gdgt

Since the Core i series have come out I've been recommending Intel as long as you can afford 200+ for a cpu. I have a Core i7 and it kicks serious butt. Keep in mind that most games are still very lightly threaded if at all, so the better turbo boost in the intel line is an advantage (also having a hexcore is not really one).

I don't know what I'd put in my computer these days, but my current CPU is the 1st gen Core i7. Before that I had an AMD chip, but that was in the era where AMD was competing with Intel on price and performance. In recent years they'd completely let that slip and Intel was the clear choice. Now it looks like AMD is coming back and could be in the game again. I just wonder if it might be too late for them.

While I root for AMD, I'm a little tired of them constantly playing catch-up. They never really played the game well, and it got to the point where I couldn't tell what the heck they were doing with their Athlon line.

Now that I think about it, naming confusion in CPUs always drives me up the wall, and it certainly looks like this is another lesson that AMD hasn't learned. I mean seriously, AMD? "Phenom II X4 975 Black Edition?" You should throw a few more numbers, letters, roman numerals, and descriptors in there just for fun.

Now granted, Intel isn't much better. There are something like 7-8 different Core i7 chips, but the perception (at least for me), is that there are three different models and it's not as confusing. That works for me even though I could easily learn the differences between the processors.

Plus, Microcenter has killer deals on Core i-whatever chips, so usually the price difference is minimal...

I built mine roughly 4 years ago and at the time, and AMD processor just made more sense. Performance reviews of the processors were roughly the same and I was able to build the machine for a couple hundred less than if I had used an Intel chipset and processor. Plus, I got a 64-bit processor and the comparable Intel stuff just would have made it even more pricey.

even for the most extreme gaming i7s are not that much more better than i5s. I mean if you have the extreme edition you get six cores, with hyperthreading that's 12 virtual cores. games are designed to run on dual and quad core cpu's, not 12, so you wouldn't really see a huge performance increase. For most systems, the bottleneck is the hard drive, or the graphics card. if you have an ssd, or some crazy raid1, and a high end graphics card, the next bottleneck may be the memory, not the cpu.

I have the phenom 22 x4 975 black edition and it's wonderful. it's clocked at 3.2ghz, easily oc'd to 3.4-3.6. From the reviews i've read these processors match and even surpass performance of core 2 quads, and are somewhat lacking when matched up against i5s. AMDs are definitely good cpus for budget gamers, but as I mentioned before going with the latest i7 extreme edition isn't going to give you that much more improvement in gameplay

I have always used Intel in the past, for dozens of builds, however, last week when finally building my own PC Gaming rig, really spent a lot of time comparing the new Intel i5/7 to the Phenom II processors. I decided to take a chance and when with the AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black edition for $129.99. I have to say that I couldnt be happier! I was unsure about AMD since the last chip from AMD that I used was the original Athlon and that was a step up from my old Duron lol.

After burning in the 965, I decided to bump it up a tad... the processor is now running stable at 4.05ghz. When I did my homework, I had a strict budget to work with and I needed to get the best bang for the buck. The performance to cost ratio of AMD is much more narrow than with Intel. I would have spent $100 more to go with the 2500k i5 processor and honestly wouldnt have seen even REMOTELY enough performance increase to justify the extra cost. So, I decided to take the money I saved on the CPU and dump it in to the graphics... Hello EVGA GTX 580 OC!!!

If you REALLY want to see some contasting opinions... you should ask the question "nVidia or ATI?" and watch the sparks fly!

I put an AMD Phenom II X6 Black Edition 1100T into my PC with a Nvidia GTX 460. I used the AMD because it was within my budget and was as powerful as an i5, but better because it is a hexacore. So far i'm liking my rig, and the only thing I might want to upgrade in the future is my ram, and my video card (when they drop the price of the gtx 580)

I've always gone AMD since they're usually cheaper than the comparative Intel processor. My old laptop is an Intel, but that had more to do with the size of the hard drive. I've thought about building an Intel system to do a Hackentosh, but you've got to get just the right parts, then jump through hoops to get it to run. And you've got to own a Mac. If I owned a Mac, I wouldn't have any reason to build a Hack. And speaking of prices, I'm not paying the Apple Tax for something I know I'm going to hate.