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What CPU to use AMD or Intel?

C

Compman55

Golden Member
I never had a second thought back when P4's were only 400 & 533 FSB, AMD was the wise choice. Never regretted it until the i865 & ICH5R chipset came out. RAID blew any AMD solution out of the water with SATA.

Now I am so confused as to what to buy. Some say i7, some say Phenom II x4 is the way to go, and some say just basics will never need anything more than a Core2 Duo.

So I want to keep build price & win7 under 1k. I am using an old mint case of mine that I used for 3 builds now, and I have a current version 430w power supply.
 
Ok, get a Phenom II X4. I would advise an intel Core i7 if budget is $1200. Basically intel is high performance, high price, AMD is a little lower performance, for a little less.
 
I never beleive in buying the latest and greatest, just the best bang for your buck. Thats why I think AMD Athlon II X4 is the best bang for your buck. You get 4 cores at very cheap price and don't get fucked on mobo prices. You can get the mobo+cpu for 130 dollars compared to 350+ dollars for i7.
 
AMD Phenom... II X4... So much faster for $50 more than the Athlon II X4. That's the best bang for your buck.
 
Holy $hit is there a motherload of motherboard to pick from. It is now even hard to pick. It is an AM2+ socket for the phenom II x4.

What chipset should I shoot for?

How is motherboard stability? I had a lot of problems with my athlon XP systems back in the day.
 
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Compman55 said:
Holy $hit is there a motherload of motherboard to pick from. It is now even hard to pick. It is an AM2+ socket for the phenom II x4.

What chipset should I shoot for?

How is motherboard stability? I had a lot of problems with my athlon XP systems back in the day.
Click to expand...

Go for AM3 motherboards. Any AMD chipset is fine.
 
What does the rest of your system look like? I would advise against spending this much on the AM3 unless overall budget/ retail value of total parts is $1000<
 
I plan to use on board video and then be able to get a good card if need be. I will use a phenomII x4, 8GB DDR3, new DVD burner, new hard drive probably a caviar black 500gb to 2TB whatever I can get a deal on. I will re-use my case and 430w antec power supply. I will buy an oem coy of win 7.
 
Davidh373 said:
AMD Phenom... II X4... So much faster for $50 more than the Athlon II X4. That's the best bang for your buck.
Click to expand...


Nah, I would agree with Hacp that the best budget, bang-for-buck cpu is the Athlon II x4. With the Phenom II x4 you pay about 50% more for maybe 20% more performance.
 
Athlon II X4 gives you best bang for the buck. Quad-core for <$100? Yes please. No point in getting extra performance that makes no difference in your everyday computing. Even for video encoding, which would see a significant upgrade, I wouldn't pay the price premium for it. You supposedly do get a boost in minimum frames in games like DAO, but again, I wouldn't pay the price premium. I think I'm cheap...
 
For some future proofing, I would like to use USB 3.0, and SATA 6GBPS. I did not think I did, but I keep my machines forever.

And I figure, Im still 50&#37; cheaper than the i7 even with a PhenomII x4 and loaded motherboard.
 
What will you be using this system for? It always strikes me as odd that people will start immediately spitting out recommendations without any idea what the parts will be used for.

edit: OP, read Blain's sticky in this forum. Useful questions to answer.
 
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I'd say it depends on your budget. AMD is a good way to get a cheap quad-core system and performance isn't as bad as it's made out to be. However, Intel's cheapest i7 is on par with AMD's fastest Phenom II X4. Price is $100 difference though.
 
hondaf17 said:
Why not this combo from Newegg for $173 after rebate, which is a Sata 6 and USB 3 Gigabyte mobo with a faster triple core with good overclocking/unlocking capabilities...

Get a Cooler Master tx3 or Hyper 212 HSF, some DDR3 and you'd be set...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.353082
Click to expand...

Looks good actually, however for future proofing, I would like the Phenom II x4. Will that board work with it?

My system will be used for Win7 x64, basic apps and web. And lots of older 2005 games, like half life 2, medal of honer allied assault and Pacific assault (runs horrible).

People think im nuts going with the high end cpu's but I keep my systems forever and expect at least one OS upgrade. Like XP to Vista is required for me. I get pissed when I have hardware that will not work with the next gen operating system.
 
Then an Athlon II X4? I'm only just now learning that the Phenom series is only barely ahead and a lot more expensive. If i'm not mistaken they just added L3 cache to the Athlon and called it better? It seems odd to me. Anyway, get that Athlon II X4 and 4GB ram. I know this thread is about CPUs, but have you found your Graphics card yet? If you are going to get a new one you may as well spend an extra $40 and get a "good" card over something that will cost $50 and only play those games from 2005.
 
Davidh373 said:
Then an Athlon II X4? I'm only just now learning that the Phenom series is only barely ahead and a lot more expensive. If i'm not mistaken they just added L3 cache to the Athlon and called it better? It seems odd to me. Anyway, get that Athlon II X4 and 4GB ram. I know this thread is about CPUs, but have you found your Graphics card yet? If you are going to get a new one you may as well spend an extra $40 and get a "good" card over something that will cost $50 and only play those games from 2005.
Click to expand...

adding an L3 cache IS better. technically, they stripped the L3 cache and called it worse.
 
Compman55 said:
Looks good actually, however for future proofing, I would like the Phenom II x4. Will that board work with it?

My system will be used for Win7 x64, basic apps and web. And lots of older 2005 games, like half life 2, medal of honer allied assault and Pacific assault (runs horrible).

People think im nuts going with the high end cpu's but I keep my systems forever and expect at least one OS upgrade. Like XP to Vista is required for me. I get pissed when I have hardware that will not work with the next gen operating system.
Click to expand...

Athlon II X4 is a competent processor for your needs and I am sure that you wont face any issues upgrading to next gen OS.

By the way what resolution is your monitor??

If it is more than 20" get a good video card may be a Radeon HD 5570(~$75).
 
Compman55 said:
Holy $hit is there a motherload of motherboard to pick from. It is now even hard to pick. It is an AM2+ socket for the phenom II x4.

What chipset should I shoot for?

How is motherboard stability? I had a lot of problems with my athlon XP systems back in the day.
Click to expand...

It 2010 it time for people to understand that Brand name means very little.

Each Brand has good product and "bad" product.

The fact that you had problem with athlon XP has nothing to do with the current products.

Same apply to Intel or any other Brand name.

One of the reason that people have problem in choosing is because they do not define for themself what they really going to do with their systems.

Instead they are Full of Anxiety looking for some sort of Holy Grail looking for some imaginary things.



😎
 
Compman55 said:
Looks good actually, however for future proofing, I would like the Phenom II x4. Will that board work with it?

My system will be used for Win7 x64, basic apps and web. And lots of older 2005 games, like half life 2, medal of honer allied assault and Pacific assault (runs horrible).

People think im nuts going with the high end cpu's but I keep my systems forever and expect at least one OS upgrade. Like XP to Vista is required for me. I get pissed when I have hardware that will not work with the next gen operating system.
Click to expand...

You'd probably be fine sticking to a $500 tricore setup for that kind of usage. You wouldn't notice the difference between that and an i7.
 
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