Abz said:
Hi Guys,
This is a question that has been asked most probebly millions of times,
Now that AMD X2 and Intel Core2 are both out for a while I would like to know the following...
Which is best? and Why?
I want a machine for mainly video editing and graphics such as photoshop. Also for light gaming...
One day I wake up its X2 the other I wake up and I want a Core2 but you would need to replace your ram.
Abz
P.S cant afford both
it all depends... mainly on budget.
AMD 939 CPU`s are at a bargain price at present and can be bought with a ton of power under the hud with huge scope for clocking (i.e. X2 3800 for £95
or the A4000+ for the same price) or you can get a friend to go to Members Market for you and pick up a bargain second hand
(me just got opty 148 currently @ 2.95Ghz for £60 from MM
)
also if you run it off an asrock 939 SATA2 board like myself that has AGP and PCI-E you wont need to replace your graphics card (which is fine for what you do at present) and later you can easily upgrade to AM2/3 and DDR2 without changing your motherboard again at a later point.
now if youve got a high budget and money isnt an object then the current performance king is conroe but you would need to replace your ram and your graphics card and for video editing and light gaming i cant see you getting much extra utilisation out of it to justify the extra cost.
but as i said, its all up to you and your budget
2 examples for you...
AMD Option:
Retail AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego £93.99
Asrock 939Dual-SATA2 (Socket 939 & Upgradable to AM2) AGP & PCI-Express Motherboard £44.64
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU £16.44
£8 postage
use existing ram / graphics
= £163.67 (add a tenner for the retail dual core X2 3800)
or if upgrading graphics...
BFG GeForce 7300 GT OC 256MB £55.21
= £218.88
Intel Option:
Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 retail £137.46
Asrock Conroe945G-DVI £54.04
GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit £82.24
BFG GeForce 7300 GT OC 256MB £55.21
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU (socket 775) £21.14
£8 postage
= £358.09
Selling your old kit to off set the cost...
Asus A7N8X Deluxe £35
Athlon XP Barton 3200 £30
Corsair (TWINX1024-3200XLPRO) 1024MB Dual Mode £50
Ati 9600 Pro £25
if you got the above and put the money towards the Intel system it would cost £218.09p
if you sold your graphics card, mobo, and cpu to put towards the AMD set up with the 7300GT (cant sell the ram as your using it on the AMD set up) then it would only cost £128.88
so even when selling your old kit off to fund the new stuff the AMD still works out cheaper, and in my opinion, given what you will be using it for, is the better value option for you.
both are more than powerful enough to do what you want, the choice is yours.
