Intel or AMD for budget CPU?

[Imy]

Hi all,

It's been a while since I last looked into CPUs and the choices have got quite complicated now.

I'm speccing something up for my nephew. He's 11 and this will be his 2nd pc. He's currently using a 2.2GHz opteron - can't remember if it's dual core. He'll mainly be using it for browsing, gaming and some work in MS Office apps.

When I buy for myself I don't mind paying a bit more for better stuff but as I'm speccing for someone else, value for money is a high priority.

I personally use a Q6600 @ 3.2GHz which I find is quick enough for today's applications. Anything quicker than that would be a bit overkill for him. I'll be overclocking (nothing excessive) whichever processor my nephew ends up with too.

With that in mind can someone recommend a budget CPU?

The AMD Phenom II X3 Tri Core 720 looks like it might fit the brief or is it worthwhile to get an i5 750 instead? Bare in the mind the cost of Intel motherboards seems to be quite a bit higher.

Any suggestions/comments are appreciated

 

[Imy]

What do you mean by unlocked to a quad?

With regards to gaming he has a PS3 and Wii but the odd game he does play on the PC will be stuff that's better on the PC like FPS games so the GPU will still need to be reasonably powerful. I was thinking ATI 5850 for that.

Thanks for all the responses so far.

 

[Imy]

Both the AM3 720 and i5 750 are on offer at the moment and there's a £47 difference before taking into account the more expensive Intel boards.

I do a lot of video encoding / multi-tasking so can always justify the extra cost - bit hard to do for a 11 year old.

If someone says however that paying the extra is deffinately worth it for the considerable performance boost (I don't know if that's true) then it might still be worth considering.

 

[Imy]

Thank you everyone for your replies. I've decided to go with the AM3 Phenom II X3 Tri Core 720 Black Edition 2.80GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail

The cost of a decent motherboard and appropriate memory have been a big an influence as anything. I can't believe how expensive Intel boards have got.

 

[Imy]

Oh I get you now. I read up quickly about it and heard it's only possible to unlock the extra cores on certain motherboards. Is that true?

 

[Imy]

Lets have a look at the price difference in more detail....


AMD System

• Asus M4A785TD-V Evo AMD 785G (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard - £70.99
• AMD Phenom II X3 Tri Core 720 Black Edition 2.80GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail - £92.99

Total: £163.98



Intel System

• Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard - £106.98
• Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - OEM + Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising Game - £139.99

Total: £246.97


Difference in Price
£82.99


The chosen motherboards aren't the cheapest in each range but are the cheapest I'd consider. Spending £83 extra on a graphics card can make the difference between an average graphics card and a good one.

Would my nephew notice the same difference in real life usage by spending more on the CPU instead? Maybe if he used it in the same way as me - but for his uses - very unlikely. As a bonus the AMD motherboard has onboard graphics which can come in handy even if you go discrete.

 

[Imy]

why dont you spec yourself a new rig and give him the old one?

I've got some very expensive kit in my pc. Besides I spent ages finding the right settings to get Q6600 @ 3.2GHz Intel Torture Test 24/7 stable, lapping the cpu/heatsink and setting up my 8800GT to be fanless.

The Intel system should offer lower running costs so you would claw back some £££ by paying less electricity bills

I thought power savings go out the window when you overclock.