Okay, I am choosing between these four CPUs:

1. AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ Black Edition Windsor Core (with Rosewill Z1 Cooler)
2. Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 @2.66Ghz LGA 775 (with Rosewill Z1 Cooler)
3. AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Brisbane Core (with ThermalTake Blue Orb Cooler)
4. AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition (with ThermalTake Blue Orb Cooler)

I am a AMD guy, so I really would like to stick with an AMD CPU. It is hard to CPU shop without the constant yellings about C2D procs though, so I included the E6750 in my decision. I dont like the way C2D "feel" though. Some of my friends have them and It may score good in benchmarks... but In general purpose work it seems to... lag. It really may just be my bias though. So, I will be more than happy to listen to anything anyone has to say.

The whole cooler thing is basically I have a budget and I have a Rosewill Z1 Cooler on me already. So, I can either go cheaper proc and better cooler for better Overclocking, or Standard cooling and better proc.

All suggestions and advice are welcome! Thank you!

Out of the list of ones you have I would get the 5000 black edition... the reason is that it is cheap for one and it is 65 nm for two. The smaller manufacturer spec will allow you to overclock to the moon and back. Also it's unlocked as you may already know.

But if I were you I would get the phenom!

The C2D. Nothing else comes close. Overclock that baby past 3Ghz and watch it scream! With decent cooling it's not hard to pass 3.6Ghz. With a decent board based on an Intel chipset you'll easily be able to upgrade to a 45nm dual or quad core CPU when it suits you as well.

xpyrofuryx,

I was looking at 2 procs recently, the 6000+, the E6750. When I did comparisons between those two using the tomshardware CPU charts, the differences in almost all cases was 10% or less, however the E6750 was about 46 dollars more to buy. Also when looking at motherboards, good ones, not crap ones the AMD boards generally run 20-40 dollars cheaper. So I was def not going with the E6750 mainly because I didn't think the extra 80 bucks was worth a mere 10% performance increase that I would never see. Then I just watched for the price of the 6000+ to drop until one day I saw the article on the new 5000+ BE. I was sold. When overclocked to 3.23 GHZ this processor comes very close to the performance of the 6000+ but at a price of 30 dollars cheaper. So that is what I bought. I have had it for 2 weeks and I have it running at 3.23 GHZ with the multiplier at 16 and the core voltage running .1 higher then stock. Runs great and I couldn't be happier with my system. I bought the ASUS M2N-E motherboard and 2 gig of ADATA Vitesta DDR2800 5-5-5-18 memory.

I'm sorry, but I have to point out that this reasoning is horribly flawed. You're comparing price-to-stock performance and then overclocking. If that was your intention in the first place, an E6550, or even lesser E4xxx and E21xx would have cost the same or cheaper and have solid 20%+ performance when clocked mildly to 3Ghz+.

But I don't want to argue that. You're happy with your PC and that's all that matters.

So to the point, I personally would go with the E6750 and clock it to hell, but the 5000+ BE is still an attractive chip at its price if you really want to stick with AMD.

Out of those it is really no comparison. I would go with the E6750. It will be better at stock, and the OC'ing will be unmatched. You will be able to reach 3.2ghz with your cooler with ease, but I anticipate you can reach higher to the 3.4 - 3.6ghz range depending on case airflow, positioning and room temp. Really no comparison imo. Also, I can promise you that your feeling of "lag" has to be your bias. I own a system with a 6000+ @ 3.2ghz and the system in the sig and their is no comparison. My system in the sig blow it out of the water in all load times, and it DEFINITELY responds to my commands much quicker. My Intel system is much more stable on the OC. @ 3.2ghz I cannot get the 6000+ to pass 24+ hours of orthos, and it runs much warmer and requires more voltage. The only reason why it is still clocked at that speed is because the system is used mostly by my roommate and he likes the number, and thinks that I am crazy for wanting a perfectly stable system...he thinks its just fine to have a few restarts here and there I guess lol. Sorry for the rant I just thought I would give my two cents. I can vouch for both systems in saying that they are both very fast, but the Intel main rig is much faster in every aspect that we use it for...mainly gaming/editing. Hope this helps.

Best,

3Ball

Out of the choices given, it comes down to the C2D E6750 and X2 5000+ BE IMO, and only because you are an AMD fan.

The E6750 is heads and shoulders above any AMD chip in regards to overclocking. You should comfortably be able to run it in excess of 3.5GHz with good cooling... some people are getting close to 4GHz on air, though it's all luck of the draw I guess.

The X2 5000+ BE is nice in that it has an unlocked multi, is relatively cheap, and I've seen these go to 3.3 - 3.4GHz on air, which is pretty good for a 65nm X2 (which, rather oddly, generally don't clock as high as 90nm, go figure...).

However, even in this price range there are better options from Intel, should you choose to explore those. The equivalently priced E4500 has a good a chance of hitting 3.4 - 3.5GHz with good cooling, which would put it ~25% faster than the X2 5000+ BE max overclock due to the IPC advantage.

Look, AMD is not a bad choice if you don't overclock due to competitive pricing, but they simply cannot compete in terms of overclocking. They run much hotter and lack the clockspeed headroom to even challenge the low end C2Ds, such as the E21x0 line, let alone the higher end E4x00 or E6x50 series.

Yes, you read that correct. Even a $75 E2140 will overclock to equivalent, if not higher performance levels than *ANY* X2, and that includes the X2 6400+ BE.

This is the hard truth from an overclocking perspective, which may not be to your liking as an AMD fan, but hopefully you are smart enough to not let your bias cloud judgement of the bigger picture at hand.

Between the four, I'll take the E6750.

+1

As your "an AMD guy" then you may already have the MB and ram so get the $125 AMD 5000 BE (boxed w/3 yr warrenty) with the unlocked multi and just drop it in.
Most people get 3.2 without a voltage boost,some get 3.4 but I really can't see any rl gain with any brand CPU in games running over 3Ghz.

Keep in mind that the 5000 is only as fast as the 6400 when its pushed to the limit or just below it.

IF!!!! You pick up the 790fx MB series floating around you can plant a 6400 on it and not have to worry about replacing your entire rig for your next update. Buy an Intel atm and you will be replacing your mb, ram, cpu and if you own the current Nvidia cards you will need a new one for the next dx10.

I dont care what anyone says. For gaming and most things common to household use a system with 4gigs, x2 6400, and one of the 3870 cards on the 790fx MBs will last a very long time. Just x-fire or plant a new cpu on it over the next 3 years. The Intel system to match those benchmarks would cost a good amount more and will be totaly usless come the next upgrade.

Considering Phenom hasnt shown up so well I am not sure where you are getting this. 1.) I would never crossfire, so my option would be to just sell my current card and change to a newer/faster video card over the years and if phenom is what you are refering to, which I am pretty sure you are then I will just get a G0 Q6600 and run it around 3.2ghz for the next few years and be better off. Oh yea and I suppose I could spend $75 and get another 2gb of my memory.

If I was building a new system I would build one with an X38 or P35 chipset so I could 1.) run crossfire and 2.) support penryn so I could be even better off all while being able to placate to your crossfire theory as well. So...what was your point again?!?

Best,

3Ball

Wow... that's a lot of opinion for the original writer to not have responded yet... well... imo i'd go with the AMD and save my money!

I might really look into the e6750, need to look at some chipsets and future proof of it. I see a lot of votes for the 5000+ BE though, shouldnt the 6400+ BE be faster? Or is the 65nm of it really important?

The 5000+BE can easily be OC'ed to reach the 6400+ BE's speed, hence the 5000+BE being a better choice.