Finally left AMD.

[SunnyD]

I feel obligated to post this for some reason. This is more of a blog-ish post than anything informative, but I am feeling particularly plucky today and my balls dropped a little. I was thinking of doing a sort of live-blog sort of deal with this upgrade for you guys, but figured you all sit here ridiculing me.

It is with a heavy heart that last night I have officially retired from AMD (CPUs).

Last night I pulled my Phenom II 940BE and Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H from my rig, and unboxed a brand new i7 920 D0 and Asrock X58 Extreme and proceeded to do an out-of-box POST test and bios update. Everything went smooth, and tonight I will be getting everything into the case and reinstalling Windows.

Mind you, there was absolutely nothing wrong with my AMD setup. It had plenty of oomph for everything I do, and has been quite reliable for the past year. Prior to that was an X2 4200, and prior to that an X2 3800, and prior to that a Sempron 64 2800. Even the generation prior for me was AMD using AthlonXP's. You'd have to go all the way back to the ABit BP6 with those sweet dual Celerons 300A's for the last Intel system I've owned. Now don't go thinking this is all about me being an "AMD fanboy". It was simply me following platform upgrades piecemeal, since I haven't been able to afford to to a wholesale upgrade in quite a while.

This "upgrade" so to speak was simply on a whim, and to relieve myself from the venerable AM2 platform that I was proverbially locked into. So I went in a direction that would hopefully give me some platform longevity. Didn't hurt that Microcenter has been dropping that sweet $199 deal on 920's either.

Thank you AMD. It's been a wonderful decade. At least we'll still have GPUs.

Okay... I'm done now. You're more than welcome to start ridiculing me.

 

[soccerballtux]

tl;dr version?

 

[HopJokey]

What type of usages prompted you for an upgrade?

 

[SunnyD]

tl;dr version?

- Had AMD for ~10 years (approx) till yesterday.
- Have Intel today.
- Not a fanboy, just not rich.

What type of usages prompted you for an upgrade?

Actually, the one thing that really inspired me to go with Intel is the CPU prowess and the platform. Seems like Intel's "enthusiast" platforms generally hang around a lot longer and can be upgraded across more generations of CPUs (like the upcoming Westmeres).

I'm going to start running a VM or two for various reasons, and I think that the i7's and the platform (more memory) will be handling better over AMD's current offerings.

Other than that, with Intel finally ditching FSB for QPI... well, let's just say I've enjoyed the advantages of HyperTransport for quite some time. It's about damn time.

 

[aigomorla]

As yoda would say...

Strong is the darkside.. yes..

 

[SunnyD]

As yoda would say...

Strong is the darkside.. yes..

As Teal'c would say.. "Indeed."

Not to mention I have the parts trickling in for an i3 530/H55 based HTPC/Mommy-box too.

 

[ElFenix]

i might want an AMD right now if the power management was modern. i know they tried for that and it didn't work.

 

[spinejam]

nice upgrade!

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I enjoy my i7 920@ 3.6ghz. It's plenty fast for surfing the Internet. Overkill? Indeed.

 

[soccerballtux]

i might want an AMD right now if the power management was modern. i know they tried for that and it didn't work.

do you mean power consumption? I like their Cool'n'Quiet a lot more than Intel's speedstep.

AMD doesn't have any good low-power offerings though unforunately :/

 

[Gillbot]

As yoda would say...

Strong is the darkside.. yes..

I get Aigo'ed, he got Gillboted.......

 

[jiffylube1024]

You'll be very happy with the Intel setup. It's fast!

I continue to build primarily Intel for myself and value AMD systems for most other people (especially when I was getting 780G ASUS M3A78-EM motherboards on sale for ~$60-70 here in Canada with DVI, HDMI and Display Port onboard).

 

[Axon]

Ironically, I'm on the cusp of buying an AMD after about 6 years of Intel.

 

[HannibalX]

I just bought an AM3 790FX motherboard, Phenom II X4 965 3.4GHz CPU and 8GB of DDR3-1333 RAM. :awe:

 

[Tsavo]

As yoda would say...

Strong is the darkside.. yes..

The Darkside is actually Cyrix.

 

[BD231]

So tell me sunny, dose your internet explorer run any faster?

 

[Markfw]

I have to say that your history looks like you went for bang/buck, and now your just want more performance, but not at a great price.

No ridicule here, just wishes that you enjoy !!!!

 

[daveybrat]

i might want an AMD right now if the power management was modern. i know they tried for that and it didn't work.

LOL, Elfenix.....Look at my horse...my horse is amazing!

Nice Avatar!

 

[SunnyD]

I have to say that your history looks like you went for bang/buck, and now your just want more performance, but not at a great price.

No ridicule here, just wishes that you enjoy !!!!

For a time yes, when AMD was kicking Intel's ass left and right with the Athlon 64's. But once I started down that path, it was more or less the fact that I was locked into the platform if I wanted to do incremental upgrades due to financial reasons.

 

[Dadofamunky]

Hey man, it's not too late. don't jump ship!!! Not when I have this lovely Shuttle with Athlon 4800+ S939 (see below) that I have put up for sale! Nooooooo!!!!!!!!

 

[SunnyD]

Well anyway... everything has made it into my lovely P180... sitting on the desk open case at the bios HW Monitoring screen. Looks like the CPU is idling at 37C under a Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer and some AS5.

It's sad to see my Phenom II go. Interesting story about that too - picked it up right here on these very forums a year ago about a week after they launched. Full retail box, opened but otherwise unused for $165 shipped when they were selling new for >$200. But it'll have a nice life across the pond over in merry old England, where a buyer is waiting for my old setup.

 

[MJinZ]

Hmmm is this thread about your balls dropping or your choice of silicon sex partners?

 

[hans007]

i generally buy AMD more for philsophical issues because I dont like how they cripple features off.

funnily i work with intel's dev teams for some software stuff at work, and they are all cool guys. but the whole "no VT or no HT" thing sort of bothers me.

but they do make some very good high end CPUs , and their low power offereings are great so congrats on the purchase.

 

[7earitup]

Have fun! The i3/i5/i7 lines are absolutely amazing processors.

 

[adlep]

i generally buy AMD more for philsophical issues because I dont like how they cripple features off.

funnily i work with intel's dev teams for some software stuff at work, and they are all cool guys. but the whole "no VT or no HT" thing sort of bothers me.

but they do make some very good high end CPUs , and their low power offereings are great so congrats on the purchase.

DITTO,
I love the fact that you can buy a Quad Core AMD CPU loaded with ALL the features for around $100.00
AMD is still a king of budget.