New machine needed - Intel or AMD?

TheBigCheese

TheBigCheese

TheBigCheese

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Joined
6 Sep 2005
Posts
3,781
Hi guys

I haven't had an AMD processor years so I have no clue how good they are any more but I need to upgrade a computer.

It's a machine that is primarily used for Photoshop work with big files - generally with scans that are around 300MB, but can stretch to 1GB if several are pasted together...couple that with multiple layers and history states and it soon brings the current machine to it's knees.

The thing is we are on a budget for this machine, I think our accountant will shout at us if we spend megabucks on it so I am looking for the best value possible over raw speed.

I know Intel beat AMD hands down for video encoding but as it won't be used for that I wondered if AMD would be good enough for what we need?

We will be looking for:
Processor
Silent cooler
Motherboard
RAM - anything up to 18GB worth.


I think it would have to be less than £500 for the above.

We have everything else we need.

If anyone can offer any suggestions we would really appreciate it, thanks! :)
 
intel is much better than AMD, would wait for ivy at come out at the end of the month.
heres some specs if u cant wait
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £239.99
1 x Samsung Green 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual/Quad Channel Kit (MV-3V4G3D/US) £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £23.99
Total : £450.35 (includes shipping : £9.50).



or 2700k build
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-2700K 3.50GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £263.99
1 x Samsung Green 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual/Quad Channel Kit (MV-3V4G3D/US) £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £23.99
Total : £474.35 (includes shipping : £9.50).

 
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Hi there,

few options for you:

i5 2500K is hard to beat for price/performance - they overclock well too if thats a possibility?

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £173.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
2 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £39.95 (£79.90)
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £23.99
Total : £374.26 (includes shipping : £9.50).

Click to expand...

Better motherboard/cooler for a better overclock
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £173.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £134.99
1 x Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler - Blue (Socket LGA 2011/1155/1156/1366/775/AMD AM2/2+/AM3) £66.98
2 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £39.95 (£79.90)
Total : £467.26 (includes shipping : £9.50).

Click to expand...

With an i7 2600K which has hyperthreading:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £239.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £134.99
2 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £39.95 (£79.90)
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £23.99
Total : £490.26 (includes shipping : £9.50).

Click to expand...

Final option, over budget! But this includes X79 platform which would allow a 6core CPU to be added, and much more RAM [the 3820 performs similarly to the i7 2600K above, but the platforms allows more upgrades]

YOUR BASKET
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £229.99
1 x Asus P9X79 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £199.98
1 x Xigmatek Prime SD1484 CPU Cooler with 140mm Fan (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/2011/AMD AM2/AM3/FM1) £39.98
2 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £39.95 (£79.90)
Total : £561.25 (includes shipping : £9.50).

Click to expand...

Also, Ivy Bridge is out soon, so it's probably worth waiting for that. It shouldn't be much more expensive, reviews should be out Monday I believe.
 
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Ivy bridge may be slightly faster per clock, but reports are saying it won't clock as high as Sandy Bridge. So I suspect if you overcock both chips, they will perform pretty much identically. So i'm not quite sure what all the fuss over Ivy is to be honest.
 
IvanDobskey said:
Ivy bridge may be slightly faster per clock, but reports are saying it won't clock as high as Sandy Bridge. So I suspect if you overcock both chips, they will perform pretty much identically. So i'm not quite sure what all the fuss over Ivy is to be honest.
Click to expand...

Well I'd argue when it's so close that it's worth waiting for proper reviews. Also even if IB isn't necessarily better hopefully they'll be some nice deals on the SB stuff :)
 
Thanks for the posts guys and the shopping lists, what a brilliant idea!

So...just to play devils advocate, why are the AMDs so much worse? The price is so much better (:D), though to be honest I have no idea what the numbers mean anymore...

I've got an i7 920 (stock) at the moment with 18GB and that seems to handle huge files fine, it was working with a 2.3GB file this afternoon without worrying too much.

What would be an equivilant processor these days, both Intel and AMD?

We won't be overclocking by the way, it's a works machine so has to be rock solid stable...that and we've never overclocked before so best not to try on one of the work PCs!
 
TheBigCheese said:
Thanks for the posts guys and the shopping lists, what a brilliant idea!

So...just to play devils advocate, why are the AMDs so much worse? The price is so much better (:D), though to be honest I have no idea what the numbers mean anymore...

I've got an i7 920 (stock) at the moment with 18GB and that seems to handle huge files fine, it was working with a 2.3GB file this afternoon without worrying too much.

What would be an equivilant processor these days, both Intel and AMD?

We won't be overclocking by the way, it's a works machine so has to be rock solid stable...that and we've never overclocked before so best not to try on one of the work PCs!
Click to expand...

if your not one for numbers and charts, in laymans terms, your i7 would be faster, if not considerably faster than the very latest Bulldozer chips :)
 
Crikey, and it's getting on a bit now!

In that case then...in laymans terms, or should that be Photoshop terms, how much faster would the new Intel chips that have been recommended be compared to the i7, and if I looked at the cheaper but current i5 chips, would they be a step up or down from the i7 920 I have now?
 
IMO your i7 setup is fast enough.

I would spend on SSDs, maybe a GPU depending on what you have and if you can make use of GPU streams, and a nice big fat hard drive. Maybe some overclocking, although I tend to shy away from overclocking on pro machines.

(shopping list tools in my sig, bookmarklet for all browsers, chrome extension for, well Chrome :)).

Else, a Z77, i7 IvyBridge (better integrated GPU for transcoding), 4x4GB / 4x8GB. Expensive though. But if you do not have a SSD (256 / 512GB M4 / Samsung / Intel 520), these are awesome for productivity.
 
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Thanks for the links to the benchmarks SeraphX, that's exactly what I need to be studying!

olivier renault - cheers for the post but that's not what I mean.

I have an i7 system that I use which will be staying, we need another machine that my missus uses for the photoshop work, it's her machine that's grinding to a halt so we need to upgrade the innards of that.

We already have fast HDDs in there, one for boot and programs, one for scratch and one to save the work to.

SSD though it would be nice (I know the benefits, I have an M4), we can't justify the spend for the purposes, it's got to be a fast number cruncher and oodles of RAM to load the whole image into it, she was working on a 2.3GB image on my machine this afternoon and it barely blinked which was rather satifying. :)
 
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