lardo5150

So, I am trying to find a comparison between these cpu's.

I found two links:
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/
and
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2...hmarks,60.html

One has the AMD beating the i7, the other has the i7 beating AMD.

The AMD is more cost effective. I have never had an AMD.

With regards to overclocking, how does the AMD stack up? Does it overclock easy like the i7?
This AMD is stock 3.4ghz, but has a power consumption of 140W, seems to suck on power pretty bad.

What is everyone's thoughts? I am not looking for an AMD vs Intel, just what is a better option considering budget and performance. Should I just shell out the extra cash for the i7?

skitzogreg

It really depends on what you're going to be doing with the system. I'll try to take a non-biased approach, but keep in mind the AMD band will recommend AMD and the Intel folks will recommend, well, Intel. The fact remains that the AMD 955/965 and the i5/i7 aren't much different in games. Where you're going to see a difference is in multimedia applications, video editing, 3d design, etc. Intel has AMD beat on that big time. For gaming, the most cost effective solution is actually to go with a 955, regardless of power consumption. Your power supply that you currently have is more than enough to handle an AMD and 1-2 decent cards. In conclusion, if you're in some sort of digital design field, go with the i5 (or i7). If you're gaming on a budget, go with AMD.

Also, AMD processors overclock fairly easy, with the i5 and i7 being no more/less difficult.

Chilly

In "General" Intel Core i5 beats AMD's Phenom II X4 line of processors. The Phenom II might be able to reach about the same performance as a Core i5 with a good overclock.

AMD Phenom II mainly competes Intel Core 2 Quad series of processors. While Intel Core i7 are still "Winners" in performance wise.

However, when comparing both AMD Phenom II and Intel Core i7 there will be a dramatic difference in Synthetic Benchmarks, but for gaming, Core i7 will give you more performance, but the Phenom II will do the job just fine

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lardo5150

Good info.
Yes, no design here. Only gaming.
I kind of thought that I might have to up my powersupply, so that was good info.

How about future proof, I know nothing is truly future proof, but how far out could you push the 965?

Can you recommened 3 good boards for the 965? I only ask because I am researching all three (AMD, i5, i7), and I know zero about the AMD. I would prefer boards that are sli/crossfire ready. I dont even know if the 965 uses tri or dual channel, I will have to google that now

lardo5150

decisions decisions. I have another thread with i5 vs i7. It is back and forth.

It is hard trying to balance out performance and the all mighty dollar

Chilly

I'll help you out with those questions that you asked:

For the "Top" motherboards for the Socket AM3, I would check this thread out: http://www.overclock.net/amd-motherb...-o-c-able.html

There are some motherboards that use DDR2 RAM instead of DDR3 RAM for cost purposes. Asus uses a "E" at the end of their motherboard's model number/name, while Gigabyte uses "T/-T" this indicates that it uses DDR3 RAM.

Socket AM3 is fairly new, it came out this spring I believe, so it'll be around for quite some time.

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Chilly

The main difference between Core i5 and Core i7 is Hyperthreading. Core i5 has 4 cores with 4 threads, while Core i7 has Hyperthreading, which enables 4 cores to have 8 threads, it's kind of like having 2 Quad Core processors with one socket.

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4.0GHz CPU-Z Validation

lardo5150

Games dont even utilize the hyperthreading, so I am really starting to sway to the 1156 socket.

dir_d

Youll be happy with AMD...specially if you want to save alil money for a better GFX card. Im using the new C3 stepping of the 965 and im stable with low temps at 4Ghz. People will argue that the i5 at 4Ghz will beat a 965 at 4Ghz which is true but they dont have the future proofing (hexacores) or the two 16x PCI-E 2.0 lanes which will be utilized more with bigger and better cards coming out.

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XiZeL

id go for the the AMD the new one 125TDP, if your gaming thers no prob and you will be on AM3 i think we will have some suprises quite soon for that socket

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