

[Adrenaline]

I have a 3500 budget and have maxed out the pc with two 7900 gtx and more.

I dont want to buy a new pc for the next 3 years as this one is 4 years old.

I was either going to build it or go with ibuypower.

 

[Adrenaline]

2 GB RAM
74 GB Raptor
300 GB WD
X-Fi Sound Card
2 7900 GTX for SLI
Case
Fan
DVD ROM
DVD R
Floppy
KB
Mouse


The chip and board along with the RAM depend on the chip style of course.

I make good money and want to spoil myself a bit. I have it narrowed down to a 4400+, 4800+ or a 940 or a 950 for the chips but have this major roadblock in my decision.

I have also read good things about a 3800+ on these boards. I am not to familiar with overclocking but might give it a shot if I decide to go with this CPU.

 

[dguy6789]

A dual core processor would be very good for anyone in the time of today, as well as tomorrow. If you are on a budget, then the Athlon 64 X2 3800+ makes sense. If you are on an extreme budget, then the Pentium D 820 and 805 are available.

If you are capable of affording the X2 3800+, even if it is a stretch, I would recommend it above the others as it runs cooler and tends to be a moderate bit faster in most tasks.

 

[Diasper]

What I'd do is spend about half of that now and save the rest for later - there is *always* better stuff coming out within a short period of time. This is no more true than with GPUs where there is just no point spending so much now when in a little over a year you can probably get double the performance for cheaper.

Save your money like that or else at very least buy a nice DLP (Digital Projector) for that extra immersion in games and films.

Also to be one of the 'cool' kids I'd go SFF...

Case: Aspire X Qpack (Best mATX case imo - good cooling with 120mm fan. I'd suggest the all black non-windowed one). Otherwise perhaps give the Centurion 541 a look.
PSU: Enermax Liberty 500W (Great modular PSU)
CPU: AMD 3800+ (Cooler than 2MB, recent rev overclock well ~2.7-2.9ghz)
Heatsink: Zalman 7000CU (Unless you mod the QPack this is about as good as can fit)
MOBO: DFI RS482 or Jetway GDMS210 Pro (Both overclock well DFI ~315mhz Jetway ~300mhz. Jetway is more feature rich (SATA2, HD sound, faster USB) but I'd go for DFI due to its overclocking options and also because you'd be getting a X-FI - just check it isn't picky with RAM like the Ultra D)
RAM: 2GB Value eg Crucial (No point paying more for 2-3% extra performance + DDR is soon outdated. About Crucial they seem to clock well ~240-250mhz at 3-3-3 @2.7-2.8V)
GPU: Nvidia 7900GT (low noise, low heat, good performance at value - then get a faster DX10 card in 1-2 years time)
Soundcard: Creative X-FI
DVD-RW: Benq or maybe a lightscribe drive
Keyboard: Logitech G15
Mouse: Logitech/Razorback (This is up for debate but my preference would be the MX518 for its ergonomics, excellent precision on all surfaces (better than lazer anyway) and 2 shoulder buttons)
Fan: Nexus 120mm if you did want to replace the stock one.
Harddrive: I'd say a 250GB+ quiet drive - perhaps the Hitachi T7K250 or Samsung. Alternatively, get the newest/latest Raptor & a large quiet drive (Samsung?)

 

[dguy6789]

I went SFF at one time. The cool factor wears off rather quickly. It ran hot, ran loud as the fans needed to be fast to cool it off, and it had extremely limited upgrade and expansion options.

I went back to regular form factor and have never looked back.

 

[imported_Seer]

I'd go with a DC opteron (165/170/175/180/185, fastest one you can afford on your budget), and try overclocking it. It's really not all that hard, I picked it up pretty quickly and had never done it before.

 

[Diasper]

Originally posted by: dguy6789
I went SFF at one time. The cool factor wears off rather quickly. It ran hot, ran loud as the fans needed to be fast to cool it off, and it had extremely limited upgrade and expansion options.

I went back to regular form factor and have never looked back.

How long ago was that? Things are certainly changing in the SFF market. Many more enthusiast boards are coming out (eg DFI RS482 with its obscene amount of memory divider & voltage options)- heck there's even an SLI motherboard now. Also the number of cases with good cooling are increasing and are set to only get better from here on in - the Aspire QPack was the first real SFF case with excellent cooling (due to 120mm fan) and room for expansion (two hardrives, can fit full length graphics cards).

SFF are becoming very much a real option for the enthusiast without compromises. The only real limitations at this point are perhaps SLI/enough PCI slots. Hopefully, when everything comes standardised on PCI-E this will become a non-issue.


(edit)
Just an additional note on a simple mod on the QPack - if you reverse the fan to blow in it will drop temperatures alot (of course supposing its in an open enough environment not to suck in the hot air from the PSU

 

[dguy6789]

Originally posted by: Diasper

Originally posted by: dguy6789
I went SFF at one time. The cool factor wears off rather quickly. It ran hot, ran loud as the fans needed to be fast to cool it off, and it had extremely limited upgrade and expansion options.

I went back to regular form factor and have never looked back.

How long ago was that? Things are certainly changing in the SFF market. Many more enthusiast boards are coming out (eg DFI RS482 with its obscene amount of memory divider & voltage options)- heck there's even an SLI motherboard now. Also the number of cases with good cooling are increasing and are set to only get better from here on in - the Aspire QPack was the first real SFF case with excellent cooling (due to 120mm fan) and room for expansion (two hardrives, can fit full length graphics cards).

SFF are becoming very much a real option for the enthusiast without compromises. The only real limitations at this point are perhaps SLI/enough PCI slots. Hopefully, when everything comes standardised on PCI-E this will become a non-issue.


(edit)
Just an additional note on a simple mod on the QPack - if you reverse the fan to blow in it will drop temperatures alot (of course supposing its in an open enough environment not to suck in the hot air from the PSU

I had a sff around two to three years ago.

 

[Brunnis]

Originally posted by: Adrenaline
I make good money and want to spoil myself a bit. I have it narrowed down to a 4400+, 4800+ or a 940 or a 950 for the chips but have this major roadblock in my decision.

Those two AMD CPUs would be the better choice. They run cooler, multitask just as well and generally perform better.

 

[framerateuk]

Originally posted by: Diasper

Originally posted by: dguy6789
I went SFF at one time. The cool factor wears off rather quickly. It ran hot, ran loud as the fans needed to be fast to cool it off, and it had extremely limited upgrade and expansion options.

I went back to regular form factor and have never looked back.

How long ago was that? Things are certainly changing in the SFF market. Many more enthusiast boards are coming out (eg DFI RS482 with its obscene amount of memory divider & voltage options)- heck there's even an SLI motherboard now. Also the number of cases with good cooling are increasing and are set to only get better from here on in - the Aspire QPack was the first real SFF case with excellent cooling (due to 120mm fan) and room for expansion (two hardrives, can fit full length graphics cards).

SFF are becoming very much a real option for the enthusiast without compromises. The only real limitations at this point are perhaps SLI/enough PCI slots. Hopefully, when everything comes standardised on PCI-E this will become a non-issue.


(edit)
Just an additional note on a simple mod on the QPack - if you reverse the fan to blow in it will drop temperatures alot (of course supposing its in an open enough environment not to suck in the hot air from the PSU

Im using a SSF now, and as cool as it looks, as soon as i get back from my holiday in 2 weeks time, im getting a new motherboard and dumping the SFF case.

Although my CPU is kept nice and cool, the rest of the case might as well be a baking oven. Ive got 3 HD's in there, and all but the raptor drive (which is nearest the fans) run too hot. You could say that 3hd's is a lot for a SSF, but if they supply the room for them, then why shouldnt i use them?

Also, even though theres enough room for a 2 slot gpu, i just dont think theres enough airflow in the case to get enough cool air to it. As much as Shuttle till tout this as being a high performance case (which is can be if you enjoy the sound of a hovercraft in your room). But as far as a real enthusiast goes, i made quite a mistake buying the Shuttle case, and will be doing back to full ATX when i can. (I will keep the shuttle as a server though, and buy some cheap parts for it from ebay, or maybe even connect it to my TV).

 

[Adrenaline]

I can wait for a bit but I have had this pc for 3-4 years now and want to upgrade to where I dont have to do anything for a few years.

I make good money and wont have to save up (I hope) if I want to upgrade down the road.

on a high budget, which I have, I am just looking to make a monster machine that will work good for about 3 years.

 

[framerateuk]

Seeing as you do have SLI it does look like you can get quite serious about gaming

Id say go with the AMD X2 line, and get whichever one fits your budget. They outperform Intel for gaming by quite a margin. Intel do get better scores for content generation and encoding, but the X2's will run fast enough for you anyway.

 

[Adrenaline]

One last thing:

7900 GTX SLI or save a little and try for the 7900 GT SLI Superclocked?

 

[framerateuk]

What res do you want to game at?

If youve got a big widescreen monitor then you want as much power as you can get (especially for games that dont take much advantage of SLI).

 

[Adrenaline]

I have a Gateway 21" Widescreen and want to max out everything.

 

[Viditor]

Originally posted by: framerateuk
Seeing as you do have SLI it does look like you can get quite serious about gaming

Id say go with the AMD X2 line, and get whichever one fits your budget. They outperform Intel for gaming by quite a margin. Intel do get better scores for content generation and encoding, but the X2's will run fast enough for you anyway.

Actually, it depends what program. Of course AMD is best across the board for gaming...but for things like encoding, AMD is superior on TMPG and Intel is better with Windows Media 9. This is comparing the 4800+ and the Pressler 955EE.

 

[framerateuk]

Originally posted by: Adrenaline
I have a Gateway 21" Widescreen and want to max out everything.

Go for SLI 7900GTX then. Youll need fast good card for the highest possible resoluutions.

Of course you could go for a X1900 XTX