AMD or Intel

[hillmanant]

Hello Techies

Looking to put together a system for an aunt of mine and can't decide between AMD and Intel. She is going to be doing online classes for college soon so more reliable the better.

Uses: Online classes, web, microsoft office, facebook games, No high end gaming
Budget $500 but the lower the better.

Are these overkill for what she will be doing with the PC?
Would the A8, A6, i3 be enough?
Will the onboard graphics quality effect her as a plain old web surfer and word processor?
Using onboard graphics, I've heard that Intel's onboard isn't as good as AMDs A series but the Intel chips have way better multitasking capabilities, is this correct?
Would it be worth the $50 more to go with Intel?
I'll list everything here even the peripherals to make sure the PSU is big enough.
Thanks in advance. 😀

AMD- $432.92

MoBo- ASRock FM2A75 Pro4-M
CPU- AMD A10-5800K Trinity
PSU- SeaSonic S12II 380B 380W
HDD- Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002 500GB
Case- SilverStone SST-RL01B
Memory-Kingston HyperX Blu Red Series 8GB (2 x 4GB)
Burner- LG 24X DVD Burner
Speakers-Cyber Acoustics CA-2016wb

Intel- $489.92

MoBo-ASRock Z75 Pro3 LGA
CPU-Intel Core i5-3350P Ivy Bridge
PSU- SeaSonic S12II 380B 380W
HDD- Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002 500GB
Case- SilverStone SST-RL01B
Memory-Kingston HyperX Blu Red Series 8GB (2 x 4GB)
Burner- LG 24X DVD Burner
Speakers-Cyber Acoustics CA-2016wb

 

[edogawa]

AMD for sure! For budget computers for office work and such, you should choose AMD over Intel

 

[realchaos]

The i5-3350p has no onboard graphics, therefore your intel build has no graphics card.
Get this case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811235037
And use the saved money for an i5-3470.
Get the ASRock h77m : http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-h77m

 

[hillmanant]

The i5-3350p has no onboard graphics, therefore your intel build has no graphics card.
Get this case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811235037
And use the saved money for an i5-3470.
Get the ASRock h77m : http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-h77m

This is too pricey I think I'll stick with AMD. Thanks for the info though didn't see it didn't support onboard.

 

[hillmanant]

AMD for sure! For budget computers for office work and such, you should choose AMD over Intel

So you think the build is pretty well rounded? You wouldn't change anything as far as the AMD build? Could I drop the RAM down to 4 Gb for this application? Smaller but faster like this one from Kingston?

 

[geofelt]

You will also need an OS, about $100.
And monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

The integrated graphics from Intel or amd are perfectly adequate for normal desktop work, and even for HD movie playback.
For gaming, the amd integrated graphics are stronger, but this is not a gaming system.

Since you have a budget, and all you need is a basic pc, I would look at a prebuilt from Lenovo outlet.
You can find one for <$400.

Or... you can find laptops that will do the job for <$400 too.

If you really want a good pc, then swap out the stock hard drive for a SSD.

 

[edogawa]

So you think the build is pretty well rounded? You wouldn't change anything as far as the AMD build? Could I drop the RAM down to 4 Gb for this application? Smaller but faster like this one from Kingston?

For office work it will work just fine, you don't need any bells or whistles.


I would suggest western digital too for the hard drive, you could go for a SSD too, but I don't think the extra cost is worth it for a office PC at this point in time. I recommended WD too because I've never had one of their drives fail on me, and their advanced RMA is great.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236345

You don't need fast memory either, this should be fine:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277

You could skip out on the DVD drive too, unless it's really required, most things are digital now and they are rarely used these days.

 

[hillmanant]

You will also need an OS, about $100.
And monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

The integrated graphics from Intel or amd are perfectly adequate for normal desktop work, and even for HD movie playback.
For gaming, the amd integrated graphics are stronger, but this is not a gaming system.

Since you have a budget, and all you need is a basic pc, I would look at a prebuilt from Lenovo outlet.
You can find one for <$400.

Or... you can find laptops that will do the job for <$400 too.

If you really want a good pc, then swap out the stock hard drive for a SSD.

She already has those things from her current system, HP something or other, the only reason I have the speakers in there is because her monitor failed and she replaced it unknowingly with one without speakers.

I don't want to buy pre-built, bloatware filled, shiit from lenovo.

The budget was just the Tower sorry I didn't specify.

Thanks for the input though.

 

[JD88]

For the uses you're talking about, I think that build is pretty overkill.

The AMD A4 5300 or A6 5600k would handle those tasks with ease.

In fact, you would probably be just fine going with an Intel Pentium chip, but with the APUs the graphics power is there if she would do some light gaming or high end video playback.

Also, 4GB of memory is plenty.

If you really want to speed up the system in a way that would be noticeable to her, I would put the savings toward an SSD boot drive, or just dump the mechanical hard drive entirely. It would be much faster and more reliable long term.

Finally, there are cheaper cases that would work just as well as that one seems pretty big and flashy for the uses you are talking about. I suggest a smaller micro atx case since you are using a micro atx motherboard anyway.

 

[hillmanant]

For office work it will work just fine, you don't need any bells or whistles.


I would suggest western digital too for the hard drive, you could go for a SSD too, but I don't think the extra cost is worth it for a office PC at this point in time. I recommended WD too because I've never had one of their drives fail on me, and their advanced RMA is great.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236345

You don't need fast memory either, this should be fine:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277

You could skip out on the DVD drive too, unless it's really required, most things are digital now and they are rarely used these days.

Thanks much Edo

I'll take you up on the RAM but that HDD is pricey, I've never had a problem with Seagate so I'll stick with the Barracuda.

 

[edogawa]

People here are recommending a SSD, but his aunt isn't going to care if it loads up 30 seconds faster like we do. A western digital black drive is a great mechanical drive, and lots of space for a great price. This is primarily a office PC and will not have tons of stuff installed to slow it down.

I can agree the system is a bit overkill in a sense, but long run it's good.

*EDIT: No problem, if you had positive experience with seagate Ill leave that to you. I think your good to go though.*

 

[hillmanant]

I was thinking of dropping to the A6 5400k like JD88 said can anyone else weigh in on this?

 

[edogawa]

I was thinking of dropping to the A6 5400k like JD88 said can anyone else weigh in on this?

Yea, that may be a good idea, although I'm on the fence about that one, I might stick with the 5800k personally. If your really trying to budget, drop the 5800k. It is an office PC after all and unlikely to notice the difference.

 

[hillmanant]

Yea, that may be a good idea, although I'm on the fence about that one, I might stick with the 5800k personally. If your really trying to budget, drop the 5800k. It is an office PC after all and unlikely to notice the difference.

Where would the difference noticeable? Would multitasking lag between programs? If she was to listen to music, work in Microsoft office and listen to the lectures at the same time, switching back and forth following along with the instructor thats streaming, would this lag with the A6?

 

[edogawa]

Where would the difference noticeable? Would multitasking lag between programs? If she was to listen to music, work in Microsoft office and listen to the lectures at the same time, switching back and forth following along with the instructor thats streaming, would this lag with the A6?

It shouldn't lag, those are pretty small tasks, does not require a lot of processing power.

 

[jsc]

Could I drop the RAM down to 4 Gb for this application? Smaller but faster like this one from Kingston?

4 GB RAM would be plenty for an office PC. The higher priced, faster RAM is not cost effective even for a premium computer.

I have been overclocking for decades, and I do not put anything faster than DDR3-1600 RAM in computers I build. System performance does not scale with RAM speed. Maybe that will change with the next gen CPU's, but it hasn't yet. Plus, you are much better off with 1.5 volt RAM.

 

[hillmanant]

Thanks jsc as always you heve great info. Ok back to the RAM would this RAM be better than the suggested by Edo because its same speed but 1 stick=half the problems or am I wrong?

 

[hillmanant]

4 GB RAM would be plenty for an office PC. The higher priced, faster RAM is not cost effective even for a premium computer.

I have been overclocking for decades, and I do not put anything faster than DDR3-1600 RAM in computers I build. System performance does not scale with RAM speed. Maybe that will change with the next gen CPU's, but it hasn't yet. Plus, you are much better off with 1.5 volt RAM.

What's your take on V6 vs V10 for this application? Half the cost one way.

 

[zooted]

Thanks jsc as always you heve great info. Ok back to the RAM would this RAM be better than the suggested by Edo because its same speed but 1 stick=half the problems or am I wrong?

Half the problems? No half the theoretical bandwidth. One stick will make you run in single channel mode, Apu's benefit from higher frequency and bandwidth.

 

[edogawa]

4 GB RAM would be plenty for an office PC. The higher priced, faster RAM is not cost effective even for a premium computer.

I have been overclocking for decades, and I do not put anything faster than DDR3-1600 RAM in computers I build. System performance does not scale with RAM speed. Maybe that will change with the next gen CPU's, but it hasn't yet. Plus, you are much better off with 1.5 volt RAM.

What's your take on V6 vs V10 for this application? Half the cost one way.

Memory needs to be installed in pairs so for dual channel mode for faster performance.
For an office PC the V6 will be fine.

So 2x2GB is needed, and an A6 should do just fine for an office PC.

 

[Wisecracker]

There are some great looking AMD A6-5400K Trinity combos.

Richland APUs arriving shortly may cut Trinity prices a bit over the next few weeks.

 

[hillmanant]

She just decided on the A10 also changed out the PSU for a Corsair 430, it had free shipping, they wanted $12 to ship the other one, also went with the RAM suggested by edo. Gotta give Best to edogawa for continuing with me till the final solution. Thanks to everyone for their info.