Intel or AMD?

Lately i've been looking at pc's to buy, certain things i don't mind swapping out or upgrading like the ram, so i'm not so concerned about that.

I'm still not sure on wether to go with an amd phenom (i've always liked AMD performance) or to switch to the intel core 2 quad.

I've been told the intel core 2 quad Q6600 can be overclocked to a staggering 3.6 ghz (yeah that would bump it to a WOPPING 14.4ghz processor). Could probably get it higher using a phase change cooler (not willing to do though).

EDIT: just found out using phase change cooling someones overclocked it (with good stability) to 4.1ghz

The AMD that seems most attainable is the Phenom 9850, now i don't know how much you people know about hardware (i'm gonna guess more than the average citizen). But which do you reckon?

My current pc has an AMD which was brilliant when i got it, and i had it overclocked for a long time with great reliability but then it seemed to deteriate (by about 60%) in the course of around 2 months.

My main concern in a pc is the main chipsets (i.e processor, graphics card, the amount of card slots etc. ).

Ram,hard drive, disk drives and so isn't so important as i'm willing to purchase them on top, and soundcard wise i can just salvage my current one as it's fully sufficiant for what i need (8 channel).

Just want to see if... any of you would reccomend intel over amd and if you've seen any great pc's at decent prices.

Medion pump out some nice (very cheap stuff), but they seem to have fallen out with tesco's, and aldi isn't stocking there stuff at the moment. And the stuff available on the medion site isn't so great for the price.

Anyway, i'm watching a few pc's on ebay, ebuy and so on atm but i think i'm going to hold off (my resturant's cocked up so they're paying me by cheque.... which takes forever to clear ¬.¬)

Anyway to cut a long post short... thoughts opinions or even just an 'i don't care' (hey... atleast your acknowledging the post )

When I built my own PC's I always went AMD, I loved them. AMD 64 would be a safe bet always. Both are good, it boils down to mobo preference and proc preference. in this case just go with price.

e.g. when I needed to build windows boxes I always went AMD with an ASUS mobo. but that was my choice.

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I hate IE 6. Just sayin....

Ive got the Q6600 with go stepping 95w. It isnt overclocked much as im using the standard heatsink and fan. They are really worth the money. aria.co.uk have them for about £100 now so they are worth checking out.

My board is an Asus P5Q, its higher model than the P5K etc series and was £78.

I used to be an AMD buyer but since intel brought out the quad core I have started recommending them. I heard from a friend that Intel quads are much faster than AMD's and more overclockable, you could get some good cheap RAM to go with it like Corsair XMS2 which is £35 for 2GB.

Hard drives are very cheap now, and make sure you buy SATA HDD if you get that mainboard. It has one IDE for CD/DVD drives etc

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Intel for me. It actually has double the cache of Intel. (I believe) Although stay away from Intel Conroe processors, those have a glitch that disables half the cache.

Researching as I type, it appears AMD phenom has 512kB of L2 cache per core where as Intel Quad-Core has a whopping two 4MB L2 caches. total of 2MB for AMD and 8MB for intel..... id go for intel.

But I don't think it matters, unless you do some 3d editing, I can't think of anything that'll use up a fraction of that quad-core. (Besides a high-traffic server)

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CloudedVision, WebForumz Moderator
Web Design And Development: Other Road Design | Problems with IE6?: KApp | My Blog: Only Nerds Allowed

It does help to have a good processor when playing games like Crysis and boosts your framerates. I like mine because I dont get so many hangs whilst multi-tasking. For example my old computer would start locking up if I was using photoshop cs2, msn, winrar and few others all at the same time. With the quad core i can have plenty of things running almost glitch free.

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That's down to architectual systesm, amd's is more effecient so it doesn't need the cache amounts that intel does.

I don't know, i am kinda of leaning towards intel at the moment, putely for the fact even though it's going to be quad core (i shouldn't be too overly bothered about suping it up) but i know some games (i kinda REALLY love the occasional online game ) can only utilise the one core, while some CAN use two cores now, and the newer ones are starting to utilise four cores. For those that can only use the one core, i don't want to be hindered by the speed of a single core, hence suping it up (plus it's just great )

The price of intel is what's swaying me at the moment, i seem to be able to get more 'bang for my buck' so to speak.

Mmmm.... we'll see, i havent really got the energy to start building from the ground up, also what metals are light?

My pc at the moment came with a 'steel case' which i thought was great, but it weighs so much it takes two people to carry, and has broken one persons toe. (plus i'm on the fifth floor, so just think how awkward that could be... atleast you normally only need to get it in once, and possibly out again (i'm thinking the window might be quicker ))

EDIT: a quick google on my case and i found out it weighs 17kg (just the case!... psshht!).

Are there other lighter metals you can get cases from?

(for anyone who cares, it's a thermaltake xaser 3, the guy at the computer fair made a pretty good pitch, so i bought it (lol) and while it is swish, and brilliant, it weighs a ton).

You could always get an aliminium and plastic case for weight but these are not really the best of cases at all. I have a really old case that weighs a tonne like yours but it isnt in use now. I use my ezcool alpine at the moment. I know a lot of people dont like them but I do. Cheap and looks good and doesnt weigh so much.

An excellent case to go for is one of the Antec 900 cases, if you look at the Antec site all their models etc are their, they are nice and quiet as they have soundproofing inside. Only problem with these is their price tag

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Price i'm ok with, i have a friend who does the computer fairs and he owes me a favour, so a decent case i'll probably be able to haggle off him for pretty much wholesale price + a little.

Problem is, i'm buying a prebuilt unit that i can overclock and upgrade, so migrating to another case is something i don't really want to do.

I'm looking at a company on ebay atm, and the price jump between there models that have 4gb ram, and 8gb ram is about £80-100. Same mother boards, i can easily purchase the extra 4gb for £70 (only checked play.com, so i can probably get it even cheaper elsewhere).

I think i'd only consider migrating cases if i could get one of these (lol).

Case wise, as long as it's got sufficiant power supply, and is matte black i'm not going to be too fussy. Perhaps weight is one of those things i'll have to live with. It needs to be durable because my pc goes to trade shows and we go via train, which is a PAIN!

I just get really paranoid walking round with a pc on a little trolley thing.

But we only go once a year, so i think i can suffer. (actually only been once, but we've secured a stall for this year so i'm thinking it's going to be a yearly occurance).

I think i'm going to be waiting a while though because what i want with the money i've got, i really am looking for that BARGAIN to pop up

You can pick up a very cheap case which isnt of great sturdiness for about £20, and maybe even cheaper at the fairs. They do come in matt black too. Theyre the lightest ones I can think of. Carrying a PC around is bad on my back no mater how heavy, I always get a bad back from carrying them from place to place.

An idea instead of a trolley would be to use a padded suitcase, maybe not pro padded but just lined with cardboard or the like.

When i was little I was taking my PC to a friends to get repaired. Decided to let it travel via skateboard lol ended up broken PSU lol really surprised the board didnt go too.

Its a shame they dont have lifts where you live, 5th floor and no lift? Maybe write them a letter

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They do, but it only goes to the fourth floor

I think i'm going to think about all the possibilities and work out costs, upgrading ram, migrating case is all added costs.

Perhaps try and work out some other alternatives.

Maybe using two cases? One for your trips with your old machine in and inside the new case all your new parts. Or does that defeat what youre trying to do?

ps. ive never seen that before with the lifts, only on grand theft auto IV lol

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Doesn't matter, no one uses the lift because it constantly breaks.

I don't know... i'm tired of looking at masses of webpages on the Q6600.

It's all just sort of turned into a blur in my mind.

I think i'm just gonna buy the pc, add some ram, swap out the fan (Thinking Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro seems to be pretty popular for overclocking mainly due to price mind). and just make sure the insides tidy enough for sufficiant air flow and see how i got on with that.

Unrelated question, what's the best way to prevent static transfer when working inside the pc (i've always been tought to just use the power cable to earth any surpless static?) It's sufficient, but is it the best way to do it?

I'm hoping to overclock to 3ghz (secretly hoping for 3.2.... but we'll see )

I'll post how i get on (Y)

Just don't rub your feet on the carpet!

I've never bothered with any 'protection' - just work on a wooden / smooth surface and ground yourself every once in a while.

(My mate used to handle mobos like a frisbee but his PC's always turned out fine!)

I used to build PC's rather loosely lol similar to how your friend did. Touching the chassis of the case should be fine. If you want to go further you can wear an anti-static wrist band thats earthed.

Without protection I didnt have any problems either, placing your mainboard while out the box just place it on top of the box with the anti-static bag it came in under it and should be fine.

Enjoy building, please let us know what you end up with. Go on, get the Q6600 lol

Make sure you get go stepping too.

ps. mines at 2.71 roughly per core and thats standard heatsink

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Everyone should just buy a Macbook pro and run everything. And then of course you got one hell of a dev/testinhg box too and its portable! =P

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I hate IE 6. Just sayin....

And way out of my price range, i have friends with them, but i just can't justify the costs.

Or you could get a crappy box and run linux on it. Linux manages to push the most out of the hardware. For example, my graphics card restricts WinXP to a small screen size than my HD monitor and cannot play DVDs. On Linux, (Ubuntu) I have full resolution and it can play DVDs, no sweat. Linux prevails over all! (Plus it doesn't hog RAM or CPU cycles like Windows)

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CloudedVision, WebForumz Moderator
Web Design And Development: Other Road Design | Problems with IE6?: KApp | My Blog: Only Nerds Allowed

Ubuntu is pretty nice, I dig it too.

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I hate IE 6. Just sayin....

I would like to add a dig to this too but aint had too much luck with it. I have been trying to make a dev box running ubuntu and so far havent got far at all. I have installed ubuntu desktop, then the server edition. I am new to unix based systems so I havent had luck with either.

What i am wanting is to have my own home server for testing sites and running php mysql etc on it. Trouble is I aint so fluent in linux at all.

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I have ubuntu on my stone age laptop (which i must say utilises that thing pretty well).

I know about linux's advantages and disadvantages.... and the confusing bits i never really got =/

But as far as games go (which i quite enjoy), i find it kinda restricting.

I have and still am considering a dual boot, but then again i've never really used ubuntu to it's full extent (my laptop has an immense 600mhz processor, and a vast 4gb harddrive (fit windows xp on that, leaves you around 100mb free).

So really i just use it for browsing the internet every now and then, and mostly as a music portal (it shares my music from the downstairs pc, through to my hifi in my room).

But that games... i want the games [: (hey! diablo 3's coming... can you blame me?)

What are the other linux distributions other than ubuntu, alot i looked at had dated interfaces, there was one other one that i did consider, but i already had ubuntu and didn't want the fuss.