Is there an AMD CPU comparable to the i5-2550k?

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Nebulocity

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Apr 13, 2012
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I plan to do a decent amount of gaming with some of the newer titles (right now it's Skyrim and Mass Effect 3 with a mix of CoD in there). Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Just a note, but while I am trying to maintain the ability to upgrade to Ivy Bridge in 2013/2014, I know that it's impossible to plan things out that long. I chose the Z77 boards "just in case" I upgrade processors earlier (if I even do), if I stuck with Intel.

So far, my current board and CPU choices are listed at the end of the post. However, in the essence of cutting costs where I can (but still maintaining performance), I wanted to ask the opinion of the community regarding AMD CPUs that were comparable to the i5-2550k as far as reliability and processing power/overclock-ability was concerned.

Motherboard:
GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD3H LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128544

OR
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157293&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=4176827&SID=1d8eqhthxambf

CPU:
Intel Core i5-2550K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Without IGP BX80623i52550K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115230
 
Solution
jaguarskx
In terms of raw power, there is no AMD CPU that can really compete against a Core i5 in benchmarks with the exception of some multi-threaded apps like media creation and encoding, and Civilization 5.

As shown in the gaming benchmarks of the following two reviews, AMD CPUs performs worse than Intel CPUs. Note that 1680 x 1050 resolution is used because the lower the resolution the less reliant the game will depend on the graphic card for it's performance. After all, they are comparing CPU performance not graphic card performance. Although, they should have used an even lower resolution.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/amd-fx-8120-6100-4100_6.html#sect0...
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😱 Yikes, the thread really took off! I appreciate the responses, and the info. Thanks Jimmy for stepping in to limit the finger-pointing.

I used to be an "enthusiast gamer"...about 6-10 years ago. Marriage, and other responsibilities, really put a dent in that.

I'm still married, and my daughter and son are both 6 and 3 years old, respectively. Now that they are both almost fully autonomous in their daily activities (and if my son isn't, I just have his big sister help him out!), I have more free time in between work and pursuing my Masters degree.

So I'd like to get back into it, as it were. I figured this would be a good time to jump in, especially with all of the changes on the market lately (SSDs, the new 1TB WD Raptor, etc). I had no idea that so much had changed...but THW has been an AWESOME resource for filling my head full of info.

I eventually chose the following components.

Case: NZXT Switch 810 Black Steel
MB: GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD5H LGA 1155
CPU: Intel Core i5-2550K SB 3.4GHz
CPU: Corsair H100 Extreme Liquid Cooler
Fans: 10x NZXT 140mm (FX-140LB)
GPU: ASUS HD 7850 2GB @ 1.2Ghz
PSU: Corsair Pro/Gold AX750
RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) 1600
SWAG: 2x LogiSys SuperBright Red 18 LED SunStick

I think the case and the video card were the hardest decisions in the entire build. The Corsair 550D and the NZXT Switch 810 are both fantastic-looking cases. Both offered dust filters on every fan slot (intake, at the least), and both were roomy for future upgrades. But, I wanted a window, as not only do I want to stare at the components as I continue to sink money into them, but also so that my children can see them and hopefully it will spark an interest in computers. Everyone needs a good basic knowledge of it, at the least - and what better way to start them early?

I picked up some red LED sticks to mesmerize them :pt1cable:

I chose the HD 7850 from Asus because it seemed like a good deal for the price, and didn't really have too many bad ratings. I had to keep in mind, that when people benchmark cards against other cards in family brackets below, the same as, and above the card itself...that is taking into consideration that they actually have USED those other cards. I haven't used any of them - NVidia 9500GS cheap-o card in my now-dead rig (as of last night). So anything is an improvement for me, at this point ;-) As long as it works, I'm happy.

Later? Triple Twin Frozr's for whatever brand I choose to go for ;-) haha!

Thanks for the comments, truly. It's a hard topic, but another thing was that Intel has the $25 OC insurance that I'm sure I'll have to use eventually ;-)

I would accept more than one post as the answer, but I think it only lets me choose one ;-( This doesn't mean that I didn't find your post helpful. :hello:



 
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Absolutely!

I abused the heck out of the Combo Deals on Newegg, taking over an hour to sort out each one so that I had EVERY. SINGLE. ITEM. in my system Combo'd to save $20-$30, with the exception of the power supply (which I had a coupon for $15% off, that didn't work...).

Total cost: $1149-ish.
 
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I was trying to stay as close as possible to my "budget" (as loose as it was, sub $1,500), and the 7870s were an extra $100 or so. What I'll most likely do, is wait until the SSD market stabilizes a bit so that it doesn't cost the same for storage as it does for a processor, and at that point upgrade to one of the top-3 "big dogs" in the CPU/GPU areas are, and pick me up a cheap SSD that can store Windows 7 + one or two games. I have plenty of patience...I've been building this system for about 3 weeks now, lol.

My PC died last night though, so I had to click the order button NOW, rather than wait for the IBs to come out.
 
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Considering a SSD gives you very little gaming performance, ordinary storage is probably the better option to go with, at the end of the day a Graphics card will give far more performance yield than a SSD. Fortunately a SSD is easy to purchase down the line.

I am also sceptical on closed loop cooling, it is still dependant on many factors, and still doesn't turn over standard HS/F cooling solutions. A Noctua DH14 will cost less than a H100 and most of the time deliver better cooling and it is silent, the H100 is rather noisy. If you haven't bought a Cooler yet, maybe consider the Noctua over the H100, it is probably a lot cheaper too.
 
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I agree that SSDs are easy to purchase down the line. In my opinion, the only thing that a 10k RPM drive or an SSD will get for gaming is faster map load times - only because it takes less time to read from the disk into memory, compared to a 7200 RPM drive. Booting and loading large programs will be faster, but read/write for normal files is so fast anyway that I don't think it's worth it (how often do you wait longer than a half-second for a file to open? Hardly ever, and I'm using old drives from 7 years ago). Next time the refurbished 75GB Raptors come up, I may grab 2 for a RAID 0 boot volume...but really it's more of a "wow factor" than anything performance related, I guess.

As far as the coolers, I absolutely abhor the overly large heat sinks that come on today's air coolers. They either look like giant, ugly metal blocks sticking out of the case...or it looks like you took an Boeing 747, shrank it down to 1/50th the size, and then ripped one of it's turbines off and shoved it into the case. Sure, I admit that some of them are cool in concept - but the whole point of me being able to look into my case (at least in this build, I wanted a window), is to see everything in there. I can't see a damned thing with a 212+ or D14, lol.

The H60 was $69...
The H70 "Core" (no fans included) was $79...
<No longer selling the H70 w/ fans I guess>...
The H80 was $102...
And the H100 was $114.

But when I paired that H100 up with whatever it was bundled with (I can't tell in my order as it's all printed differently), I saved $20, so the H100 turned out to be cheaper than the H80 (the H80 was not paired as a combo). The H80 looked nice, but did seem a little bulky when mounted inside the case...about 1/3 to 1/2 of the size of one of the big-arsed heatsinks from the air cooler section. The H100, however, fits into the case nicely at the top, not detracting from the aesthetic quality of the case and the look of everything in there...and it also matches (it's all black).

I'm not as niave as I sound, though. Far from it, I plan on jerry-rigging my current heatsink/fan combo from my Phenom X4 (yea, that old!) onto the i5-2550k, and letting it sit there for a while to check it's cooling. I may put a large fan in front of the case (not a case fan, a "real" fan), to keep it cool. While all that is going on, I'll have the H100 hooked up to a spare 250W PSU (or 400, whichever it's rated for) and let it run for 48 hours before ever putting it into the case.

This also gives me time to add the new setup to my home insurance, which covers accidents and stuff (spilling drinks on computers/laptops...I pay the $50 premium, they reimburse me the cost of the equipment). I've had to use it in the past to fix a telescope when some bastard child threw a rock over the fence and shattered an internal mirror in my old Celestron C6, lol.

Long post, sorry. Was waiting for Game of Thrones to finish loading ;-)
 
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Agreed that the Noctua looks ugly but function over form, the Noctua is silent and cools better than the H100, it is probably around the $80 mark, if you want pretty the Zalmans CNPS 11x or 12x are great solutions, small, light and effective. Have you looked at pricing on a Antec Kuhler 920?
 
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Late to the party since apparently the purchase has been made.

From my own experience the 2550K is a problem child when it comes to overclocking, so I suggest rethinking that idea and getting a 2500K.

It's not that you cannot overclock the 2550K because you can, it's just not as versatile as overclocking the 2500K is.

The AMD vs Intel has basically been covered in this thread except gaming wise I haven't seen Intel stomping AMD across the board in any of the reviews I've seen so far.

Processing power in certain applications is a different story altogether, have to hand that one to Intel.

I wouldn't spend my money on AMD right now but that's just my preference, I'm not against AMD by any means I own 4 AMD machines, and wrote the Black Edition Overclock Guide.

IMO presently the Sandy Bridge K Series of CPUs with their overclocking capabilities are hands down the better choice.


 
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I am an AMD Fanboy who owns a FX8150, and has owned an AMD X4 960T, AMD X4 945, and AMD X2 250, AMD X2 6000+, and an AMD X2 4400e. All have been great for what I need them for. Non have dissapointed me in the least. When I see the AMD logo I get all warm and fuzzy. I need to find a supplier who sells AMD Bedsheets, Blankets, Pillow Cases and Nightlight, then my room is complete! FX8150 is better than any of my previous cpu's in my own opinion and I would buy it again!/and build it for others!
 
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Haha, nice joke about the bedroom set. But just an FYI - this thread is over a month old, and I've already made my purchases. :bounce: The information given here was excellent, and even the new Ivy Bridge CPUs have come out since I posted it. I just built a cheap AMD machine for my kids last weekend, so I've got both companies running in my house now.

Cheers,

Neb

 
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curious, whats wrong with a 2550k? i read on average they get about 100 mhz more than a 2500k. i have a 2500k and would like to hear your input
 
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