Intel i3 vs AMD Phenom 2

eggybob said:
any reasons as to why that one over the intel bundle?
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intel's i3 only has 2 acual cores, and 2 cores on hyperthreading an is pretty fast.. So it's like Gaming on a fast Core 2 Duo for example.

However, the AMD has 4 cores, that are mediocore speed wise.

I think that the AMD is the better option because games thesedays take more advantage of 4 actual cores... and after a year or so the i3 will start to trail in gaming..

Correct me if im wrong, peace.
 
Personally, I would spend the extra £35 over the Phenom II X4 bundle and buy separately a retail i5 2500K, MSI P67A-C45 motherboard and 4GB DDR3 RAM.
 
i can really only stretch to about 250 as i need to upgrade psu too soon after. so really needs to be one of the 2 linked bundles.
 
All comes down to cost really fella.

i3 vas amd. I would go AMD. A 965 is on par with an i3 2100 (infact games that want X4s will do better on the AMD rig). Amd will most likely work out cheaper. You don't buy a 965, you buy the 955BE and up the multiplier by 1 or just OC it to the max.

The i3 used to win out solely due to the upgrade option to an i5. Now you can get AM3+ mobos for £50 that will take Bulldozer cores that argument is pretty much over. If you can afford an i5 setup that would be for the best, if you are on a tight budget there's no real reason not to opt for AMD over the i3.

Im not sure of your budget or what parts you have already. If you don't have a gfx card it might be wiser to go AMD and use what extra cash you may have used to an i5 for a better GPU. It might be best to post a thread with a budget and what you need and see what people can spec AMD and Intel wise.
 
A AMD 965BE isnt on par with a i3 2100, it gets completely beat by it.

eggybob said:
mainly personal use and gaming system which is best?.
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i3 2100/2120 compared against a 955BE which is only 200mhz slower than a 965BE - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i3-2120-2100.html

i3 2100 vs 965BE - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/102?vs=289


AMD PhenomII's are just to old to compete.

And The AM3+ upgrade path is a moot point as Ivy Bridge are socket 1155 too, with current chipsets needing a new UEFI to be compatible.
 
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id really like to try and get the I5 2500k is it ok run at oced speeds with the stock cooler that comes with the CPU? also is there any way to get this setup at say just over £250? without losing out with say crappy memory it crappy mobo?

-james.
 
I use that benchmark page too stulid. I just remember the saying "there's lies, damn lies and statistics".

You can't OC an i3. I said to buy a 955 as it can be OC'd, making it a 965 is childs play but you can get more from the chip. What was your 955 clocked at before you upgraded to an i5? 3.8Ghz? or higher?

You can use that link to compare a 970 (3.5Ghz) vs the i3 2100 and you see the AMD chip wins out on more tests. I'm not sold on the gaming benchmarks they use. I don't play WOW but have recently heard it favours intel and nvidia chips, the other games are old too. I would be happier seeing benchmarks for games like Shogun 2 or Battlefield that want X4 CPUs.

I don't see AM3+ being a mute point. It adds the upgrade path for the CPU, it seems the 890 Am3 chipset will get BD support but the other AM3 mobos most likely won't. So if you buy AMD now the AM3+ mobos should be bought.

The thread is i3 vs phenom but for a gaming rig if I was building for myself now I would look to get the i5K. If I had to save a bit more cash so be it.
 
eggybob said:
id really like to try and get the I5 2500k is it ok run at oced speeds with the stock cooler that comes with the CPU? also is there any way to get this setup at say just over £250? without losing out with say crappy memory it crappy mobo?

-james.
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Unfortunately not really possible unless you buy stuff second hand.

You could shop around a bit and try and find a better deal on the retail CPU (you can't go for the OEM version as you need the stock cooler that comes with the retail version) and motherboard. But remember that you need either a P67 (B3 revision) or Z68 board to be able to overclock the CPU. H61 and H67 boards will be cheaper but don't allow you to overclock the CPU at all.

If you just can't get the cost down and are not prepared to up the budget then the i5 2300 isn't a bad option. It is basically the same quad core CPU as the i5 2500K - it just doesn't run at quite as a high a clockspeed at stock and can't overclock as far, but compared to the other options (i3 or Phenom II X4) it is much faster overall.
 
honosuseri said:
I use that benchmark page too stulid. I just remember the saying "there's lies, damn lies and statistics".

You can't OC an i3. I said to buy a 955 as it can be OC'd, making it a 965 is childs play but you can get more from the chip. What was your 955 clocked at before you upgraded to an i5? 3.8Ghz? or higher?
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Who cares if the Phenom II X4 can OC, when it needs to be at around 3.7-3.8GHz to just about match the i3 2100 at stock with no OC in frame rate, slower than the i3 2100 in ANY games that doesn't use all 4 cores fully, plus consuming around DOUBLE the power (i3 2100 TDP 65W vs Phenom II X4 TDP 125W) and need a 3rd party cooler for OC when the i3 2100 can get away with just the stock cooler?

See here the Phenom II X4 980 at 3.7GHz is just barely matching the frame rate of the i3 2100 in even the super well-optimised for multi-CPU BFBC2:
http://techreport.com/articles.x/20873/2

...and in any game that doesn't use 4 cores fully, the Phenom II X4 980 get owned by the i3 2100 :p
 
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back to my previous post does the I5 2500k stock cooler provide ample cooling for overclocking the cpu?

also if I brought these parts seperatly I'm a little worried id find it hard to asemble and configure BIOS etc. I've never really built my own system before..
 
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