AMD or Intel

[Saracen]

I don't want to ignote the old classic argument, but for a new system, I'm interested in knowing whether people recommend AMD or Intel, these days.

I'm looking for a decent overall performance level, but not speed at any cost. In other words, what it costs isn't really the issue, but I want whatever it is to be cost-effective. It also wants to be reasonably future-proof, and certainly Vista capable. This purchase will include hard drives, video cards, new PSU, etc, but at the moment, I'm just interested in the mobo/processor choice.

Usage will be generic stuff (office, accounting, browsing, etc), but with a few demanding applications, too, such as digital imaging (Photoshop), video editing and voice recognition. I play games, but am not an avid gamer so I'm not interested in high-end gaming video cards, etc.

Whatever I get will be either dual core or dual processor, though.

So ..... AMD or Intel? And why?

If AMD .... 939 or AM2, and why?

If Intel ..... Conroe? Which one, and why?

Anyone got any thoughts or recommendations?

[Smokey21]

Conroe, no doubt, id go for the E600 myself, for price/performance.

As for the board, im not sure, don't think there's much choice. Gskill seems to be the best memory, DDR2 of course.

[chuckskull]

Right now intel has a massive performance lead. AM2 is just 939 with DDR2 basically.

[philipbain]

If you want to base your decision on benchmarks as well as people's advice and opinions then check out the Tom's Hardware CPU Charts that have just been updated with the lastest batch of Intel and AMD CPUs. From these you'll see a demonstration of the performance lead that Intel now have with the Core 2 Duo CPU, though I still wouldnt touch a Pentium 4 or Pentium D with a ****ty stick, they are massively inefficient and grossly underperform.

[alcor]

I just bought an E6600 Asus P5W DH Deluxe combo, absouluely stonking performance, and it runs Vista beta 2 with no problems (other than lacking the odd driver). Well worth it id say.

Tho keep an eye on the new Core 2 mobos, they r gettin better all the time.

[Clunk]

one thing that not many early conroe adopters seem to complain about (apart from me) is the heat generated by the overall setup, compared to an AMD 939 for example. the cpu temps are considerably higher than the 939 chips, add onto that a hot northbridge and you have yourself a toaster.

the heat factor aside, if its the first upgrade you have done for a while, i reckon you will be happily gobsmacked with the speed of a conroe system. an example of video editing speed when compared to my old 939 system would be CCE 4 passes is now just under 40 mins, whereas on the 939 it was a couple of hours, and the 939 was no slouch, it was an opteron dual core @ 2.7ghz

motherboards are a bit rubbish at the moment for conroe, they are getting better, but theres a bug to suit everyone it seems.

if price is a major factor, then AMD is definately worth a look, but you can also build a conroe system for a relatively small amount, complete with swatter for the bugs.

[Smokey21]

How are Conroe's hotter? They consume a lot less wattage, and they are 65nm. You must have a problem, as there a lot cooler than X2 939's.

[chuckskull]

How are Conroe's hotter? They consume a lot less wattage, and they are 65nm. You must have a problem, as there a lot cooler than X2 939's.

I'm guessing at 3150mhz they're hotter

At stock clocks with decent cooling they dont rise much above ambient, but who wants stock clocks

[kalniel]

Actually I wouldn't recommend a conroe - I think you're still paying a price premium for them. Better to get an allendale (2mb cache core 2 duo) as they are very good value for the performance - you don't *need* anything faster really.

As for why.. they're not much more than the AMD chips, but they do have a significant performance increase. They run cool, use little power, and now we're beginning to see a better range of motherboards from people like ASRock total system price will begin to come down as well.

[Smokey21]

I'm guessing at 3150mhz they're hotter

At stock clocks with decent cooling they dont rise much above ambient, but who wants stock clocks

Well, well my P2 400mhz, runs cooler than my Prescott at 6Ghz.

[Clunk]

How are Conroe's hotter? They consume a lot less wattage, and they are 65nm. You must have a problem, as there a lot cooler than X2 939's.

do you have a conroe? im interested to know what temps you get at stock clocks.

im on decent water cooling, and i can tell you now that even at stock, the system as a whole i.e. the overall case is hotter that when it had an AMD system inside it. thats aside from the asus boards reading around 6c more than they should.

have a look round, theres very very few people that report temps of 26c idle 33c load, like with the AMD 939 chips.

also, the AMD 939 chips just had a chipset, and that didnt get very hot, well with a stock cooler on, it did, but even when replaced with a passive zalman cooler, it was much less than the northbridge on the conroe boards, especially when overclocking.

[Smokey21]

You gotta compare like for like.

Conroe- Dual Core
AMD 939- Single Core

Of course 2 cores are gonna get hotter. And no i don't have a Conroe.

[MadduckUK]

Well, well my P2 400mhz, runs cooler than my Prescott at 6Ghz.

and my via epia 800 runs cooler than your p2-400

and why is the 939 your comparing a single-core as a like-for-like?!

[charleski]

AMD and Intel are for wimps. Real men use a PDP-11.

[Clunk]

You gotta compare like for like.

Conroe- Dual Core
AMD 939- Single Core

Of course 2 cores are gonna get hotter. And no i don't have a Conroe.

since when was an opteron 165/170 a single core?

my point is that the system as a whole runs hotter with the conroe, that is simply going off the amount of heat that the pc chucks out.

to illustrate the point....

system is idling now, cpu is at 49c (asus probe) or 43c (core temp). no idea how accurate these are, but there is heat.

northbridge is showing as 38c

southbridge heatsink is warm to the touch, as are the heatsinks that cover the mosfets round the cpu, under load, these can get quite hot to the touch.

admittedly, this is overclocked, with 1.4v going through the cpu and the rest is stock, apart from the ram which has 2v (stock is 1.9v).

AMD setup.

chipset always under 40 (with passive zalman heatsink mod)

cpu 25-30c idle unlikely to go over 40c under load, again 1.4v

ram @ stock

this is in the same case with same airflow and same watercooling. the temp readings aside, i can feel the heat much more from the conroe system, even at stock.

make of that what you will

[-ChEM-]

if you fancy a gamble consider buying an AM2 system now while theyre not wanted and wait for K8L to come out

it is a big gamble though from the rumours... and DDR2 seems to be improving by the minute, but you could have the last laugh at the bandwagon-jumpers