Choosing my CPU - Intel vs AMD

I think if you do some reaseach you'll see each processor has different strengths. And if I'm not mistaken Intel is better at video than AMD. And in my opinion, while a little more expensive is more stable. I was not happy with my fist AMD purchase and have been Intel since. Not that you should base your decision on my one past experience but take it for what it's worth.

Intel PC's typically beat AMD at video editing, and Intel is on the climb in other areas as far as gaming performance goes along with heat and wattage are falling too.
A good choice would be an entry level 920 processor.

AMD is currently romping in the charts in most benchmarks.

I have an X2 4400+, and I do a bit of everything. It works great, and I've had no problems. I've even overclocked it a little to the equivalent of an X2 4800+, with almost no change in CPU temperature on air (I do have a big fan and heatsink).

Intel has a vast array of chips to choose from. They all have higher clock speeds than AMD chips, but a slower FSB. Benchmarks show that Intel are slightly ahead in video coding, but at the expensive of heat and performance per watt.

Generally speaking AMD are just as good, and use less energy. Intel are improving in their architecture for the future, however. Check the THG CPU charts on some video benchmarks on chips that are currently out today:

http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html

Check your budget, then see where your priorities lie. Then see how different the best chip from AMD vs best chip from Intel for your budget, calculate some other minor factors you may have, and you'll have an answer!

IMO, an AMD X2 mildly overclocked will perform just as good as an Intel at video, be better at gaming (even if that doesnt influence you), and consume less energy.

In my opinion of course  

There are some pro AMD, some pro Intel. Generally, more pro AMD, but check others opinion too  

An AMD Athlon64 X2 system is certainly the way to go, as long as you're looking at dual-core systems (judging from your post). Intel is currently lagging behind in most single-core and dual-core performance tests, and is more expensive (looking at a complete system, not just the CPU).

It's true that a few software tasks are still more optimized for Intel hardware, but even then, you won't be sorry about the performance of an X2 overall.

About going Dual-Core (be it AMD or Intel): make sure the actual software titles you'll want to be running are optimized for multi-threaded applications. Only the software vendors can tell you, althought more and more software titles do come out with multi-cpu (or multi-threaded) optimizations "out of the box"; especially professional level software.

I also agree about getting as much RAM as you can afford: in video editing, 1GB is nice, 2GB is even better.

HelzBelz


P.S. There hasn't been any stability issues with AMD CPUs since the original Athlon days... Of course, Intel is also well known for its stability. Nowadays, for any system: if instability there is, look at other components, not the CPU.