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AMD or Intel?

prescott28

prescott28

prescott28

Associate
Joined
6 Dec 2004
Posts
1,293
Location
Scotland
My motherboard seems to have died but the CPU a Q6600 is presumably Ok but I was thinking of upgrading a but to a newer processor and DDR 3 memory. The Intel I5 seems to be the job for gaming but I was wondering about the AMD Phenom which seems to come as 4 or 6 core.

I will use the machine for some gaming, accounts and MS Office though the latter two don't really need to power. Which of the above processors would be the best choice for performance alone and, if the Intel wins, would I see much decline if I went with the AMD?

Thanks for any advice.
 
how about just buying an el cheapo lga775/ddr2 board and upgrade when intels mainstream come out(Q1 2011)
 
Hi there, if your motherboard has died - do you know if it has any warranty left? Most gigabyte boards come with ~3 years of manufacturer warranty - so if you are within this time then you are entitled to a replacement motherboard.

As for best performance, both AMD Phenom II and Intel i5 are great for gaming - but for gaming the performance is really determined by the graphics card. May I ask what graphics card you are using?
 
I would wait it out for Sandy Bridge and Bulldozer to come out and see how they perform. Also, the release of these two new architectures will mean tons of old motherboards and CPUs appearing on the MM!
 
You should be able to pick up a cheapish P45 board and use your exisiting CPU and RAM as well as allowing to push it a reasonable overclock to breath some new life into it. An amd based system will be cheaper but not by a great deal particulalrly if your looking a Crossfire. If you using a nvidia GPU and are contemplating SLi then your stuck with going for an intel system unless you want to play around with modified drivers to get SLi on an AMD board that hasnt got Nvidia chipset.

If you take overclocking into account then the the i5 is the clear winner as Intel chips perform better clock for clock and generally clock higher. If you don't intend to overclock then it becomes a mixed bag with with an i5 750 and Phenom II trading blows


EDIT: Stock clock speed performance comparison
http://anandtech.com/bench/Product/88?vs=109
 
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Its my attempts that killed my board and chip. But hey ho we learn out lessons. Budget boards arent for pushing chips to the extreme
 
I am thinking of moving on to a newer cpu though I know the possibilities of a new ,motherboard. A warranty is all very well but I don't want to be without the machine for long - I am using a daul core laptop at present with my sin hosting my data on a hard drive.

how about the over clocked bundles from OCUK - they look quite good value, especially the AMD ones?
 
The thing about a new CPU is that compared to a Q6600 the performance in games is not going to increase much - because the Q6600 is still a great CPU for gaming and gaming performance is limited by the graphics card.

I hear that Gigabyte are among the best for motherboard RMAs - so I would strongly suggest you get in touch with them ASAP to get the ball rolling.
 
The Q6600 is still a good chip, so would echo the above and try to get an RMA or get a cheap used / new board. If you do want to upgrade, may as well make it worth it and go for an i5.
 
Get yourself a second hand 720 Black Edition (~£50-60), excellent for gaming (6MB L3 shared over 3 cores often outperforms similar clocked quad core) and generally overclock to 3.7-4.1GHz whilst still running cool.

I don't see any other cpu touching it for that price, ok it's a little biased because I'm talking second hand, but still a solid triple core chip.
 
How does this sound:

Assuming the warranty is still valid, immediately buy a cheapy s775 motherboard (something like a gigabyte/asus g31) and contact gigabyte about the P35 RMA. Keep all the g31 boxes, cables and reciept. While you are waiting for the replacement gigabyte p35, you have a fully functional system with your q6600 and g31. When you finally receive your replacement p35 (expect 2-3 weeks) then swap out the boards again so you are using the p35. Then box up the g31 board in the original packaging and sell it on the members market, advertised as fully working (assuming it is), including all original packaging and accessories and including proof of purchase (for warranty claims). Expect to make a ~£20 loss, but IMHO not a bad price to pay for consistent good performance.
 
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cmndr_andi said:
How does this sound:

Assuming the warranty is still valid, immediately buy a cheapy s775 motherboard (something like a gigabyte/asus g31) and contact gigabyte about the P35 RMA. Keep all the g31 boxes, cables and reciept. While you are waiting for the replacement gigabyte p35, you have a fully functional system with your q6600 and g31. When you finally receive your replacement p35 (expect 2-3 weeks) then swap out the boards again so you are using the p35. Then box up the g31 board in the original packaging and sell it on the members market, advertised as fully working (assuming it is), including all original packaging and accessories and including proof of purchase (for warranty claims). Expect to make a ~£20 loss, but IMHO not a bad price to pay for consistent good performance.
Click to expand...

given that many new bits and bobs are scheduled to be released over the next couple of months or so, i think this is a great piece of advice.
 
By my maths that is 2 years and 11 months ago (just under the 3 year warranty limit). If you contact gigabyte ASAP about your issue then you will be covered and should be offered an RMA. You will have to send them the board ( you usually have to pay for the postage to get it to them) and they will test it. When they find it faulty they will send you a replacement, this will most likely be a fully-functional refurb, but it could be a new board - depends what they have available.
 
Gigabyte sent me a sheet to identify the serial number and it looks as though I can get it sorted with them. I'll have to extract the board, though, as the sticky label is really hard to read where it is on the side of the floppy drive connector.

I'll see how things go with them.
 
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