Keep Amd phenom 2 x4 945 or get Intel i3 530

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

No brainer, keep the AMD quad core.

unless you really need the money back.

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

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

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.

There's no reason to switch. At all.

take the i3....mail me the phenom II x 945  

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

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.

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  .