Best all around processor

[szoobie]

Hello,
Struggling with starting a new build with i7 or phenom. demand high performance but got caught in intel motherboard fiasco earlier this year. Little shy of Intel mobo's right now. Help

 

[g-unit1111]

I've owned both and I now look at things a bit differently since my Phenom II board just died on me.

If you want stable boards, go with Intel. They make great processors, and the chipsets - especially the current Z68 - are very flexible in terms of the hardware it can handle.

AMD has excellent processors, but the motherboards are very very hit or miss. I've sent three of them back to Newegg, and the one I have just died on me. The 990 is a good chipset, but anything below that I'd stay away from.

 

[r0aringdrag0n]

Hi! First I would like to disagree with g-unit. Just because 3 AMD boards died on him DOES NOT mean they are a worse quality than Intel Boards. If you compare AMD and Intel Boards made by Asus/MSI/Gigabyte they are almost the same quality. You do, however get unlucky sometimes and get a defective product, which you would have to send back and get it replaced. I would say both brands are good but Intel makes stronger/faster CPUs. When you buy a MoBo, remember to choose a known brand such as Asus/MSI/Gigabyte.

Right now, I would recommend the Intel Core i7 2600k for the Intel processor and the AMD Phenom II x4 955 for the AMD side. But if you can wait, then you should wait for the upcoming Intel "Ivy Bridge" CPUs or AMD's "Bulldozer" CPUs, since they are rumored to be way better than the CPUs we have now

 

[x Heavy]

I will suggest that AMD and Intel is like Chevy and Ford.

With that said, I have a i7 2600 1155 in my Z68 board. The Ivy and Bull apparently are pending and may or may not be without issue.

I have gone both ways myself over the years, however with BFBC2's needing a AMD crossfire patch I have decided to build all Intel and Nvidia for the upcoming BF3.

Again, both have the strength and weakness. Intel might be considered a big block bruiser that will cost you plenty. You can probably get there just as fast in a AMD for less money. Sort of like one of those little Mini Coopers or whatever they use when going sideways. I am a top end man so I don't do little cars or sideways anyway.

 

[boiler1990]

I guess the real question is what kind of stuff are you using the computer for? If it's really high-performance stuff, Intel would be your best bet. There are some applications in which the 6-core AMDs will beat out the Intel CPUs because they utilize all 6 cores.

 

[szoobie]

It's a business application with about 5 unit network. No games but lots of interactive instruction and simulations. I went for the "best" back in Feb 2011 and got caught with one of the defective Intel mobo's and having to rip all the stuff off the mobo was frustrating since I was super careful on the build. Don't want to get too far away from "norm" on untried cpu/mobo after last time. I really appreciate the input because trying to fix a problem takes sooo much extra time. Thinking toward i7 quad core with SSD. Thanks

 

[g-unit1111]

Hi! First I would like to disagree with g-unit. Just because 3 AMD boards died on him DOES NOT mean they are a worse quality than Intel Boards. If you compare AMD and Intel Boards made by Asus/MSI/Gigabyte they are almost the same quality. You do, however get unlucky sometimes and get a defective product, which you would have to send back and get it replaced. I would say both brands are good but Intel makes stronger/faster CPUs. When you buy a MoBo, remember to choose a known brand such as Asus/MSI/Gigabyte.

Right now, I would recommend the Intel Core i7 2600k for the Intel processor and the AMD Phenom II x4 955 for the AMD side. But if you can wait, then you should wait for the upcoming Intel "Ivy Bridge" CPUs or AMD's "Bulldozer" CPUs, since they are rumored to be way better than the CPUs we have now

Don't get me wrong - I love the processor, the 1055 has more than met my expectations when I was using it. It was incredibly, blazing fast. It's just stability is a huge issue for me and when I replaced the fan on it, I found that it just was not meeting my expectations. The MSI board that I tried was crap, the Asus I really liked until it kicked the bucket. I'll try Gigabyte next and I think I'm going to re-use the CPU in a HTPC build, so I guess we'll go from there and see how it does. Right now it's sitting in the original box on my desk until I figure out what to do with it.

 

[boiler1990]

I would try and see if you benefit from more cores and/or hyperthreading. If you benefit from hyperthreading, you'll get good performance from the i7. If you can really use more cores, go for an X6 and look to upgrade to a BD 8 core.

Don't get me wrong - I love the processor, the 1055 has more than met my expectations when I was using it. It was incredibly, blazing fast. It's just stability is a huge issue for me and when I replaced the fan on it, I found that it just was not meeting my expectations. The MSI board that I tried was crap, the Asus I really liked until it kicked the bucket. I'll try Gigabyte next and I think I'm going to re-use the CPU in a HTPC build, so I guess we'll go from there and see how it does. Right now it's sitting in the original box on my desk until I figure out what to do with it.

Mobo stability isn't the same as CPU stability here. And there are plenty of stable AMD boards out there.