amd vs intel

[lodore]

hello,
i will be ordering a pc for around £800 tomorrow.
what is better
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6750 CPU @ 2.66GHz 1333FSB 4MB
or
AMD Phenom™ X4 9500 Quad-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology
the intel system would have a intel p35 chipset
the amd system would have a AMD 790X
the amd processer has only just come out and i cant find many tests on it.
im always up for supporting the smaller company epecically if the true quad core amd processer is decent.
thanks in advance
lodore

[kalniel]

Intel E6600, if you can stretch to it.

[lodore]

hello,
do you mean Q6600?
lodore

[DanceswithUnix]

Doesn't look like the new AMD chip changes things much. Usual advice stands:

Cheap = AMD
Fast = Intel
If you are overclocking, use Intel.

AMD closed the gap, but are still slower than Intel clock for clock. And the clocks are so much lower.

and it sounds like I am much like you, I try to buy AMD as long as it is good value just to keep some competition in the marketplace.

Surely for 800 quid you are looking at Intel Quad not Duo?

In practice I am sure either part will do you nicely.

You don't say what you want to use the PC for, so here are some gaming benchmarks.

[peterb]

There is a Hexus review of the Phenom here

HEXUS.net - Headline :: AMD Phenom's pricing destroys value proposition against Intel Core 2 Quad : Page - 1/1 and it contains links to other Phenom comments.

I agree - I tend to support AMD when I can - if they went under and Intel had the monopoly, we would all suffer price wise. I just hope AMD can hang on in there.

[lodore]

i can save £20 by changing from two 80gb harddrives in raid 0 to one 160gb drive.
but dono how i can save anymore cash to get a Q6600
lodore

[kalniel]

Oops, yes sorry. Q6600. But if you can't afford it, go with the E6750.

[shaithis]

Unless your going to raid properly (i.e. a decent hardware raid card - £200+) I would stay away from it.

The on-board RAID controllers are barely "ok" at best.

[DanceswithUnix]

So where are you buying from? Not actually seen a Phenom for sale yet.

[lodore]

there site is going a bit odd today sometimes it works sometimes it doesnt.
if you go to amd desktop,hi proformance gaming pc,gamer ultra 930 or 950
lodore

[GSte]

i can save £20 by changing from two 80gb harddrives in raid 0 to one 160gb drive.
but dono how i can save anymore cash to get a Q6600
lodore

If you post your full spec we may be able to find where you could save a bit...

[lodore]

NZXT Lexa Blackline Performance Mid Tower Steel 420W Case w/Red LED Light
700 Watts Power Supplies OCZ GameXStream 700W SLI Ready Power Supply
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6750 CPU @ 2.66GHz 1333FSB 4MB L2 Cache 64-bit
Thermaltake Blue Orb II CPU Cooler
Asus P5K-E/WIFI-AP Intel P35
Req.DDR2 MainBoard)2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory OCZ Value Select or Major Brand
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 16X PCI Express Video Card
320GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD
SONY DUAL FORMAT 18X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (black)
Professional Wiring for All WIRINGs Inside The System Chasis with High Performance Thermal Compound on CPU
black floopy drive (for loading drivers for windows based imaging recovery cd)
Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium32-bit Edition
go to the link and config the specs as above and try and save me some money please so i can get a Q6660 near as £800 as possible
as above spec is £808.40
link

[Webby]

Why not build it yourself, save a load of cash and get more control over the parts which are being specced?

All prices from Scan and approx.

CPU: Q6600 £160
CPU Cooler: Scythe Ninja £28
Motherboard: Abit IP35 £75
Graphics: 8800GT £175
PSU: Corsair HX520w £63
Memory: 2GB Corsair XMS2 800MHz DDR2 CL4 £40
Hard Drive: 320GB WDAAKS £46
DVD: Sata Lightscribe £18-£20
Case: Antec 900 £68
Floppy (if you really need it!): Sony £5
OS: Vista Home Premium 32 or 64 bit OEM £65

Total cost: £745 including delivery (free for Hexites )

And a better spec to boot! I have used what I would pick (may have gone for a thermalright CPU cooler instead) feel free to ask why about any of the choices.

You could obviously save some money on the case, and case is obviously an area which is personal.