Building new Desktop, what processor?
 

I am building a new Desktop machine that I will do my daily work on some light gaming and probably transcode video quite a bit as well. I will be running Windows7 64 bit on it

What processor should I use? My last couple PC's have been core i7's and I have been satisfied, but I am wondering if AMD is worth a look. My budget is ~400 for the Mobo, CPU and Ram.

Unless you are doing anything like heavy video editing and the like, pretty much any processor will get the job done just fine, nowadays.

Even for video editing, until not long ago we mostly used a 3+ years old machine, which was supposed to be a temporary replacement but then turned out to be just fine and we kept it. (It may be slower when you encode, but if you queue your stuff and go to sleep, you won't be bothered)

Personally I'd recommend AMD FX series. I sell both Intel and AMD and those AMD whip the i7. http://www.amd.com/us/products/deskt...omparison.aspx

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/ :thumbsup

Intel Core i7-3930K @ 3.20GHz

i7 extreme way to go

Those Xeon processors are for servers, not desktops. The highest priced AMD in the "high end" list is almost $400 cheaper than the Intel i7.

Also, from their site: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?...D+Opteron+6272

There is no AMD chip of equal generation that can whip an intel chip.

My 980x(6core) made in 2010 is the same speed as an AMD 16core released this year. Everyone knows that AMD has been behind Intel for a long time, and will be for the forseeable future.

Unless you need to spend a little less money, then get an AMD, but if anything you do is dependent on getting done faster -- and that's almost everything -- then get an Intel. Time = money.

This chart tells you everything...AMD doesn't make it onto the list until way down near the middle and bottom.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

every time I got an amd cpu I wanted to slap myself, and ended up swapping it for an intel computer shortly after. Now I look at intel as a benchmark (for software developers too) and amd as an intel emulator, everything seems smoother on intel. (What I just wrote is NOT a fact, just trying to put my personal feel in a single sentence).
I'd consider amd for those all-in-one integrated boxes required to run ms-office & email.

I bought an i5 2500k, overclocked it to 4.5ghz and couldn't be happier :) picked it up for only $149 at Micro Center about 6-7 months ago. I used to always use AMD (and still would if I needed to) but there's no denying that Intel has been putting out some great processors the last few years.

I use mine for VM Boxes, work, and heavy gaming.

:thumbsup

AMD is great if you're on a budget/need a lot of cores for cheap but Intel has been beating them on the benchmarks for the past few years.

fck me that processor here costs 250e i was looking at it yesterday and i gave up at the end :/ are u somewhere in eu or usa?

i would go with ivy bridge

For the budget your talking about, go with AMD... I use a phenom x4 3.2 Ghz right now with 8 GB of ram and it runs fine.

http://ark.intel.com/products/65523/...up-to-3_90-GHz)

Just built a new pc with an i7 2700k. It's a beast but probably a little over budget.

The real bottleneck is in disk IO, so get a nice SSD, and 1 or 2 - 3tb drives for storage. I'd stick with the i7 - get the extreme if you want. Some non-gaming software these days like video editing are starting to use GPU power as well, so you might want to consider a good video card too.

any i5 or i7 would work just fine....
just don't go cheap on mo-bo and memory and you'll be just fine...

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

That's bullshit. Completely untrue.

my advice: make sure you get a good psu!

Some flavor of i7:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/29

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/53

A few different ones trade blows on the various video encoding tasks.

Agree'd, AMD fanboys still exist? lol, AMD have been inferior always, the only reason their exist is the same reason Aldi's food stores still exist :D

That AMD statement is so trollicious, it arose me from the dead to speak my mind :1orglaugh

Let's seperate the players from the pro's.

You have one MFR choice for CPU.. Intel. Next you have a budget.
You seem to know what you want and thats a good thing.. However light gaming, is a bit unspecific.. And your bottleneck in your choice..

The higher quality chipset you choose, also contradicts your alternate components that will be required to support that chipset.

You have 2 current enthusiast chipsets, and then 1 choice.
1. The X58, (LGA 1366) which is now being replaced by the LGA 2011
This chipset is proven dominent and was one of the greatest investments ever, if you bought early on.. I have i7 920's going on 4+ years still on the same value it was back then in USED condition.. No other chipset in mankind has ever retained its value.. even close to its initial opening value.. EVER.
The X58 is currently running out of stock, but you can bargain shop this now, and get a good solid build for time to come..
The X58 is say in the current range you want today is... i7 960-990x (X) means clock us unlocked and you can overclock it.. in case you are unaware
I just picked up a i7 960 for $150 bucks at a retail store... Crazy insane.. Its $250 or so at newegg for the CPU

I can talk all day on this, but lets move on.
Replacing this now is the X79 (LG 2011) This is the top shit you want as a PC home/gamer encoder. Make no mistakes, and of course this is where you will
get bent in the pocketbook.. I have no personal exp yet wiht this chipset, but
being Intels Enthusiast product, you can be sure its the best of the best.

The more economical approach, and this one is where all the dreamers goto that can't
afford the enthusiast products, choose the 1155, powerful probably for everything you state, and probably the most used right now...

Define yourself light gaming.. Playing high end 3D games, but only for an hour? Or do you just want to boot up angry birds?

With high end graphics, you need HIGH END POWER, Antec True Power + in the range of 750watts plus
Asus for motherboard, features run rampant here, obvious choices needed, are expansion slots, mem max, usb 3/2, sata 6gbs, raid, nic, audio, and good chipsets.Speak to a knowledge guy when you figure out moreso what you need before pulling the plunger.
Video Card, need to find a budget here.. a good card is $500 for gaming...
A really good buy right now is the Nvidia 670... will be good for years to come and handle all gaming requirements... note the power supply here.
When getting a HIGH END video card, make sure you have a high end CPU as well. or they will fight each other.
Hard Drives etc, i recommend a small sata, and large HDD, and some external nas storage.
dvd burner...
GOOD BRAND RAM.. seriously 8 gigs is enough for plenty stuff today... go with what your booard prefers, the x58 likes the tri channel stuff... but not a big deal to stray into anything else
Corsair Dominator is my suggestion.

Good luck, i just rambled this off, so forgive me if i missed anything

Go old school
8088XT 386sx 16mhz 4X1MB 30-pin SIMMS 10mb hd

Hey, I can make a nice NAS out of that :D Dont throw it away....

Thanks all, I used to build PCs for people but its been 5 or 6 years since I did one and I am pretty out of touch with today's market, I appreciate you all getting me up to speed, even the arguments provide insight.

I'm in the U.S. and Micro Center is constantly having really good deals on Intel Processors...I usually order my parts from Newegg but the Micro Center deal was to good to pass up. I don't remember if it's an instore deal only or if you can order online at that price. I found out about it while browsing Anandtech's "Hot Deals" forum section.

There's people who know what they know, and never bother to brush up on new info.

Z80 rocks :thumbsup

Signetics 2650 at 800Hz FTW!

Actually, it comes from a budget-conscious builder with a consumer who wants to do light gaming. Sure, if you have the money the i7 is great, but in the price comparison, the FX does beat Intel.

if you have a bigger budget try Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition

real computers use intel, only emachines and hp $300 laptops still use AMD.

Sure, if you don't care about speed then its great. For someone who renders thousands of frames of animation, it makes no sense to have something slower on a renderfarm just because its a little cheaper. Getting work done quicker means the ability to render things better quality, and more of it, which will get new clients and more money. A lot more money than what was saved by buying an inferior CPU.

By your logic a Ford Fiesta beats a Corvette. :1orglaugh

is anything new coming out? it seems like we have been on 7 core for a while now.

I heavily overclock AMD with flawless stability, the blue man group can go suck cocks.

got i7 3770k clocked at 4.5ghz , it flies... but get SSD for sure, makes a big difference

I just built a new pc a month ago and had everything for under $500. I used an Intel i5-3570K overclocked to 4.75Ghz with no issues at all. It is on a Gigabyte UD3H MoBo which was super easy to OC memory and processor with a OCz ZT Series 750 Watt Modular ATX Power Supply. Right now I am using 12Gb of 1600Mhz DDR3 Corsair memory, a OCz 60GB SSD, Coolermaster Hyper 612t cooler in a Thermaltake case with 7 120mm Coolermaster 2200rpm fans. This system was done on a budget and could have really gone crazy with more expensive parts but this system blows away my previous system which was a i5-760 which was the first gen of the Intel i processors and was over 4 times as fast as my Pentium 4 3Ghz HT I had. I am going to upgrade to a i7-3770K which is only $289 but was sold out when I built mine or I would have spent the extra $100 to get more cores. I am fixing to build a fast laptop for a constable friend so he will quit spending outrageous money for Dells that sometimes aren't anymore reliable than a $400 HP. That just means he can buy more guns and ammo which is more fun to play with :)

Seriously, I would take AMD :pimp

i got the same cpu ;)

mind listing your other specs? ;)

would be nice to compare mine too!