Keep Amd phenom 2 x4 945 or get Intel i3 530

[mortimerlopez]

Hi Guys,

I was wondering, I just build a system with these specs but was wondering if I would be better off with the Intel i3 530, Frys has it on sale for about $130; of course I'll have to get ddr3, I can still return the phenom and gigabyte and memory as they were purchased less than two weeks ago.

AMD Phenom II x4 945
Gigabyte GAMA78LMS2 Motherboard
4 Gb Patriot memory DDR2
500 GB Hitachi hard disk

 

[mortimerlopez]

fyi the i3 530 comes with a biostar motherboard for the $130

 

[astrodudepsu]

No brainer, keep the AMD quad core.

unless you really need the money back.

 

[CrysisComa]

fyi the i3 530 comes with a biostar motherboard for the $130

Keep the Phenom II, its better than the i3, plus biostar isnt too great of a brand

 

[someguy7]

No Brainer. Keep the AMD. Only reason to switch would be if you where a die hard Intel fan and just had to have a Intel chip for some reason. That isnt actually a rational reason but eh. Keep the AMD

 

[ahebah]

I can see only one reason for anyone to change from that X4 to the i3 and that's if you're using a lot of encryption/decryption with an i3 supported encryption format... AES-256 ? (this is applicable if your disks are encrypted with bitlocker or truecrypt but not if you only occasionally encrypt a file like I describe below)

In all other cases I would prefer your X4 945 over any i3 or i5 6xx (it's difficult to recommend it over an i5 750 though).

I encrypted some files earlier this week using: 7zip, Windows 7 Professional 64-bit, Intel E8400, 4GB 800MHz memory, ... The files were image backups made after a fresh install of Windows 7 (I had to since I was still running Win 7RC). In the end I decided to use the fastest compression, just below the store option, the encryption algorithm was AES-256 and it did take ages: 8GB = 20 minutes (using normal compression), 12.5 GB = 25-30 minutes (using fastest compression algorithm) and it made clear why Intel has added support for encryption to their new processors.

 

[cjl]

There's no reason to switch. At all.

 

[andy5174]

Are you kidding me? What's the point of downgrade?

 

[loneninja]

Are you trying to cut power consumption? It's about the only plus to switching to an I3 when you already have a Phenom II X4.

 

[gidgiddonihah]

Really? Cumon now, you really want to DOWNGRADE?? Why would anyone in their right mind want 2 cores instead of 4?? At about the same speed too...

KEEP THE AMD!!! That is a pretty good chip you have in there! Was considering getting that myself but i figured i could budget an i5...

Or you can mail that Phenom to me... That works too .