Stay Tuned

Ok, so another build of the day is coming on Friday, August 1st. Until then th0ugh I'm going to give readers a little heads up on AMD vs. Intel.

The question I get the most is which is better?

The answer I give is it depends.

The history between AMD and Intel goes back a long way. It used to be that AMD was basically the welfare CPU for people who couldn't afford Intel procs.

That changed big time with AMD Athlon 64 procs, and again when AMD released its FX line of procs, and continued well into the Athlon 64 X2 procs. Intel was caught with its perverbial pants down, and AMD proceeded to curb stomp their naked buttocks.

That changed when the sleeping Giant (aka) Intel woke up and released its Core 2 Duo lines of processors. So where does that leave the consumer? In a nice position indeed.

You see, AMD can't compete with Intel on the very high end. So Intel sells its top of the line processor for around 1,000 bucks give or take a couple of hundred dollars. AMD sells its top of the line procs for 250 - 300 dollars. So AMD has no answer for Intel on the high end. So Intel sells thier Quad Core Extreme Procs for whatever they think the market will sustain, and AMD's top of the line parts compete with Intel's middle of road procs for dominance on the desktop.

Soooo... its a win for the consumer. The question is Quad core of Dual Core procs?

So here is Joe-joe's rule of thumb when it comes to picking a proc.

Basically - if you do lots of photo editing (and use photo editing software such as Photoshop CS or Elements) and video editing and use a multi-threaded video editing application (such as Adobe Premier or other such program), or if you do a lot of multi-tasking then you want a quad core proc. Remember having applications that take advantage of multi-threading procs is important if you want to see the benefits of multiple procs other wise the program won't scale correctly.

If you game, do light multi-tasking, or game - you probably want a dual core proc. Why? Well because games in general do not scale well to four procs, so your better off buying a higher clocked dual core than a lower clocked quad core.

Some people really hype future proofing your system by purchasing a quad core. I say "HOOEY" - in less than six months the next generation of Quad core procs will be out and they will require a different motherboard, RAM (full DDR 3) and possibly other requirements that are going to dictate you buy a new machine anyhow. So your better off buying a proc that meets your needs rather than attempting to "future proof" your current system. L8r