Should I buy intel or AMD

[impaledmango]

Now I'm not trying to start a fanboy war thread I just want to to know what is better. I can get a phenom 2 955 x4 and a AM3 mobo for the same price as a 1156 and i5 750, but I want upgradeability in the future, and from what people have told me, AMD motherboards never need to be switched out but intel do, and I personally HATE switching motherboards for new socket types and wasting hundreds of dollars.

But then again performance wise the i5 750 wins in almost all cases and seeing as the i5 750 is the same price but packs more of a punch in just about everything that would be the best bet, would it not? But if in a year or so AMD releases a new phenom or something like that I could buy that and just stuff into my motherboard, but from what I've seen 1156 have no current upgrade path.

Anyones opinion would be great, but try to stay on topic.

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

No such thing as a 550 x4. It's only an x2. However you may look around, as they do have some good deals on quads. Check newegg and see what they've got as they have a lot of good combos floating around.

Note some of the guys are reporting being able to unlock 2 additional cores on the 550 essentially making them a quad.

 

[warmon6]

well the major question people will ask is:
1. What are you going to be using it for (web, email, gaming, Video, ect)
2. are you going for upgrading cpus in the next few years.

 

[impaledmango]

meant 955 xD, and yes I usually upgrade my cpu every 2 years, and graphic card every year. I currently have a q6600 and 4870x2, and I feel that the q6600 is greatly holding back my 4870x2. I do mainly gaming but I do, do some mild video editing and photoshop. The main reason why I am considering AMD is because upgrading should essentially be very easy.

 

[jimishtar]

its easy as this: for the same money, u get more on amd. or in other words, the same performance costs more on intel.

so, if u have the money, go with intel, if u are on a budget, go with amd. both are great.

 

[Raidur]

Just get the i5. If you feel that you need to upgrade in the future just get the i7 for that socket. I'm sure they will have faster CPUs on the 1156 in the future but who can tell? Btw I wouldn't be surprised if we never see AM3 surpass 1156 (hell they still can't even beat 775 yet) so your decision should be easy. Once you surpass 3.6ghz on the I5 and see that awesome performance you'll realize you won't need to upgrade for a good few more years. Especially for gaming performance, GPUs are still the strong bottleneck. (which, if you ask me, is why you see i7/5 and core2/phenom II performing similar in games until you sli/xfire, I think the next gen of GPUs on xfire and sli is when we'll start to see these CPUs shine)

 

[MU_Engineer]

Now I'm not trying to start a fanboy war thread I just want to to know what is better. I can get a phenom 2 955 x4 and a AM3 mobo for the same price as a 1156 and i5 750, but I want upgradeability in the future, and from what people have told me, AMD motherboards never need to be switched out but intel do, and I personally HATE switching motherboards for new socket types and wasting hundreds of dollars.

Well, the people that told you that you never need to switch out AMD motherboards exaggerated a little. Technically you can put a Phenom II X4 965BE in a 2006-era AM2 motherboard, but you are at the mercy of the motherboard maker as to whether they shipped updated BIOSes to support new chips. Some do for a while, some don't. You can always try to mod a BIOS for newer chips, but it's supposedly a non-trivial task.

Back to the original question, I think that you will probably see about as much life out of a current AM3 board as you will an LGA1156 board. AMD will eventually get away from the AM2/AM2+/AM3 socket in a couple of years and make something different, and Intel will most likely change the voltage regulation scheme on LGA1156 boards at some point and newer LGA1156 chips won't work in older boards with older VRM schemes. I wouldn't buy a system based on long-term CPU upgrade potential as it's generally not there.

But then again performance wise the i5 750 wins in almost all cases and seeing as the i5 750 is the same price but packs more of a punch in just about everything that would be the best bet, would it not? But if in a year or so AMD releases a new phenom or something like that I could buy that and just stuff into my motherboard, but from what I've seen 1156 have no current upgrade path.

I highly doubt that there won't be any new chips on existing LGA1156 boards. It's a completely brand new socket and since there is an IMC, there shouldn't be as many issues with CPU upgrading as there were with the FSB-based LGA775 boards. I'd bet that there will be updated chips on AM3 as well since it also is a new revision of the socket, but I don't know for how long. AMD is rumored to be changing things up a bit with the Bulldozer CPUs with an onboard IGP and the AM3 is based on a 2006-era socket that probably wasn't designed with this in mind.

 

[medjohnson77]

I think if you go with I5 now, that down the road, sure it will have upgrades for the CPU, however look at what there upgrade paths cost for CPU's on the 1156 boards for a better cpu at the moment if you go low end I5. You are looking at $300-600 dollars. Is that a price you are willing to pay for a CPU upgrade down the road?

While I believe that MU is correct to a point about AMD and that alot of the upgrade ability depends on motherboard makers and their support for the new sockets, AMD seems to have better options when it comes to being able to upgrade your CPU and kept your motherboard if you buy a quality motherboard. Intel CPUs, I5's and I7's bench better then Phenom II's however, Phenom IIs are very good CPU's, so IMO that is not saying much. Either way I am sure you will have a very nice build, but I would skip the I5 and go with the I7 920 if you really want the very best in bench marks.

 

[sirkillalot]

Now I'm not trying to start a fanboy war thread I just want to to know what is better. I can get a phenom 2 955 x4 and a AM3 mobo for the same price as a 1156 and i5 750, but I want upgradeability in the future, and from what people have told me, AMD motherboards never need to be switched out but intel do, and I personally HATE switching motherboards for new socket types and wasting hundreds of dollars.

But then again performance wise the i5 750 wins in almost all cases and seeing as the i5 750 is the same price but packs more of a punch in just about everything that would be the best bet, would it not? But if in a year or so AMD releases a new phenom or something like that I could buy that and just stuff into my motherboard, but from what I've seen 1156 have no current upgrade path.

Anyones opinion would be great, but try to stay on topic.

AMD
no INTEL
no wait amd
immmmm intel
ati
no nvidia
wait asus
wait what was the question again

i got the amd p2 x4 955 myself mainly cause of price and it over clocks well . just my opinion

 

[surda]

i got a pentium 2, and man can i just say its Fast, i play crysis At Max Settings without a graphics card just the pentium 2 @ 700 mhz, overclocked to 1.2 GHz!!! and gusse what, it dont have cache!! and it runs very smooth.

and its cheap i got the whole system for about 83 dollors, so yea if i was you, i'll go with intel and get a pentium 2 right now.

 

[yomamafor1]

i got a pentium 2, and man can i just say its Fast, i play crysis At Max Settings without a graphics card just the pentium 2 @ 700 mhz, overclocked to 1.2 GHz!!! and gusse what, it dont have cache!! and it runs very smooth.

and its cheap i got the whole system for about 83 dollors, so yea if i was you, i'll go with intel and get a pentium 2 right now.

Pentium 2? pfft... weaksauce.

The 8086 rig I have not only can run Crysis at max settings at the highest resolution, the image will actually become 3D, like you're in the game itself! Try that on your 83USD Pentium 2!

 

[fazers_on_stun]

Pentium 2? pfft... weaksauce.

The 8086 rig I have not only can run Crysis at max settings at the highest resolution, the image will actually become 3D, like you're in the game itself! Try that on your 83USD Pentium 2!

Na-ah! My Intel 4004 oc'd to 40 Boogerhurtz can do 4D graphics even when turned off! And I got it for free outta the dumpster!

Just try playing Duke Nukem 4D with all the rooms being tesseracts!

 

[impaledmango]

LOL, well anyways I decided I'm prob gonna pick up a 955 since my friend is selling his to me 4 a very dirt cheap price (50 bucks), so this is obviously a no brainer, but I still need ram and a motherboard. Any links to the best AM3 motherboard would be great, since I'm saving all this money may as well get the best board LOL.

 

[nss000]

Pentium 2? pfft... weaksauce.

The 8086 rig I have not only can run Crysis at max settings at the highest resolution, the image will actually become 3D, like you're in the game itself! Try that on your 83USD Pentium 2!

Wooot ! Kids these dayz are such wuus: My Apple-2+ with a Z-80 card and solid-icecube cooling just BLAAZES on WORDSTAR documents. UPPER & lower case, alpha & numerics.

Damme usedtobe IRON men and bamboo sliderules ... now ...

 

[surda]

for the 955, AM3 will be your choice, its the latest mofo there for AMD.

 

[medjohnson77]

If your picking up the 955b.e. for $50 bucks, and theres nothing wrong with you got a hell of a deal. I would go with the AM3 Msi for around $167 or with the Asus crosshair III or the M4N79-t deluxe AM3 board, I am sure that they will do just fine.