AMD or Intel?

Burty117

Posts: 5,066   +3,639
Hi Guys,

I have a friend who wants a brand new Gaming Rig, his Limit is £700 but would prefer it to be a tad lower.

I have tried to attach 2 Documents but Techspot has a limit of 200kb and the documents are 700kb, one which is the Intel Build, the other the AMD one.

AMD - http://www.filefactory.com/file/ca0884c/n/Debeb_AMD_Gaming_Rig.docx

Intel - http://www.filefactory.com/file/ca08847/n/Sandy_Bridge_Intel_Rig.docx

You have to type in a code thingy to make sure your human and wait 30 seconds for the download to start but these links do work :)

My Question is Simple: Which one would you Choose?

Bare in mind it will be used mainly for gaming but which one would last the test of time longer?

Thanks for any advice given.

Enjoy.
 
Without going through a bunch of links that may or may not be safe I will say that it really is a preference issue.

However, having said that, I will also add that while I "like" AMD better, I have had better luck with Intel builds as far as not having obscure crashes and strange things happening in certain games. If I was building a gaming rig for someone else and they weren't looking specifically to keep costs way down, I'd stick with Intel.
 
Taken from linked docx said:
AMD System
AMD Quad Core Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz
Asus M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3
Corsair XMS3 2GB (1x2GB) Memory Module PC3-10600 1333MHz DDR3
Novatech PowerStation Gaming 500W Silent ATX2 Modular Power Supply
Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB 64MB Cache Hard Disk Drive SATA 6 Gb/s
OCZ Vertex Series 30GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive
Scythe Twin Mounter 2.5, 2.5 to 3.5inch Adapter
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560Ti OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI Express
Sony AD-7260S-0B 24x DVD+/-RW SATA Black
CoolerMaster Elite 335 Midi Case
INTERNAL USB CARD READER ALL IN ONE – Black £6.98
Creative Sound Blaster X-FI Xtreme Gamer – Retail £74.53
Zalman CNPS9900-LED Dual Flower CPU Cooler £37.78
Zalman ZM-MFC3 Multi Fan Controller Controls 4 Fans, Realtime Display £39.11
Razer Lycosa Unstoppable Gaming Keyboard Non-slip Rubber Backlit Keys UK RZ03-00180600-R3W1 £56.16
RZ01-00152400-R3M1 - Razer DeathAdder™ High Precision Black Edition Gaming Mouse £59.99
24" Iiyama PLE2409HDS Black Widescreen LCD Monitor, 1920x1080, 1000:1, 300 cd/m², 2 ms, VESA £147.89
980-000320 - Logitech Z523 Dark Speaker System 2.1, Piano Black, 40W Total RMS £76.18
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM Operating System £74.48
BigFoot Networks Killer 2100 Pro Gaming Network Card OEM, Gigabit, PCI-E - upto 10X Faster!! £56.65
Linksys By Cisco WMP600N-EU Wireless-N PCI Adapter with Dual-Band £35.70

Lowest Price
£620.12


Intel System
Intel Core i5 2300 2.80GHz (Sandy Bridge) Socket LGA1155
Asus P8P67 LE Intel P67 (Socket 1155) Motherboard
- Rest the same as above -

Lowest Price
£676.56

For £50 difference I'd get the Sandy Bridge based system, or wait another few months and see what the AMD Bulldozer systems are like, or if they force price reductions on older CPUs.
 
I thought the Sandy Bridge System would be the winner, £50 and you get a processor far superior to the AMD offering according to reviews so I guess that is the money!

I also like AMD, my current machine is an AMD build from 4 years ago and it still runs stuff well today, I've never actually built an Intel system before but heard so many good things about Sandy Bridge performance wise I had to consider it, I will get him to give me an extra £50 for it :)
 
I thought the Sandy Bridge System would be the winner, £50 and you get a processor far superior to the AMD offering according to reviews so I guess that is the money!

I also like AMD, my current machine is an AMD build from 4 years ago and it still runs stuff well today, I've never actually built an Intel system before but heard so many good things about Sandy Bridge performance wise I had to consider it, I will get him to give me an extra £50 for it :)

If you want to make a saving I'd cut the Sound Blaster card out of the equation. Last sound card I used was an Create Sound Blaster Audigy2, since then I've used onboard sound. For most purposes it's as good as an external card. It's not the sub par beeping rubbish it used to be. EAX support from the card is nice but not the sort of feature you couldn't easily live without :)
 
If you want to make a saving I'd cut the Sound Blaster card out of the equation. Last sound card I used was an Create Sound Blaster Audigy2, since then I've used onboard sound. For most purposes it's as good as an external card. It's not the sub par beeping rubbish it used to be. EAX support from the card is nice but not the sort of feature you couldn't easily live without :)

They were just options under the accessories bit, the guy i'm doing this for has said he doesn't want any of that anyways so its just the computer he wants :)

thanks for the advice though.

I have the Creative Xtreme Gamer card and I did have a Logitech Z-something, was a really nice sound setup actually, then 2 months down the line I WON a Bose Companion 5 Surround sound which has its own Builtin Sound Card so it became pointless LOL
 
I agree with the others even as an AMD owner, Sandy Bridge is the way to go. Here is a great overview of sub $200 CPU's from Tom's Hardware who's in the past usually recommend AMD for budget gaming builds. Sandy Bridge CPU's are just too good resist, and personally I'd even upgrade that i5-2300 to a i5-2400 as at least here in the US it's only five bucks difference for 300 MHz clock bump.
 
One more vote for Sandy Bridge, at least until we see if Bulldozer levels the playing field.
 
Thanks guys, here in england It seems to be far more expensive for the 300mhz jump, not to worried though as I'm guessing the turbo boost may help :)
 
Ah that's disappointing, checked ebuyer and it seems to be about ~£10 or ~$15. I guess if you're already on the edge of his budget that makes things a bit difficult, the difference appears to be at most only a couple frames in games.
 
Its fine, I might see if I can squeeze another £40~ out of him if its a couple of frames difference :)
 
Another vote for Sandy Bridge for me as well.

I would also dump the SoundBlaster, a majority of the time the difference is un-noticeable on all the best speaker systems.

That'll bring you down to the sub £600 price. If possible I'd also change the mechanical disk for a Samsung 1TB Spinpoint F3 hard disk instead. Its more capacity, and about the fastest mechanical drive currently. You might even consider the CPU upgrade with the savings instead.

I'd also advise a minimum of 4GB RAM as well if its being used as a gaming computer. 2GB these days is pushing the boundaries with the OS' demands and load as well.

So in my opinion:

If the Samsung 1TB is cheaper go for that
Drop the SoundBlaster card
Add 2GB RAM (either 2kits, or 1 kit of 2x4GB)
Upgrade the CPU to the next level up - K marked, unlocked are preferred.

EDIT:
Relic,
Our prices can be real strange here - So things you see for a couple of $ difference can be like £20-30 here. The US market gets the better end of the deal for enthusiasts thats for sure. A lot of the major enthusiast brands can be hard to source here sometimes, and when you can, if they're rare we pay through the nose for them. 20% sales tax does its best to hamper our purchases as well. :(
 
Yeah Leeky's right, even though we're a fairly populated country that isn't doing that badly, apparently we give the goverment the right to take at least 20% of our money away :(

also your changes Leeky,

I've had the samsung and I found the 640gb WD Black sataIII to have a higher Sustain read speed and seek times are slightly better as well, I don't know thats what I found after testing them both.

4gb of RAM is already part of the package, its 2x 2gb sticks

There is no sound card it was just an accessory if they really wanted it for some reason.

I may push him for a bit more money anyway as the frames in games will be slightly better :)
 
Also Leeky has Complete-IT contacted you yet? I kept my job in the end :)
They are still looking from what I know but will be able to be sure this afternoon, the Peterborough office is all up and working :)
 
Thats just our sales tax as well. But I guess like a lot of people in different countries we're all feeling the pinch of government taxation whether it be for the car, our salary, healthcare, or even on essentials like food and other shopping.

Sorry mate, I read above and saw only 1x 2GB mentioned, and assumed 2GB. :D

I can't speak for the WD, but I highly recommend the Spinpoint F4, I've been seriously impressed with it so far.

Also Leeky has Complete-IT contacted you yet? I kept my job in the end :)
They are still looking from what I know but will be able to be sure this afternoon, the Peterborough office is all up and working :)

I'll PM you reference this in a minute dude, but I'm really glad to hear you managed to keep your job - that's excellent news! :)
 
Back