Intel or AMD?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Jan 12, 2005
Messages
1,210
Location
CA
Hey all.. I'm looking at updating my 1.1ghz Athlon homebuilt machine.

I've pieced together two wishlists at Newegg (I LOVE Newegg) and an Intel 2.5Ghz Wolfdale will run me just under $300 with the CPU, board, RAM, 160gb HDD and a new PFC/80+ Bronze 330w power supply shipped to my door.

A Quad core AMD 1.8ghz with 1066 DDR2 upgrade will cost about $340 shipped along with the same hdd and PS.

Which one would you spend the $$ on and why?

I'm not really loyal to any certain CPU manufacturer, but I do know that back in the day, AMD had a slight performance advantage over the Intel systems... just not sure if that is still true!
 
You can look at CPU benchmarks and see who is the top performer right now. You can check out this website (http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2009-desktop-cpu-charts/benchmarks,60.html) for CPU benchmarks.
 
As far as I know:

Intel's best CPU is a lot faster than AMD's best CPU. On the other hand, AMD still wins in performance-per-dollar.

In other words, if you're looking for the king of the hill, it's Intel. If you're looking for bang-for-the-buck, it's AMD.



Quick side note: unless you're running HEAVILY multi-threaded apps, dual-core with a faster clock speed is usually better than quad-core with a slower clock speed.
 
Last edited:
Ah, the age-old war.

Sounds like you're in the market for an AMD chip. I prefer Intel myself, but you seem to want value more than anything.

And just get a faster clocked dual. There's no sense in three or four cores for the average user.
 
I've found that for whatever reason, amd machines seem to have a longer lifecycle, i.e. They run better, longer with the same OS, HD, etc. I'm not acomputerguy, but I've built a lot of high performance machines for combined daily use and extreme mathematical analysis and computation.

Just my experience, fwiw.
 
If you're penny pinching, the AMD route is going to give you a better bang for the buck. As someone else already mentioned, in the "money is no object" realm, Intel holds the performance crown by a pretty significant margin. However, that doesn't appear to be your realm. I'd also agree that a faster clocked dual core athlon is likely going to serve most people better than a much slower clocked quad core. Just make sure you get a recent vintage processor/motherboard with the AM3 socket so you'll have upgrade options for a while in the event that you decide later that you want more cpu grunt.

edit: The Athlon II X2 250 is looking pretty sweet at only $76 for the retail version. It also uses a lot less power than the quad-core you mentioned which will save you on utility bills as well.

Good luck.
 
My old AK6 AMD chip survived will into its obsolescence. Well enough that I went with a whole new mother board and another AMD chip. For less than $200, I jumped forward at least 10 years. The chief limit on my whole system now is the bandwidth $30/mo buys me from Earthlink.

Note, my whole family avoids Wintel as much as possible. Don't be sending me any emails with Windows 7 files.
 
I've always been the anti-Intel builder/user since I don't like a single company controlling a monopoly. I've built a couple of dozen systems over the last 20 years and I've used Cyrix when a customer wanted just an internet cruiser and now I push AMD. I have nothing against the Intel quality. It was somewhat funny though when the Intel chip was recalled because it errored on some complex math problems and I've also lived through the AMD overheating era.
 
I have used and built tons of systems with both. If you are a hardcore gamer their is a slight advantage to AMD if using the right chipset on the motherboard. Other than that you wouldn't notice a difference between the two and I would get whatever is cheaper at the time.
wink.gif
 
I have built and used both as well. I always thought that AMD was more budget based, but the parts that I have priced out, the AMD is more expensive, even with just the dual-core X2. Kind of suprising, actually.

My frustration comes with tracking down a good performing chip and motherboard. I have wish lists on Newegg, and they often sell out of the lower priced chips very quickly. (For good reason I suppose) but I don't thing I'd be disappointed whichever combo I get.

My intent is to get a good performing system that will use less power, generate less heat, and be fairly speedy.
 
If you are power conscious I think the Intel Core2Duo or Quad will be the best. I recently built a Core 2 Quad system with a Gigabyte MB. I was able to build the Intel system cheaper than an equivalent AMD system. My previous system was an AMD Athlon system that is still running without problems after 9 years. Biggest thing is get a good MB and power supply and you are good to go with either. For what the average user uses a PC for, they will never know the difference between the 2.
 
Originally Posted By: MysticGold04
I have built and used both as well. I always thought that AMD was more budget based, but the parts that I have priced out, the AMD is more expensive, even with just the dual-core X2. Kind of suprising, actually.

My frustration comes with tracking down a good performing chip and motherboard. I have wish lists on Newegg, and they often sell out of the lower priced chips very quickly. (For good reason I suppose) but I don't thing I'd be disappointed whichever combo I get.

My intent is to get a good performing system that will use less power, generate less heat, and be fairly speedy.


I don't see how it's possible to find an Intel system that is cheaper than a comparably performing AMD system. You'd have to really work at it to make that happen. I just checked newegg and was able to get a Phenom II x2 545 (3ghz) and Gigabyte motherboard combo for $139. That comes with an integrated ATI Radeon 4200 as well which is not too shabby of a HD video/gaming performer either when you consider you're basically getting it "for free". If you pick an older generation Athlon 64 x2, you can shave another $20 off that. The CHEAPEST dual core Intel core2duo (Wolfdale running at 2.8ghz) is $115 for the processor alone.

The only situation where I'd pick Intel over AMD is if I had a lot of video/audio encoding to do. They are noticeably faster for that task, but you pay a premium for it.

Good luck with whatever you pick.
 
Originally Posted By: Familyguy
Originally Posted By: MysticGold04
I have built and used both as well. I always thought that AMD was more budget based, but the parts that I have priced out, the AMD is more expensive, even with just the dual-core X2. Kind of suprising, actually.

My frustration comes with tracking down a good performing chip and motherboard. I have wish lists on Newegg, and they often sell out of the lower priced chips very quickly. (For good reason I suppose) but I don't thing I'd be disappointed whichever combo I get.

My intent is to get a good performing system that will use less power, generate less heat, and be fairly speedy.


I don't see how it's possible to find an Intel system that is cheaper than a comparably performing AMD system. You'd have to really work at it to make that happen. I just checked newegg and was able to get a Phenom II x2 545 (3ghz) and Gigabyte motherboard combo for $139. That comes with an integrated ATI Radeon 4200 as well which is not too shabby of a HD video/gaming performer either when you consider you're basically getting it "for free". If you pick an older generation Athlon 64 x2, you can shave another $20 off that. The CHEAPEST dual core Intel core2duo (Wolfdale running at 2.8ghz) is $115 for the processor alone.

The only situation where I'd pick Intel over AMD is if I had a lot of video/audio encoding to do. They are noticeably faster for that task, but you pay a premium for it.

Good luck with whatever you pick.


Depends on the sales at the time and what processors you are looking for. Lower end it is cheaper to go AMD, but at the upper end it is almost a wash and the Intel usually has better performance.
 
Thanks Familyguy.. I wonder what the performance difference is between the Intel combo I posted is...The main difference being the memory bus width and speed of DDR2 vs DDR3. I really don't care for any motherboards other than Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte, so I really didn't want to go with the Biostar combo.
 
Yep, it's DDR2 because it's supposed to be a budget board. The difference in performance is negligible for someone trying to integrate a $300-400 system and DDR2 memory is cheaper. I went out of my way to try to find any dual core Intel solution that was even close to this combo in terms of price/performance and came up empty handed.

If ya wanna upgrade from Ripple to Moet, you've got to pay the piper. :)
 
here's my cart:

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM $39.49

SeaSonic S12II 380B 380W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Retail $59.99

OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2P10664GK - Retail
$53.99

AMD Phenom II X2 545 Callisto 3.0GHz Socket AM3 80W Dual-Core Processor Model HDX545WFGIBOX - Retail
GIGABYTE GA-MA785GM-US2H AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $139.98

So... $333.69 (Incl tax and shipping) to breathe new life into my 1.1Ghz Athlon Socket A system.

Not gonna pull the trigger just yet though...
grin2.gif
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top