Intel vs. AMD

[Mayers]

I'm currently running a Pentium III on my system, it was good at the time I built the computer but now it's having a hard time with today's applications, and that's a huge problem. I plan to build a new tower and was wondering if AMD's processors are any better then Intels. The processor needs to be able to handle the following:

Being on 24/7, 365 days a year. It shouldn't get very hot and burn up in a few months.
I do a lot of web development, so it has to be able to handle different programming applications running at the sametime.
Shouldn't have major slow down with Flash or Java.
I don't do any major gaming (just a little from time to time), so that's not really a worry.

Thanks in advance for the feedback.

Marc

[bfoot045]

I'm personally for AMD in all regards.

I think one of their Opterons or their Athlon Dual Core would work well for you. (AMD X2).

[Quillz]

Most PC enthusiasts tend to agree that AMD is better overall, especially for gaming.

[tgillespie]

Buying a CPU based upon its brand is stupid. Each series of processors by each company has a different price to performance ratio. Saying AMD is better for gaming is not true. Saying Intel is better for gaming is not true. We first need to find out what Mayers budget is. From there we can look for the top processors in his range and then tell him AMD or Intel.

So Mayers, what is your budget?

[Mayers]

Buying a CPU based upon its brand is stupid. Each series of processors by each company has a different price to performance ratio. Saying AMD is better for gaming is not true. Saying Intel is better for gaming is not true. We first need to find out what Mayers budget is. From there we can look for the top processors in his range and then tell him AMD or Intel.

So Mayers, what is your budget?
$200 - $300 on the CPU. I'll order it from ZipZoomFly or Newegg.

I should add it's needs to beable to support Windows Vista once a stable version is released.

[ManagerJosh]

It seems like you'll be doing a lot more programming and development than gaming long term and have concerns about a core meltdown.

You should probably consider an Intel Dual Core Conroe Chip. It's scheduled to be out sometime this month with the price point to be about the same, if not cheaper than current Intel CPUs. Right now I tend to hedge my bets on Intel a little more since I've used both AMD A64 3000 and Pentium 4 3.0C processors and it seems that Intels have a little more in terms of stability and performance. AMD's do appear to have better processing over Intel (slightly, but not always noticeable). Plus AMD seems to be moving towards a similar strategy of Intel being that they are developing platform solutions and not just CPUs.

I've managed to shoot my Intel PC up to 100% CPU utilization load several times before and manage to still do some basic applications like AIM, or Solitare (or even get my computer to close the application that's running up the clock cycles). I've done full movie renderings before and had still plenty of utilization of my computer to do other basic applications to be pretty much productive.

I've had slightly more difficulties with the AMD system doing that and occasionally I'd had to twittle my thumbs for a minute or so before the computer would respond to get the application to close out.

In terms of heat, I think AMD has a much lower heat output during that generation. However I think both Intel and AMD on both evenly match on heat management today. I don't see one having a key advantage over another in heat management. Both now have the ability to ramp voltage up and down depending on CPU load. Both also have auto-shut down features to prevent a meltdown (I think AMD's is somewhere in between the motherboard controlling that or the CPU controlling that. Intel's is I believe purely CPU).

[Zachery]

There is a large difference between 100% of the processor being reserved and 100% utilization. Applications will "reserve" 100% of the CPU and thus show as such, even if they are not using it all. If your CPU every truely hits 100% you will expirence slowodnws.

[AWS]

I switched from Intel to AMD and I am going back to Intel. I switched because I wanted to have a box to test Vista 64 and Intel hadn't released there x86/64 processors yet. I have since built an Intel 64 box. Vista installs and runs much better on the Intel box. When installing on the AMD box I had driver problems. The chipset drivers for the ULI chipset would not install. Sata was a no go. With Intel it worked out of the box. AMD does make a good processor if you like to tinker. If you want it to just work go with Intel. The ties between Intel and Microsoft is the reason for that.

[Mayers]

Thanks for the feedback everyone :)

[Wayne Luke]

I switched from Intel to AMD and I am going back to Intel. I switched because I wanted to have a box to test Vista 64 and Intel hadn't released there x86/64 processors yet. I have since built an Intel 64 box. Vista installs and runs much better on the Intel box. When installing on the AMD box I had driver problems. The chipset drivers for the ULI chipset would not install. Sata was a no go. With Intel it worked out of the box. AMD does make a good processor if you like to tinker. If you want it to just work go with Intel. The ties between Intel and Microsoft is the reason for that.

Are you using an Intel chipset as well? As far as I am aware AMD doesn't actually make chipsets which would account for different incompatibilities you have experienced. I have never had a problem with the NVIDIA chipsets for AMD processors but have with VIA (AMD's preferrred vendor).

I find that chipset matters more than the CPU where compatibilities are an issue. When I build a new PC, I find the motherboard and chipset I want and then choose a Processor to fit the board.

[AWS]

That's the problem with AMD. VIA and ULI are garbage. Nvidia is the only chipset that is stable and is also one of the few that Intel allows to make chipsets for them. Until AMD goes back to making their own chipset the platform will suffer. AMD processors no doubt are top notch, but, the chipset is second rate. Until that changes I'll stay with the stable Intel platform.

[Wayne Luke]

I agree with you there. I just wanted to point out that just choosing a processor, isn't the end. Today, you have to look at chipsets, sockets, and cooling more than ever before. All will be crucial to your system's stability.

I just built my kids a small-form factor PC with a Socket 754 Athlon Sempron. Little older but within the budget I set for their machine. It has the Nvidia 6100 GPU and NVidia chipset with 1 GB of RAM under Windows XP and it runs everything they need reasonably. Will probably throw a PCIe-16 Graphics card in there in the future but other than that they are set for a year or so. One of the smoothest builds ever and they think it is so cool because it is only a little larger than their Gamecube.

[AWS]

I agree with you there. I just wanted to point out that just choosing a processor, isn't the end. Today, you have to look at chipsets, sockets, and cooling more than ever before. All will be crucial to your system's stability.

I just built my kids a small-form factor PC with a Socket 754 Athlon Sempron. Little older but within the budget I set for their machine. It has the Nvidia 6100 GPU and NVidia chipset with 1 GB of RAM under Windows XP and it runs everything they need reasonably. Will probably through a PCIe-16 Graphics card in there in the future but other than that they are set for a year or so. One of the smoothest builds ever and they think it is so cool because it is only a little larger than their Gamecube.
Was it a Shuttle XPC you built?
I love those little boxes. I even run a couple as webservers.

[Wayne Luke]

Actually it is a Biostar. I know it isn't the best in the market but I have had some good success with their products in the past. Since cost was an issue, I wanted to stay with one of the older socket types but wanted PCI-E as well. The low end shuttles are all AGP at Newegg. The kids can play Sims 2, World of Warcraft, and all their other games as well as browse the net and use Microsoft Office for their homework so it is all good.

I think I will be switching most of my machines to that form-factor over time and utilizing network storage for things like MP3s, photos and videos/DVDs/. I just wish that DirecTV authorized a PCI tuner card for their services. I could use Shuttle's Media Center case to replace my DVD, Tuner and Tivo functionality

[ManagerJosh]

Might as well wait for BTX to become a bigger representation ofo the market.

[JakeS]

AMD 64x is what you need mate.

[Lenni]

I bought a AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ and I am satisfied. :)

[tgillespie]

Might as well wait for BTX to become a bigger representation ofo the market.Its not happening. The only ones who accepted the BTX form factor were PC manufatures like Dell and Gateway, but have since recognized the need for no change. It makes sense to switch to BTX, but motherboard manufatures are definately not paving the way.

[Zachery]

I have to agree, I was hearing lots about btx a year or two ago, but I still see ATX everywhere.

[Shining Arcanine]

I have to agree, I was hearing lots about btx a year or two ago, but I still see ATX everywhere.

I really do not see the point of changing the form factor, as the problem is not that ATX was not designed power hungry components, but rather that components are power hungry.

Intel's new Conroe (a.k.a. Core 2 Duo) processor will fix that. It launches in two days. I will be upgrading. Some people on xtremesystems.org's vbulletin forums are already playing with engineering samples; they are getting twice the performance of the AMD Althon FX-62 when operating at lower frequencies in some benchmarks. Many of them are overclocking their engineering samples to 4GHz with air cooling. :D

[tgillespie]

I really do not see the point of changing the form factor, as the problem is not that ATX was not designed power hungry components, but rather that components are power hungry.Why not change it though? It provides better cooling which could result in more efficient computers.

[Zachery]

I really do not see the point of changing the form factor, as the problem is not that ATX was not designed power hungry components, but rather that components are power hungry.

Intel's new Conroe (a.k.a. Core 2 Duo) processor will fix that. It launches in two days. I will be upgrading. Some people on xtremesystems.org's vbulletin forums are already playing with engineering samples; they are getting twice the performance of the AMD Althon FX-62 when operating at lower frequencies in some benchmarks. Many of them are overclocking their engineering samples to 4GHz with air cooling. :D
I'm not all that excited about the conroe serries to be honest.

[Shining Arcanine]

Why not change it though? It provides better cooling which could result in more efficient computers.

BTX does not have any advantages over ATX if you want a fanless PC. ;)

I'm not all that excited about the conroe serries to be honest.

My computer is three years old and is having trouble with the latest games (Age of Empires III, Battlefield 2, etcetera). It also is unable to run 64bit operating systems and programs, so this upgrade means quite a bit more to me than it would to people with more modern systems.

[tgillespie]

BTX does not have any advantages over ATX if you want a fanless PC. ;)BTX does have an advantage over ATX being that 99.9% of computers have fans.

[Shining Arcanine]

With mine, I am moving towards running fanlessly. I am replacing my motherboard, ram, graphics card and cpu soon and I have purchased a fanless graphics card cooler and a cpu heatsink that should be able to run an Intel Core 2 Duo processor fanless. Now I just have to get the actual CPU (I have everything else) and see if it works. If it does, I will be really happy; if it does not, my PC will have less fans than it does now. It currently has three. The fanless GPU heatsink will reduce that to 2, and if the CPU can run passively with the heatsink I brought, that will further cut the number of fans to one. If the system can run passively with the components I have brought, the number of fans will go down to zero. If not, I will have cut the number of fans by 1-2, reducing my PC's noise generation.