Poll: AMD vs Intel (2008)

[Choose between an AMD CPU in your next system or an Intel CPU powering it?]

Choose between an AMD CPU in your next system or an Intel CPU powering it?

AMD CPU

 31 (44.3%)

Intel CPU

 39 (55.7%)

Other

 0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 69

[Dstarar]

I prefer Intel,  I had two computers with AMD processors and managed to smoke them both.  Done with AMD until I manage to smoke an Intel.  Then I'll probably look around some more.

[Josh780]

I'm up for either one, but prefer AMD because the price. When I built my computer last summer, I got an ASUS A8N SLI SE board and an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ as a combo for $110. A little over a year later, I have yet to have any type of stability issues as a result of the hardware. A DVD to Divx finishes in about an hour and a half, but I'm still able to use my system for other things at the same time. As far as gaming goes, I play Crysis, Black and White 2, Simcity 4000, and now Spore, and they all run perfect with all settings on high at 1024x768...I only use a single vid card, Geforce 7600GS, no SLI...yet. I'm not sure what temps are good for a system, but it's 80 inside and outside my house and the CPU stays around 30C when idling and maxes out at 37C when I play games, convert movies, or run Prime95. The chipset stays steady regardless of task between 35 and 37C. I think that's good considering my girlfriends P4 3Ghz idles at 65C, even with a clean heatsink and 80mm fan bringing air from the outside of the case right to it.

I'm not downing Intel at all...My mom has a Dell with XP, a 1.1Ghz Celeron, and 384 of PC133 and it's still kicking pretty decent. Good stuff, just there prices make me cringe.

[Wyzzard]

The poll said "for your NEXT system", so I had to vote AMD. I have always used Intel, and have had great results.

However, I'm always looking for ways to improve. AMD makes the Opteron processor, originally only offered for dedicated servers but now available in a desktop/workstation configuration. And Tyan makes a mobo that accepts 4 Opterons. Nicest thing here is that the FSB runs at the same speed as the CPU. Soooooooo....using Opteron 2.6 gig procs, I'll have a 2.6gig FSB. For those of you that know, join me in saying "sweeeeeeet".

Simply, this means no, repeat, NO bottleneck in data transfer. The Front Side Bus is like the roadblock on the freeway---a 3.8 gig CPU with a 800/1200/1600 megahertz FSB. Sorry, Intel, you just don't do what the Opteron from AMD will do.

Oh, and josh......the P4 is actually made to run at the higher temps. It's not a prob, it's just normal for them.

[Josh780]

Thanks Wyzzard. I'm not all up on what temps are normal or are safe maxes for either brand CPU, but I do know that I want my rig to run as cool as possible....So, I have a massive cooler for my AMD chip. My girlfriend, however, has a cheapy stock fan and heatsink for her P4. I've debated changing it out, but it's an Emachine. Actually not a bad computer, I must say they've come a long ways from when they sold them at Wal-Mart, but the name still makes me cringe some.

Anyway, with some of the newer CPUs that Intel is offering....If I'm on a strict budget, I'll be going AMD for my next. If I have the extra cash to burn, I'll check out a quad core....or however many cores they may have when that time comes.

[IH8U]

Back in the days of Pentium 2/3 and AMD K6-2, I was an Intel user but since then have used AMD since about the time they broke the 1ghz barrier. Heh, I remember paying $399 for an Intel Pentium @ 400mhz cpu. Now you can't give them away.