Member Avatar for Epi23

Hey everyone, so the big question: AMD or Intel? I'm building a new PC and was wondering which would be better. Everyone for some reason or another says Intel, but they are people that aren't very computer literate, so I thought I'd ask some experts.

I've found a nice AMD black edition 3.6GHz quad core for $250 I believe it was, but haven't looked into Intel yet. The computer I have now is a laptop with an Intel.

So my question is is: AMD or Intel? Either is fine, I'm just looking for some expert opinions on the matter.

thanks everyone!

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Dani AI

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Quick primer to cut through the “AMD or Intel?” noise and give a practical way to decide. was right to ask about intended use first — that single step determines almost everything. ’s point that casual mixed use often shows little real-world difference is valid, and ’s emphasis on value-for-money is an important counterbalance: pick the option that gives the best results for the tasks you actually run, not the highest synthetic scores.

Think in terms of workload, not brand. Games tend to reward higher single-thread performance and, crucially, a stronger GPU. Heavy rendering, animation, or parallel builds benefit from more cores/threads. Development and multitasking benefit from both core count and fast storage and memory. Match the CPU choice to which of those categories you prioritize most often.

Platform matters as much as the chip. Choose a motherboard with the I/O, PCIe lane layout and upgrade headroom you need; verify RAM specs and supported speeds; size your PSU and cooling for your whole system and any multi-GPU plans (multi-card scaling is often less efficient than a single faster card). For dual-boot or Linux users, confirm driver support for your GPU and set storage controllers (AHCI) and boot mode so both OSes install cleanly.

Practical checklist:

  • Rank your top 2 tasks (e.g., gaming vs. rendering).
  • Set a budget that covers CPU + motherboard + GPU + PSU.
  • Check app-specific benchmarks (compiles, render engines, or the games you play).
  • Prioritize upgradeable motherboard sockets and quality cooling.
  • If unsure, buy for your dominant workload and invest remaining budget where it yields the biggest real-world gains (often the GPU for gamers, cores for renderers).

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for Salem

What are you going to use it for?
- high end game playing
- server farm
- s/w development
- surfing the web

What else are you intending to buy? To get the best out of it, you need to match it with similar spec memory, disks etc etc.

Member Avatar for crunchie

Intel is top of the tree at the moment if you are looking for outright performance.
For what you want though, you will likely not see a difference at all.

Member Avatar for Epi23

What are you going to use it for?
- high end game playing
- server farm
- s/w development
- surfing the web

What else are you intending to buy? To get the best out of it, you need to match it with similar spec memory, disks etc etc.

I'm planning to use it for gaming, s/w development, internet, web development, animation, and whatever else comes up.

I planned on running a dual boot of Win 7 and Ubuntu (but that doesn't really matter) with ATI CrossFire X graphics cards, and Kingston RAM and haven't decided anything else.

Member Avatar for crunchie

The 975BE will easily do what you are after :). I have the 940BE and it eats everything I throw at it.

Member Avatar for King Dede

Intel ecause with Intel i feel you get more for your money than AMD.

Member Avatar for Epi23

The 975BE will easily do what you are after :). I have the 940BE and it eats everything I throw at it.

Thanks for the help! I'll definitely look into AMD after looking at that :) I looked at the specs and that will most definitely do what I want it for and more :)

Thanks for the help!

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