Help deciding on which CPU

[koolpc]

Intel Core i3 530 2.93GHz (Clarkdale) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail [BX80616I3530]

AMD Athlon II X4 Quad Core 640 3.00GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail [ADX640WFGMBOX]

Can't decide on which of these 2 to use in a new build i am about to undertake.

Which of the above would you choose and why?

I will be building a Mini ITX System that will be using onboard GPU and 4gig ram. I will be using it for Photoshop, Lightroom 3, on a 24" TFT(Onboard GPU should be fine with a 24" TFT?). Thanks

 

[95thrifles]

Id say you should go check here, linked you to summary section but earlier pages show how they stack up against each other in certain apps, the conclusion charts seem to suggest the athlon

 

[koolpc]

Looked at that. Still can't decide!!

 

[AiiR]

i3 is a dual core, the Athlon is a quad. Personally I'd go for the Athlon.

 

[Frozennova]

personally id take the athlon as two physical cores will give you a big boost in multithreaded applications and remain roughly on par in single threaded maybe losing a bit of performance.

However my athlon chews threw anything i throw at it

 

[barney magru]

640 personally. Quad core, so will be better threaded, and decent performance gaming as well. Not to mention a bit cheaper

 

[mikeyp123]

4 cores on a decently upgradable socket vs EOL socket with 2 cores..

No brainer.

 

[Frozennova]

i wouldnt consider either socket for future proofing as AM3 is replaced with AM3+ sometime next year, granted it will be backwards compatible

 

[kmufc77]

AMD Athlon II X4 Quad Core 640

 

[The Asgard]

Quad over dual every time.

 

[Marine-RX179]

Quad over dual every time.

On software and application that used more than two cores yes, but for software and application that use only one to two cores...no, as architecture wise the Athlon II is slower than the i3 Dual.

 

[stulid]

closest match I could find,

www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/122?vs=118

the 640 will be a tiny bit faster than the 635 in the above comparison, and some of those graphs are lower is better.

 

[1LANCS]

4 cores on a decently upgradable socket vs EOL socket with 2 cores..

No brainer.

AM3 is EOL when Bulldozer comes out not long after Sandybridge.

 

[Fras]

AM3 is EOL when Bulldozer comes out not long after Sandybridge.

Yeah, I would go with AMD since its cheaper too.

 

[The Asgard]

On software and application that used more than two cores yes, but for software and application that use only one to two cores...no, as architecture wise the Athlon II is slower than the i3 Dual.

You need to understand how the OS works. There is more than just the application running. So NO, quad every time.

 

[koolpc]

Thanks people. Quad it is then!

 

[braveheart]

+1 for AMD cos it cheaper as budget

 

[mikeyp123]

AM3 is EOL when Bulldozer comes out not long after Sandybridge.

An EOL with the option to upgrade to a six core cpu is still a much better upgrade path.