Core 2 Duo E7200 vs AMD A8 5500?

[Stangman]

Hey guys, I've searched and searched, and I finally give up! So, a question for you guys.

Currently I have an Asus P5QL Pro with an E7200 (with 4gig ram, and geforce 9500, but inconsequential for this question I think).

I'm going to do a format and reinstall to clean it up a little and to do more audio recordings.. Maybe a game or two, but who knows about that.

I can very easily come into an Acer AX3475-EF328 http://www.acer.ca/ac/en/CA/content/model/DT.SKJAA.003.

Now from the 'benchmarks' I've looked at say the A8 5500 is far superior. However, some of my friends told me it's a laptop chip, and as such, it's not really worth the upgrade from my current system. I mean, if it's better, but only slightly I'm not sure if I want to bother with a complete reinstall of everything, etc.

The other problem is it's a small form factor, with some unknown motherboard by Acer that I can't figure out (1 PCI graphics slot, which is taken by the AMD HD 7350), and 1 miniature PCI slot that holds the Wifi card.. Which is a small slot I've never seen before, so I'm not even sure what I could fit in there anyways. I mean, I could always just buy a new motherboard if I need to upgrade, but what's the point at that point. It's also appears to have 3 Sata drives (strange?).. It's got a DVD, and 1 hard drive, and I'd be adding 1 more HD, so those are full.

So pretty much, my question boils down to, E7200 with P5QL Pro (Forget about overclocking for now), vs the A8 5500 laptop(??) and unknown Acer motherboard.

Thanks guys!

 

[kirilmatt]

The A8 will probably be superior to your current system, but what do you plan to do with it? If the benchmarks show a big advantage then by all means go with the a8, generally Intel performs better then AMD on benchmarks so in reality that's probably a decent advantage

 

[cmi86]

First off the A8-5500 is not a laptop chip, not even close. It is a 65 watt 3.2 Ghz quad core APU designed for mid range desktops.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113288 So whom ever of your friends telling you this is a "laptop" chip are extremely misinformed. When compared to the 2.53 Ghz E7200 you will notice a huge difference in performance with the 5500 for 3 reasons. Trinity does more work than core 2 at t he same speed, the 5500 is also clocked 700 Mhz faster and it has 2 more cores than the E7200. it will be a very solid upgrade go for it.