New PC: Intel or AMD?
 

Which would you choose? If Intel, a quad core, dual core or one of the newer i3, i5, etc? And which of the above? the i3 seems cheaper, but has a higher processing speed.

And have AMD caught up with Intel, or are they still playing second fiddle?

Intel, no brainer, depends on what you want also, the i7 is top dog but the i5 does nearly as much, nearly as quickly.
Have AMD caught up? Well they keep saying about the bulldozer chips, they keep putting them back, suppose to be sept 19th 2011 but that may not happen (only been 6 years :lol1: and its been delayed several times in the last year already) they will also be competing against the intel i7 2600k quad with an 8 core chip, and it may still not be up there with it (note intel will be replacing its current 32nm chips next year with 22nm chips and sandybridge-e is due in november).

Tony:)

It all depends on what you want it for chap...

Gaming pc - Intel i7 all the way..

something to just surf the net on, cheapest pc you can get tbh..

just remember its not just about the cpu, a chain is only as strong as its weekest link, hence a pc is only as fast as its slowest component..

if you have a budget to stick to go for a compromise, its pointless to have a top of the range i7 running 8gig (or more) ram 2tb hdd with a 256mb vid. card and expect it to play all modern games flat out...

toms hardware is a good place to have a look m8..

oowwwww both at 22.54 - Whats the chance of that lol

I find this usually clear things up: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/

Press ctrl+F and Stick in the CPU codes of the PCs that interest you and compare them to see where they sit in the rankings.

Basically speaking the order from goes like this (slowest/oldest first):

Core2Duo, i3, Core2Quad, i5, i7.

There are some cross overs where a top of the range older generation like a core2 quad Q9550 is faster than a lower end i5 like the i5 750.

As for AMD, not a clue; I stopped keeping tabs on them years ago.

Intel period.

I looked at this exact route about one month ago and went with an i5 core cpu, I have used AMD for years but thought it was time for a change.

Within a month the new AMD product will hit the shelves, I'd wait and watch prices/demand.

IMHO

dunx

intel for def at the min, im a big amd fan, but they have def lost ground with the i series from intel

Yeah id hang fire and see what bulldozer does, could be rather interesting.

Needed a new PC, so went with an i3

Nah, Bulldozer keeps getting delayed, delayed and delayed, never a good sign in my book, even now AMD are not giving a "release" date, could be october or later, even the AMD fanatics are getting hacked off.... go with Sandybridge, you wont go far wrong with the tried and tested i3/5/7 chips.

Tony:)

Bought an Acer Aspire X3960, it has an i3 at 3.2GHz, 4MB and 1TB, plus eight usb slots, wireless keyboard and mouse, HDMI slot and CF card reader as well as the others...........many of the cheaper ones DON'T have a CF reader, and as I have a D300 which uses CF, I wanted one.
Paid £369 from comet, so quite happy.

Will this speed up your LP to MP3 conversion rate ?

LOL

dunx

Get Intel. The i3's are very overclockable, I have an Intel i3 530 2.9GHz and is overclocked to 3.8GHz using a Zalman Flower cooler and is rock solid.

Best value CPU on the market right now is the i5 2500K <- Make sure you get the K otherwise it's just another generic chip.

Might, I have about ten to do, but it ran into problems when my copy of Layla, (working backwards I'd got to the "D"'s), wouldn't play properly, I THINK I played it wet once, and this being a hard water area............:(