CPU/Mobo - AMD v. Intel (no fanboys plz)

[a2love]

Hi all,

Let me start out with saying that yes I know I am treading in Fanboy waters... but please baby jezuz do not turn this one into a troll war... I am looking for specific constructive criticism, not a .

I am building a new gaming rig, with an HD 5870 GPU, and am deciding between:

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produc...amd_phenom_ii_x6_1090t-_-19-103-849-_-Product

and

Intel i7 950:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115211&cm_re=i7_950-_-19-115-211-_-Product

So, to keep this as clean as possible... I have two SPECIFIC questions...

1) Which Mobo would you twin with each CPU

2) Which setup do you feel will give the greatest opportunity for upgrade in the future. i.e. am I cutting myself off at the knees by purchasing an end of life setup?

Honestly, I know that both the AMD and Intel rigs are powerful. I am not wanting to debate between each of their already impressive stats... all I am after is a mobo setup and which one you feel will allow for the best upgrade options a few years from now.

Thanks for any help you can give.

Cheers,
Adam

 

[Mousemonkey]

I wouldn't worry too much about the upgrade path of either setup if I were you as both of those sockets are on their last legs as it is.

 

[jj463rd]

1.I'll let other posters pick the mobos
2.You could upgrade that Intel rig with an expensive 6 core i7-980X and Intel does have plans to release a slightly faster -990X CPU next year however but they are pretty much End of Line rigs unless you want to pick a very expensive CPU.

It perhaps would be best if you wait for the new Intel Sandybridge CPU's to come out soon (2 months from now).Also AMD will have their upcoming Bulldozer CPU's coming out on Socket AM3+ so essentially AM3 is a dead EOL platform.

In other words I would wait on building a new rig to get much better performing CPU's

 

[deadjon]

People are building rigs at the wrong time...

I'll hold off on advice, I think people spending money 4 or 5 months prior to Sandy bridge and Bulldozer would be a waste.

If your going for it anyway, go for the i7 with an Asus P6T Deluxe. Its a faster chip and wont be a bottleneck to anything.

 

[Mousemonkey]

People are building rigs at the wrong time...

I'll hold off on advice, I think people spending money 4 or 5 months prior to Sandy bridge and Bulldozer would be a waste.

If your going for it anyway, go for the i7 with an Asus P6T Deluxe. Its a faster chip and wont be a bottleneck to anything.

Except 3x GTX580's.

 

[ghnader hsmithot]

I wouldn't worry too much about the upgrade path of either setup if I were you as both of those sockets are on their last legs as it is.

Well i would get an i7 that way if you had a chance buy the i7 980x cheaply and I mean very cheaply..Then you have a chance to upgrade but in the computer world outdated cpu isnt cheap because middle men are afraid of making a loss when they bought the chips hence it never cpu never go down in price..
That is my take.

 

[ahthurungnone]

Even though I am an AMD guy, the i950 will outperform the 1090T. Period. It will cost about $70 more, but it does have a slight benchmark advantage over the Phenom.

If you still decide on the Phenom, you should only consider the MSI 890FXA-GD70.

It is true that Intel and AMD are working on new cpu's. However, I'm not sure AMD will abandon the AM3 socket setup (with the "Bobcat" processors) as they generally even make newer processors run in older sockets. (Consider that you can still buy a Phenom II for an AM2+ socket.) Intel, on the other hand, has been changing sockets like underwear since Intel is more concerned about being on the cutting edge than AMD. So, I would expect Intel's new processors to come with a new socket. But, of course, there will be even faster Phenom II x6 processors and faster Intel i7 processors in the future. Towards the end of a processor's life they generally tweak the old design with what they've learned with the new research.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Even though I am an AMD guy, the i950 will outperform the 1090T. Period. It will cost about $70 more, but it does have a slight benchmark advantage over the Phenom.

If you still decide on the Phenom, you should only consider the MSI 890FXA-GD70.

It is true that Intel and AMD are working on new cpu's. However, I'm not sure AMD will abandon the AM3 socket setup (with the "Bobcat" processors) as they generally even make newer processors run in older sockets. (Consider that you can still buy a Phenom II for an AM2+ socket.) Intel, on the other hand, has been changing sockets like underwear since Intel is more concerned about being on the cutting edge than AMD. So, I would expect Intel's new processors to come with a new socket. But, of course, there will be even faster Phenom II x6 processors and faster Intel i7 processors in the future. Towards the end of a processor's life they generally tweak the old design with what they've learned with the new research.

AMD have only been doing that since the AM2's, before that it was a new socket with every change in arch or have you forgotten the history so soon?

 

[deadjon]

EDIT

Its a faster chip and doesnt afraid of anything.

 

[jsc]

Neither CPU's are cost effective gaming CPU's. Of current CPU's, better something like an AMD 955BE or an Intel i5-760 or so.

At this point, with Sandy Bridge and Bulldozer on the horizon, you may be better off waiting.

 

[jj463rd]

I think that AMD's most versatile motherboard platform overall was the AM2+ since many of them (with a BIOS update) could take the slowest AM2 Athlon 64's,AM2+ CPU's and even AM3 CPU's up to the Phenom II X6 1090T.

AM3 really is a dead end.

 

[martyz1980]

People are building rigs at the wrong time...

I'll hold off on advice, I think people spending money 4 or 5 months prior to Sandy bridge and Bulldozer would be a waste.

If your going for it anyway, go for the i7 with an Asus P6T Deluxe. Its a faster chip and wont be a bottleneck to anything.

I aggree but in my case i have till next month to buy a whole new PC because work is paying, if i'm to late i dont get any refund from work

So i can understadn that some people do wanna build a PC before the new sockets and chips come out next year.

*Back on topic, since you only gonna use it for Gaming i would go for the AMD x6 chip, its cheaper than an i7 and has about the same performance in games. I would go I7 if you benchmark a lot as well.

 

[halfcalf]

I aggree but in my case i have till next month to buy a whole new PC because work is paying, if i'm to late i dont get any refund from work

So i can understadn that some people do wanna build a PC before the new sockets and chips come out next year.

I'm in about the same position as you. My rig has to go to my gf and she's foaming at the mouth counting the days. However, if this doesn't convince you to hold on nothing will:

Core i7 2600K, 5.12 GHz on air, SuperPI 32M: 401 seconds!

http://it-chuiko.com/computers/7450-intel-core-i7-2600k-sandy-bridge-preodolevaet.html

I'm not an overclocker but I'm flabbergasted. AMD better put nitrous superchargers on that Bulldozer!

 

[a2love]

Thanks for all the responses, helpful stuff here.

For those who think I should wait on the Sandy Bridge setup... anyone know what a relative cost structure will be for the chip and mobo? I have the ability to wait for release... but I do not want to wait for something that will crush by bankaccount back to the stone age.

 

[deadjon]

£300 ($400ish) for a 2600K
£130 - 200 ($160 - 250) for a mobo

They are estimates though.

 

[halfcalf]

I've been researching the i7 2600 hard (I'm putting the components together so I can buy one on release day as per my thread on this forum), but those prices seem fairly high for the CPU. I'm seeing guesstimates around US$280. However, in Ripoff Britain pounds with your lovely VAT it just might hit 300 quid. I've also seen a whack of stripped down LGA1155 2 SIMM mobos which look like they should come in very close to $100. I need 4 RAM slots so I'm expecting to pay close to $200 for mine. Of course, nothing at all is set until the official pricelists come out.

Edit correction. I'm seeing now that you're talking about the K. Those "should" be closer to $500+ so you actually might be low there. The standard 2600 prices are the ones which are expected to be south of $300.

 

[a2love]

Ok, price estimates seem reasonable enough. I am going to have to invest in some research on this.

I'm almost set on waiting so that I don't purchase an end of life socket for the i950... I can possibly get a machine that will have some nice CPU upgrade options in the future.

 

[halfcalf]

Also keep in mind that the LGA1155 is set to be the low end socket by the end of 2011. There will be an LGA1356 and an LGA2011. The latter will be a killer rig. Eight, count 'em eight quad channel RAM slots. I want one so bad I'm salivating on my keyboard.

 

[a2love]

hmm thanks halfcalf. I'm so torn between the i950 and a Sandy build... thing is, realistically, I will not upgrade the CPU for atleast 2 years. Also, I cannot wait longer than end of January to get a new PC.

So... if the LGA1155 socket is going to be seriously overshadowed in acouple years, I may end up doing a new mobo/CPU anyways... so, is it really worth the wait?

damnit... why are the better products always 1 month away!

 

[halfcalf]

Well, the Sandy is supposed to be released Jan. 6 or so, that means that they should be on at least "some" etailers by the second week of Jan. I can't wait beyond that time as my gf is looking at my i7 920 with lust in her eyes as I originally promised it to her for before Xmas. Gawd forbid that they delay it, I'll have to go buy an i950 or similar as well, and that would really suck to have to pull the trigger just because I can't hang on a few more weeks. I always keep my systems for 2 years and try to get as close to the current state of the art while staying within my budget when I do. It seems that there really is no option but to wait for the LGA1155 now. I wouldn't advise you to go any other route.

 

[martyz1980]

Well, the Sandy is supposed to be released Jan. 6 or so, that means that they should be on at least "some" etailers by the second week of Jan. I can't wait beyond that time as my gf is looking at my i7 920 with lust in her eyes as I originally promised it to her for before Xmas. Gawd forbid that they delay it, I'll have to go buy an i950 or similar as well, and that would really suck to have to pull the trigger just because I can't hang on a few more weeks. I always keep my systems for 2 years and try to get as close to the current state of the art while staying within my budget when I do. It seems that there really is no option but to wait for the LGA1155 now. I wouldn't advise you to go any other route.

May i state that whenever intel is releassing a new socket/CPU the moment they come out the hardware is way overpriced and still have baby bugs in em.
Eg remember when the 920 C0 came out, 4 months later no1 was going to buy the rev. C0 Anymore cuz the rev. D0 was on the market, a newer, faster, less enery consuming chip than the original one...

Arn't you pple afraid that when Sandy hits you are going to pay to much for a chip thats prolly going to be revised and better a few months later ?

 

[halfcalf]

May i state that whenever intel is releassing a new socket/CPU the moment they come out the hardware is way overpriced and still have baby bugs in em.
Eg remember when the 920 C0 came out, 4 months later no1 was going to buy the rev. C0 Anymore cuz the rev. D0 was on the market, a newer, faster, less enery consuming chip than the original one...

Arn't you pple afraid that when Sandy hits you are going to pay to much for a chip thats prolly going to be revised and better a few months later ?

It's pretty well a guarantee that the price of the 2600s will go down as soon as the next socket is introduced, but I'm not so sure about the bugs. Intel has a lot riding on Sandy and I don't think that they will spare the Raid (the bug killer, not the HD setup)!

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelieve me I'd love nothing more than to wait but I have a gun to my head and my gf is not gonna hesitate in pulling the trigger! :lol:

 

[Houndsteeth]

"Now" will never be the best time for you to build until you can accept the idea that anything you buy today will be obsolete for upgrades within 18 months. Sure, some folks have had luck in that some processor socket lines have had a long life (i.e., 775, AM2+, etc.), but this is not the norm. Be prepared to buy a new mainboard, processor and memory with your next build, no matter what.

With that being the case, be aware that with the next generation of AMD mainboards will most likely be backwards compatible with current AM3 CPUs (AM3+), so you can upgrade the mainboard without having to upgrade the processor, and then upgrade the processor when the time comes.

If it's legs you are looking for, either kit will serve you well, since they are about even. You will spend a bit more for the Intel build, but for everyday performance, you honestly would never notice the difference. The i7 might be a bit better at games, while the Thuban will come into it's own in applications where the two additional cores are actually used. But to be honest, games are more affected by GPU, and not too many people are using software that takes full advantage of all six cores.

 

[Kewlx25]

Hi all,

Let me start out with saying that yes I know I am treading in Fanboy waters... but please baby jezuz do not turn this one into a troll war... I am looking for specific constructive criticism, not a .

I am building a new gaming rig, with an HD 5870 GPU, and am deciding between:

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produc...amd_phenom_ii_x6_1090t-_-19-103-849-_-Product

and

Intel i7 950:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115211&cm_re=i7_950-_-19-115-211-_-Product

So, to keep this as clean as possible... I have two SPECIFIC questions...

1) Which Mobo would you twin with each CPU

2) Which setup do you feel will give the greatest opportunity for upgrade in the future. i.e. am I cutting myself off at the knees by purchasing an end of life setup?

Honestly, I know that both the AMD and Intel rigs are powerful. I am not wanting to debate between each of their already impressive stats... all I am after is a mobo setup and which one you feel will allow for the best upgrade options a few years from now.

Thanks for any help you can give.

Cheers,
Adam

You do realize that both AMD and Intel are releasing new chips in Q1/Q2 of 2011 that will *start* about 1.5 times faster and be ~2 times faster than current offering by the end of the year(2011-Q4)?

Intel's new Quad core with HT turned off it suppose to be about as powerful as current i7s with HT on. ohh, and 32nm and 4/6/8 core offerings, and a new SIMD instruction set that is suppose to put SSE3/4 to shame(AMD Bulldozer will also have these instructions).

Oh yeah.. and AMD Bulldozer. BD should make current AMD chips look like the 1.5ghz P4.

Should be f'n awesome. 2011 is going to be a great year. New video card, new SSDs and new CPUs.

A CPU generation is about once every 18 months, and you're straddling the transition.

 

[martyz1980]

You do realize that both AMD and Intel are releasing new chips in Q1/Q2 of 2011 that will *start* about 1.5 times faster and be ~2 times faster than current offering by the end of the year(2011-Q4)?

Intel's new Quad core with HT turned off it suppose to be about as powerful as current i7s with HT on. ohh, and 32nm and 4/6/8 core offerings, and a new SIMD instruction set that is suppose to put SSE3/4 to shame(AMD Bulldozer will also have these instructions).

Oh yeah.. and AMD Bulldozer. BD should make current AMD chips look like the 1.5ghz P4.

Should be f'n awesome. 2011 is going to be a great year. New video card, new SSDs and new CPUs.

A CPU generation is about once every 18 months, and you're straddling the transition.

Still i say you are going to pay way to much when the new chips are just released and also new chips always have baby bugs in em so months later the revised chips come on the market which in the end will perform better and cost less.

Another thing is since budget playes a role here as well, since when isnt it a smarter idea to wait for the 3'rd generation chip and buy the propper 1st generation for a low price ?

For example pple who bought the i7-920 CO stepping were ripped off, payed way to much when the chip was just released
Others who waited a year (when the 940 was already released) got the 920 D0 revesion for like 40% of its original price and they could overclock it to match the performance of an i7 Extreme edition.

Back to the originals posters 2 question :

1) For the I7 processor you can just get the standard Asus P6T SE (all the more expensive boards have the same X58 chipsets and are only luxury producs, only buy a more expensive one if you really need one of the features on such a board)

For the AMD CPU i wouldnt know

2) Neither setups will have great upgrade potential fo rthe future but imo that shouldnt matter a lot. If you build a propper system now it should last you 2-4 years and after that its upgrade time again.

As an example; early 2006 i did my last upgrade and i got myself a Core2Duo E6850 3,0 (Oced to 3,56 Ghz), simple Asus P5K mobo, 4 Gig of Ram and a 8800GT 512
Still today im using this system with a lot of satisfaction, i never had any problems with it, atm im running Windows7 x64, i play games like Dragon Age Origins, MoH, CoD and WoW all with no problems.
Hence on a normal day on my 1st screen i have a game opened and while playing on my 2nd screen i use skype, internet, download a movie and listen to music.

I'm also in the proces of upgrading now but just because i get a refund from work if you do it within the next 2 weeks so im going for an I7-950, Asus P6Tse or the Sabertooth and a 6Gb Dominator trikit.
This setup will keep me happy for the next 2-3 years i hope and if not i know ill have to buy a new cpu, mobo and memory but isnt that what every1 does when upgrading ?
The only socket i can remember i had more than 2 CPU's on was the 775 and believe me all future sockets wont last that long anyway.

In the end it all comes down to the persons upgrade behaviour.
If you tend to renew yr CPU every year you will be better of waiting for the new stuff, if now just build a solid system now and enjoy it for as long as u can.
Both Intel and AMD have poor upgrade options for next year if you buy the current stuff available.