kegger

what are the advantages/disadvantages of going amd over intel or vice versa. is one supremely better? i'm lookin at building a quadcore machine and just weighing my options.

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CJRhoades

AMD
Pros: Cheap. AM2, AM2+, and AM3 sockets are all compatible with each other. Better stock cooler than intel.
Cons: Not as powerful as intel.

Intel
Pros: More powerful than AMD.
Cons: Very expensive. Lots of different sockets that are incompatible with eachother. Worthless stock cooler.

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pow3rtr1p

This is brought up almost every day, and more than twice today. It just turns into a huge flame war.

The 2nd poster is right (except that AM2/AM2+ won't fit in an AM3 socket, while AM3 will fit in AM2+ sockets with a BIOS update) , but you should really use the search function for questions like this. There's lots of good info all around, and lots of fanboys spitting their own brand of bull at one another.

igob8a

Just go with whatever meets your needs

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kegger

sheesh!

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pow3rtr1p

Not trying to be a jerk, so sorry if it came off like that. It's just more often than not these threads degrade into childish bickering and name-calling.

AMD is generally cheaper for a CPU with roughly equal performance. However, by spending more, top of the line Intel chips are faster than AMD's top of the line. That being said, AMD's top of the line is in the same price range as Intel's lower end chips.

Also, Intel's newest motherboards (x58 chipset) are generally more expensive than AMD's top of the line 790GX/790FX boards. However, there are very few AMD boards that support SLI, while most high-end Intel boards support both SLI and Crossfire. Also, I'm not sure how well-implemented it is yet, but AMD's Spider technology is meant to improve integration with CPU, RAM, and Video Card. Ever sicne AMD bought ATI, they have been working more and more on getting everything integrated.

So, if you have money to spare, are really concerned with top of the line performance, or are a deep-rooted nVidia fan looking to go SLI, you should probably go with an Intel rig.

If you are on a relatively tight budget, like bang for buck as opposed to cutting edge performance, or are an ATI fan, AMD is probably more your speed.

Hope This Helped,
pow3rtr1p