Which processor, AMD or Intel?

[DeliciousTacos]

In late August I'm planning to build a new pc with these specs,

E4300 or AMD 4800+ Brisbane
eVGA 650i Ultra or AM2 equivalent
eVGA 8800 GTS 320mb
WINTEC AMPX 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
Seagate 250 GB HD
Lite-On DVD-RW
Corsair HX 520 PSU
Centurion 5 Case
Vista Home Premium 64 bit

I plan on using this pc for moderate multi-tasking (Firefox, Dreamweaver, Flash 8 Pro, etc. standard web design tools and Visual Basic) and for heavy gaming (HL2, Oblivion, CS, Halo 1 and 2,). I would like to overclock slightly with stock cooling only, due to my budget. My goal is to run Oblivion on Ultra High settings at around 30 fps + w/ HDR enabled and no AA at 1680x1050.

My question to you is, would I see a real difference from an overclocked e4300 or 4800+? Or are we talking about a difference that you can only see in benchmarks? And if you suggest AMD I would also like a suggestion for a good AM2 board for around the price of the eVGA 650i ($100 or less)

 

[Stumps]

If you are planning to overclock go for the E4300, they don't seem to have to much trouble reaching 3ghz and would easily leave any X2 for dead.

 

[Markfw]

excuse me, I know very few people (including myself) that could make it to 3 ghz with a 4300. Best I could do was 2915. I see yours is over, but thats a big minority from what I have read.

If you don;t OC, get the 4800, if you do, get a 6320 or 6420.

Edit: I have my E4300 for sale, want to buy it ?

 

[DeliciousTacos]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
excuse me, I know very few people (including myself) that could make it to 3 ghz with a 4300. Best I could do was 2915. I see yours is over, but thats a big minority from what I have read.

If you don;t OC, get the 4800, if you do, get a 6320 or 6420.

Edit: I have my E4300 for sale, want to buy it ?

Thanks but I'd like to buy one new, If I do end up going for the e4300. And btw, I believe Stumps has his e4300 on water, that may be the reason for his high OC.

 

[Markfw]

The same system with the same cooling that my 4300 system was in, now hosts a Q6600@3.2, and those are NOT easy to cool at that speed, so I have some pretty high end air. My point is, I think that if you have a $100 processor with $300 cooling (E4300+water, appox price), I would rather have a Q6600 + high end air for $350 (actual price) for a total of $50 less, and WAY more speed. Water is only for high end systems IMO, otherwise its a waste....

Or a $165 processor (6320) + a $35 cooler (AC freezer pro) for $200 in your case for 3.2-3.3 ghz....(with decent memory)

On the AMD front, even though I still have 4 AMD systems left, they are all older, and I could only get to 2400-2500 on them, so I defer to others recommendation on those. I do hear a lot of good things about the 3600 brisbane, and with the IMC, you can use cheap memory, unlike Intel.

 

[bryanW1995]

mark has a good point. don't believe everything you read about how high chips overclock. yes, you will probably reach a better oc on the e4300, but there is absolutely no guarantee, esp with stock cooling. also, you only need a 25 % oc on the brisbane to reach 3 ghz (achievable on stock cooling though might run warm), while you will definitely NOT reach 3 ghz or anything close to that on the e4300 with stock cooling. The biggest reason to get the intel in my book would be if you get a p35 ds3r and then plan a penryn upgrade in a year or two after they drop in price.

 

[DeliciousTacos]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
mark has a good point. don't believe everything you read about how high chips overclock. yes, you will probably reach a better oc on the e4300, but there is absolutely no guarantee, esp with stock cooling. also, you only need a 25 % oc on the brisbane to reach 3 ghz (achievable on stock cooling though might run warm), while you will definitely NOT reach 3 ghz or anything close to that on the e4300 with stock cooling. The biggest reason to get the intel in my book would be if you get a p35 ds3r and then plan a penryn upgrade in a year or two after they drop in price.

Ok, right now it looks like a 4800+ would do me well, I don't plan on upgrading my processor anytime soon, and now that you mention upgrading I don't plan on any upgrades in the next year or two (except for eVGA step-up to 9 series or high-end 8 series).

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: DeliciousTacos

Originally posted by: Markfw900
excuse me, I know very few people (including myself) that could make it to 3 ghz with a 4300. Best I could do was 2915. I see yours is over, but thats a big minority from what I have read.

If you don;t OC, get the 4800, if you do, get a 6320 or 6420.

Edit: I have my E4300 for sale, want to buy it ?

Thanks but I'd like to buy one new, If I do end up going for the e4300. And btw, I believe Stumps has his e4300 on water, that may be the reason for his high OC.

i have a decent Air-cooled e4300 OC at stock vcore ... yet i had no problem reaching 2.82Ghz in an ASrock Dual-VSTA MB with a stock intel cooler ... so my particular CPU may be better than average, i don't know.
--my $114 CPU is a "placeholder" for Penryn

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
excuse me, I know very few people (including myself) that could make it to 3 ghz with a 4300. Best I could do was 2915. I see yours is over, but thats a big minority from what I have read.

If you don;t OC, get the 4800, if you do, get a 6320 or 6420.

Edit: I have my E4300 for sale, want to buy it ?

I'm 5/5 over 3.2GHz with E4300. Look for SL9Tx on the chip or box. These newer E4300s have L2 stepping (normally better top-end speed). My best chip is good up to 3.6GHz with 1.5Vcore, but the heat is too much for the Big Typhoon. Currently at 3.46GHz with 1.465Vcore.

BTW, E4300 @ 2.8GHz will still rape the AMD at 3.0GHz. The 9x multi provides much lower core speed when idling using C1E and EIST. Also check out $98 AR Abit IP35-E @ hot deals forum. Works well with E4300 and future Peryn. Board runs cool and quiet.

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...AR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear