AMD Phenom vs Intel Quad Core

[waynezo]

Hello,

I am going to order a new computer from Cyberpowerpc. I am going to use it for video editing and web video with multiple monitor display. I may wan't to overclock it. Is it better to get a Phenom or a middle grade intel Quad Core?

Here is the rest of my plan

2 or 4 raptors raid 0
2 video cards 512mb each
650 to750 watt PS
4 gig memory
vista 32 bit home prem
4 or 8 gig ready boost usb drive
liquid cooling
motherboard undecided

Please respond with any opinion or critique of this configuration.

Does any one know of a better vendor than cyberpowerpc (price vs reputation)

Thanks,

Waynezo

My current system,
Athlon XP2400 cpu
Gigabyte GA-7vaxp Rev 1.1 mb with promise onboard raid controller Bios Award F8
Serial No. : 010471933173101421sn0240904160
Kingston value ram 1536mb DDR pc3200 400mhz
Dual 80gig maxtor hd's 7200rpm ata 133 raid 0
Seagate 500GB and 250GB external hard drives
Artec 16X DVD-ROM
Cyberdrive 40X16X48 CDRW
Verbatim 2.4X DVD+RW/R
Liteon Superallwrite lightscribe 16/48 DVD/CDRW
ATI all in wonder 8500dv AGP primary video card
Radeon 9250 256MB PCI Secondary video card
HANNS-G 28" High Def LCD Monitor HG281
2 Hyundai 19" LCD Imagequest Monitors L90D+
Antec 430 watt true power ps
Ahanix platinum xp steel case
Windows xp home sp1
AVG Free antivirus
Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall 4.3
Westell Versalink 327 WDK DSL Gateway
Bellsouth DSL running @ 3 Mbps

[pullmyfoot]

youl definatly want a bigger harddrive for backup. i say jsut go for one 160gig raptor and then get 2 larger conventional drives in raid 1 for backup purposes.

as for the CPU, go for the phenom. AMD's stuff are cheaper for the performance compared to Intel

[pullmyfoot]

oh and youl also want to get the 64bit version of vista. 32 bit OSes dont recognise 4gigs, only bout 3.2gigs or so

id go with the AMD as well because you can simply OC it to get to the quad extreme edition speeds. currently i have my 5200+ X2 at 3Ghz and its performing on par with an e6750

heres some benchmarks http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu_2007.html

[waynezo]

I've always liked AMD. I've heard the 64 bit version of vista is a hardware and software compatability nightmare.

Thanks for the feedback.

[KarmaKiller]

I disagree, Go for the Intel Quad. It blows the AMD out of the water performance wise. And if you want to overclock, the Intel will get to 3.0Ghz at least. I've seen them all the way up to 3.7Ghz.
The little bit of extra money for the chip is well worth it.
As far as HDD's, I agree with Pull. Go for a Raptor for you main boot drive, then a couple of Sata II drives in a RAID array, for backups. Easy to setup, and very worth while.

EDIT:
Another point, If you have the Quad now, you should have the upgrade path to the 45nm cores. Which will own anything on the market to date.

And this chart is the one you should be looking at for Video performance..

[EXreaction]

Some of that stuff looks like a big waste of money. Like 2 512MB video cards, the amount of ram on the card means next to nothing for 95% of cases.

With ram being so cheap, I'd go with 8GB of ram over the readyboost drive. You can get 8GB of DDR2 800 ram for under $160.

I'd take the Intel Quad core over any AMD any day.

[sharder8]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EXreaction

Some of that stuff looks like a big waste of money. Like 2 512MB video cards, the amount of ram on the card means next to nothing for 95% of cases.

If you're going to be doing a lot of high end gaming on this machine . . . I'd disagree with EX. However, if you're basically going to be doing vid editing, etc. EX is right IMHO.

Quote:

Originally Posted by EXreaction

With ram being so cheap, I'd go with 8GB of ram over the readyboost drive. You can get 8GB of DDR2 800 ram for under $160.

[KarmaKiller]

Quote:

However, when the AM3 board is released running HT5.0 and the AMD Phenom's are released in 45nm (hopefully with fixed instruction sets), the Intel Quads MAY be in the uphill climb. But, we'll have to wait and see.

That's true, but all of that goes out the window when your comparing Intel's new offering also..

[sharder8]

Quote:

Originally Posted by KarmaKiller

That's true, but all of that goes out the window when your comparing Intel's new offering also..

Maybe, maybe not . . .

Look what happened when the AthlonXP's came out.

Then again, if Intel can't get and keep the power and thermal envelopes reasonable . . . AMD's will still be the best choice for many people. For example, I've heated my garage for a number of years with ~ 16 crunchers, this last year, I've upgraded many of them to lower wattage cpu's and now my garage is cold.

Another example is my HTC, it sits in an enclosed cabinet and while it's a 4600+, at 65W it doesn't have a problem. A 90W cpu will overheat in ~20min. when crunching.

Harder

[EXreaction]

Ya, if you are going 32 bit, 8GB of ram would be silly of course.