Help with AMD? - Only know intel

[~>Dg<~]

if you encode daily and photoshop i5 intel is slightly better, in everything else theres nothing in it (games are actually better amd )

 

[Pneumonic]

Allright, allright! Calm down! There is a difference, only a slight difference but a difference nontheless. And last time I checked, the 965 was 140 quid, and the i5 750 is 140. Sure you get more motherboard for your money with AMD but there's really not a huge difference in price.

For the OP the i5 is the right choice if he is doing encoding / photoshop work where there is a noticeable difference..

For the majority of users on this forum who game and surf the net the 965BE is the better performing CPU especially if the owner actually knows how to overclock the thing properly..

What irritates the hell out of me is blanket statements when people are trying to make an informed choice over how to spend there money..

Edit:
The final thing to keep in mind is that AMD will release Thuban (Six-Core AM3) rumour mill has it at end Q1 / start Q2 for somewhere between £200 - £225 now that will make an interesting comparison to an i5/ i7 920 set up where these CPU currently have the edge in encoding / multi-task apps

 

[ghop]

For the OP the i5 is the right choice if he is doing encoding / photoshop work where there is a noticeable difference..

For the majority of users on this forum who game and surf the net the 965BE is the better performing CPU especially if the owner actually knows how to overclock the thing properly..

What irritates the hell out of me is blanket statements when people are trying to make an informed choice over how to spend there money..

Is it actually better though? Nearly every benchmarks I've looked at, they've been almost identical for gaming

 

[Pneumonic]

Is it actually better though? Nearly every benchmarks I've looked at, they've been almost identical for gaming

On most of the bench marks I have seen the 965BE clocks are CPU frequency clocks only.. you get a huge boost with a proper clock inc IMC and RAM on an AM3 set-up.. and the 965BE 'generally' beats the i5 in game benchmarks even without a IMC clock

The final point I will add from my own experience is that my AM3 rig was far smother in XFire (dual 4870x2) than my i7 hence why I stuck with the AM3 set up.

 

[~>Dg<~]

lol theres raw fps speed then theres the actual experience of playing said game . this is where the amd system wins in my op . theres been ten thousand threads about smoothness in gaming and someone explained this the other day and why a lot prefer amd p2 for gaming experience if all where going on is benchmarks hey ho off to intel we go but in real life gaming its a different story.

also if you look at a big amount of benchies about once clocked to the same amount they are equal basically even with high clocked i7s but this depends on which biased site you look at.

anyways ps and encoding go intel like already said

 

[madcat]

I would suggest to go any route you think it is right! Either way, you will get a nice system anyway!!

 

[Hoodlum]

i5 will get you a better encoding system right now for a decent price but you will have to throw away the motherboard to upgrade the CPU in the future afaics.

i7 920 (or 930 out Q1 this year) Will be upgradable to Gulftown (6 core intel) which is looking like a nice option, though the price suggested in various places of this chip is absurd (could change depending on what amd offer). This may be the most future proof choice if intel release Gulftown at a decent price, but it will be the most expensive option either way.

AM3 will be fairly comparable to the i5 option, if a little slower currently. It will be cheaper (much compared to the i7 option) and you can upgrade to a 6core in 1H 2010 pretty inexpensively if you want. Assuming you upgrade to the 6-core on release it should work slightly more expensive than the i5 system, slower currently but a decent amount faster in a few months.