AMD Phenom II X4 or i7

[C-130]

This is my first post so please exuse any stubborness I appear to have.

I am currently looking at a new build.

Now I have what I want in my head, but am stuck at the processor, I have been stuck between the Intel i7 and AMD phenom. All benchmarks I see are indicating the i7 is the way to go (excluding the 3D Mark one. This listed phenom as best when overcloked at 6 GHZ). I am an avid Intel fan and have been aware of AMD and their heat issues. Is anyone aware of the validity of this claim in the new 45nm chips of AMD? And gnerally as overall which processor is better? The i7 or Phenom.

Thanks,

Colin

PS sorry this post appears to be all over the place.

 

[mindless728]

well, the i7 is faster clock for clock, if all you are doing is playing games, then go for the Phenom II, if you use video editing, CAD, encoding software, get the i7, it performs much better at those tasks

(btw, u will not come close to 6Ghz on air, or even water with the Phenom II, that speed was hit using liquid nitrogen and/or helium)

keep in mind, the Phenom II's can be used on many of the newer AM2+ boards which reduces costs by using DDR2 memory instead of DDR3, though, DDR3 prices are falling

also, the LGA1366 motherboards for the i7 tend to be quite a bit pricey, ~$200 for the lowest priced ones, where as the AM3 boards will be ~$140 (decent ASUS 790GX mobo)

 

[rooseveltdon]

It depends on what you are doing, the i7 is more powerful but in gaming you won't see much of a difference between the two,both chips are great multi taskers and as far as heating the phenom ll is actually pretty stable and runs cool,the i7 is amazing for video editing programs and video encoding and over clocks well, the phenom ll is great for gaming,and is also good for running multiple programs (a quad core with each core running at clock speeds of 3.0 ghz (stock) should lol) it is also a great over clocker and will cost you significantly less than the i7 rig,right now ddr3 is still not considered worth moving to at least not until the prices drop and in a few months intel will release the i5 which will be the mainstream version of the i7 and the replacement for the core 2 line,in my opinion if you want to build a system right now you will be better served with the phenom ll but if you are an intel fan then maybe you should wait a little bit for the i5 which will cost you less overall and provide you with great performance as well, either way the good thing is that you have many options out there lol

 

[smithereen]

The AMD heat issues are history ever since Phenom 1 became obsolete. The Phenom IIs are 45nm cpus, and they ship with excellent stock coolers to boot. You won't have heat issues, trust me. A Phenom II X3 or X4 with DDR2 will run any game perfectly (read: an i7 will have NO, zero noticable improvement in games, for a long time.) in the foreseeable future, for much, much less money than a Core i7.

HOWEVER

The Core i7 has a lot more potential speed than a Phenom II, and is a little faster.
Core i7 cpus have a lot more often-untapped power, but it's not often utilized properly. If, and only if, you use applications that aren't GPU-bound, frame-rate-limited, and are well optimized for core i7s, then an i7 is definitely the better choice. It will outperform the Phenom 2 in encoding, sound processing optimized for it, drastically.

 

[blackpanther26]

Also keep in mind if you have a Core 2 Quad or LGA 775 motherboard and can support a 45nm C2Q that is the way I would go. I would go with a Q9550 or Q9650 if you can. So what is your current specs?

 

[Helloworld_98]

It really depends what it's for, if getting an i7 build for gaming, you need to think about the + and -.

i7 will do better in FSX and multitasking but if you get a P2 build you can up the GPU to a 4870 X2 instead of a 487/90.

 

[smithereen]

Well of course, if you can get the performance you want without changing your motherboard, that's the way to go.

 

[Guest]

Nice observe of AMD and Intel products. I use Intel cpu, but I'm going to integrate new and more powerful details in my PC using AMD. That'd be my first experience of AMD usage at Dragon PC base.