Intel or AMD?

[oshirowanen]

As a base to build up from, where my requirement is for Visual Studio 2010 UI to run as fast as possible. Which of the following 2 combinations of motherboard and processor is better as both combinations cost roughly the same amount:

Intel based:
Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz LGA1155 3MB
Gigabyte B75M-D3V S1155 Intel B75 DDR3 ATX

AMD based:
AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4GHz Black Edition AM3 Socket L2/L3 8MB
ASRock 970 EXTREME4 AM3+ AMD 970 DDR3 ATX

 

[unclejehmimah]

Visual Studio 2010 can take control of hyper-threading. Hyper-threading can give about a 25% performance boost per core. Plus, the Intel cores are stornger, use less power, and have a better architecture. I would suggest Intel.

 

[terryd75]

As a base to build up from, where my requirement is for Visual Studio 2010 UI to run as fast as possible. Which of the following 2 combinations of motherboard and processor is better as both combinations cost roughly the same amount:

Intel based:
Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz LGA1155 3MB
Gigabyte B75M-D3V S1155 Intel B75 DDR3 ATX

AMD based:
AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4GHz Black Edition AM3 Socket L2/L3 8MB
ASRock 970 EXTREME4 AM3+ AMD 970 DDR3 ATX

Wow.....In my opinion, they would perform about the same. I doubt if you would be able to notice any difference betwen the two. If you used bench marking software, and compared the two, I am sure that one or the other may be a tiny bit faster.....But, it' would be like a drop of water in the ocean. Not much difference! In this case, it looks like it is going to come down to personal preferance. Which manufacturer do you like better? I always stick to Intel products. Not because AMD isn't as good....just because I prefer it. It used to be that most of the good stuff was geared towards Intel stuff. But, that simply isn't true anymore. AMD is keeping up with Intel, and in some cases is even beats them. However, don't forget that Intel CPU s can take advantage of Hyper threading. That can be a significane plus with your Visual Studio software. And, for that reasona lone, it may be worth considering the Intel cpu. If I were you, I'd look for reviews on those two mother boards, and I would make my decision based on what I saw on those reviews. But, obviously, of the two that you listed here, only the Gigabyte board would accept the Intel cpu.. Good luck!!

How can that guy say that the I3 doesn't have hyper threading? http://ark.intel.com/products/53426/Intel-Core-i3-2120-Processor-(3M-Cache-3_30-GHz) Stingstang is absolutely wrong! Just look at the link I posted here.

 

[stingstang]

Neither cpu has hyper-threading, by the way.

 

[unclejehmimah]

Neither cpu has hyper-threading, by the way.

Yes, the i3 does have HT. Do your research before saying something so blatantly wrong.

 

[nekulturny]

As a base to build up from, where my requirement is for Visual Studio 2010 UI to run as fast as possible. Which of the following 2 combinations of motherboard and processor is better as both combinations cost roughly the same amount:

Intel based:
Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz LGA1155 3MB
Gigabyte B75M-D3V S1155 Intel B75 DDR3 ATX

AMD based:
AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4GHz Black Edition AM3 Socket L2/L3 8MB
ASRock 970 EXTREME4 AM3+ AMD 970 DDR3 ATX

I'd take a true quad core over an i3 any day. The i3 does have hyper-threading. If an i5 isn't in the budget, a Phenom II will give you a better balanced system. Surely you aren't spending hundreds of dollars to build a system that all it does is run Visual Studio.

 

[nocteratus]

Here's a link to compare a i3 2100 vs PII x4 965: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/102?vs=289

I'd go for intel since you can get a better upgrade with the i7 2600k than with any AMD CPU.