AMD or Intel advice please

AMD doesn't have anything that compete with the 2500k for a general purpose or gaming PC. Get the 2500k, the FX 8 core processor is a colossal waste of money in comparison.

Intel Build

http://www.cclonline.com/product/44975/BX80623I52500K/C...
Intel Core i5-2500K

http://www.cclonline.com/product/68842/GA-Z68P-DS3/Moth...
Gigabyte Z68P-DS3

http://www.cclonline.com/product/42189/F3-10666CL9D-8GB...
G.Skill 8192MB DDR3

http://www.cclonline.com/product/45608/WD7502AAEX/Hard-...
Western Digital Caviar Black 750GB

http://www.cclonline.com/product/18316/OCZ600MXSP-UK/Po...
600W OCZ ModXStream Pro Modular

http://www.cclonline.com/product/25920/CPC-T45UB-U01/Ca...
Xigmatek Asgard ATX Mid Tower Case

Palit NVIDIA GeForce GTX560Ti 448 Edition
http://www.cclonline.com/product/70219/NE5X564010DA/Gra...

+ Win7 OEM

Total £720.80

I agree, AMD can't compete with the Sandy Bridge CPUs. Go for either an i5 2500k or a 2550k if you don't the integrated GPU.

AMD Build

FX is rubbish so this is based on a Phenom II

http://www.cclonline.com/product/26600/HDZ965FBGMBOX/CP...
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition

http://www.cclonline.com/product/65506/GA-970A-D3/Mothe...
Gigabyte 970A-D3 Socket AM3 Motherboard


http://www.cclonline.com/product/4 [...] t/RAM1099/
G.Skill 8192MB DDR3

http://www.cclonline.com/product/4 [...] -/HDD1113/
Western Digital Caviar Black 750GB

http://www.cclonline.com/product/1 [...] y/PSU1077/
600W OCZ ModXStream Pro Modular

http://www.cclonline.com/product/2 [...] e/CAS1165/
Xigmatek Asgard ATX Mid Tower Case

http://www.cclonline.com/product/76216/4260183361732/Gr...
Gainward GeForce GTX 570 Graphics Card

+ Win7 OEM

Total £694.86




By getting the Cheaper CPU you get a better GPU. I'd probably take this build but both are good

Firstly thankyou for your replies!

This looks a nice build, unsure about Palit brand on the graphics card tho. Is there a benefit on having a SSD hard drive installed for Windows and if so how is this done? I realise that it will increase my budget but if there is a considerable benefit then I would consider a better motherboard perhaps with sata6 and a 64-128gb ssd card also?

Sorry i was whacking those builds out so fast i should elaborate. You dont really need 16GB RAM for your uses 8GB is plenty.

The AMD build with the better GPU will probably last you longer before upgrading. The CPU itself can be OC'd up to 4GHZ if you add an after market cooler (£25). You may also consider the Phenom II 960T there.

The Intel build is the sexy Z68 and 2500k option but to get that and stay reasonably in budget I had to pick a cheaper GPU by a lesser maker. It will still be a very good machine.

I would take the AMD on the strength of the GPU in that build. Everything you currently do will run great there and outside of benchmarks I doubt you would see a huge difference beyween those 2 builds.

An SSD would make loading anything on it (games, windows) very fast, a noticeable snappier speed

*edit* both boards have sata III 6GB/s the AMD board has 6 of them the Intel 2, The AMD board is generally more featured you get more with it

1) SSD - Save for latter upgrade. Boot time and program load times are much faster. Most who have migrated to SSD - will never go back. That said - How often do you boot your system, and do program load times bug you. Game performance is NOT improved, Web brossing is not improved and applications after loading do NOT run faster.
All my systems have daul SSDs and no intention is going back to a slowww HDD for a OS + program drive.

First off I think you would be happy with either of WR631's choices.
However:
My Choice is the Intel i5-2500k w/z68 MB (WR631 Quote on AMD CPU " The CPU itself can be OC'd up to 4GHZ" ) The I5-2500K OC to 4.2 is so simple a caveman can to it and 4.6 GHz is reached by most. So OCing is rather a mute point and on a clock-per-clock basis the i5 is better.
AMD CPU is cheaper - But performance wise not as good
MB - You get what you pay for. I find this a wash cost wize when comparing Quality and features. I find that Intel is much better at driver support for their chipsets than AMD.
Other components can be identical.

Ok, I think my decision is made

Going for the I5 and just to decide on the GTX560 or 570 now lol.

With the Gigabyte Mobo, is there enough space to fit an after market cooler such as the coolermaster 212 without obstructing the Ram slots?

Other than that again thankyou for your time, feedback and advice here.

The cooler will fit as that RAM kit only uses 2 slots.

If you up your budget by £70 you can put the 570 on the Intel build then heck yes i would say thats by far the best bet.