[lohithrao]

Being a graphic guy like any other designer i always look for the best, have been a fan of AMD for over a decade and till date have been using the AMD processors..

however cause of the known evil of the AMD, i,e the heating issue before i make up my mind on my next processor, this issue will play a vital role...

considering performance and cost what is best as of today?

below are the processors which am looking into:
Intel® Core™ i7-2700K
Phenom II
AMD FX 8-Core Processor Black Edition

thanks

[VW2010]

Hi Lohith,

I use a Phenom X3 720BE and till date have never felt the processor being slow. Being a black edition i can anyway run the system far faster with matching ROM;s.

Having said that there is no processor as good as the Intel Core i7-2700 at that pricepoint.

AMD's are cheaper with the new Bulldowzer series of FX but are just about comparable with i7. 8 cores of this new processor is still catching up with the i7

I would go with the i7 or the FX 8 BE which gives some option to run the processor even faster.

With compatible 8 GB's of RAM this system can be so fast that your office PC will look like 1980's PC'

[kapilvgupta]

hi Lohith,

During my college days I had always favored AMD as their mb's had much better graphic options wrt intel.

But in terms of pure CPU performance I believe that nowadays Intel cpu's provide much better performance per watt. Price wise AMD might be better off but cannot touch intel when it comes to performance.

Also as you are looking at the best performance processors, I'd suggest you to wait for Ivy Bridge (due H1 2012) as they are expected to have a nice performance boost together with a 22nm architecture.

you might want to check out anandtech.com for detailed reviews and performance benchmarks.

peace,
~kg

[reignofchaos]

The i7 chips are the fastest around and not by small margins. If you have the money, get the fastest core i7 and the best z68 board you can afford.

[gautamkhadse]

Lohit ,

May we know , is there any specific reason your are looking for these high end processors ? LIke graphics processing or gaming , audio/video editing ?

I was also in the same dilemma until I came across a quad core i5 which is pretty fast . I have about 16 GB of RAM on my desktop and a 2 GB Nvidia graphics card . So this desktop works pretty well for me for gaming or visualization apps like vmware .

Use a lil bit of photoshop too and this config is pretty good for my requirement . Its actually an overkill but I've kinda made it future proof .

The motherboard is ASUS with HDMI ports and USB 3.0 and a specially designed heatsink for the processor .

[mav2000]

I have been an AMD fan and user for the last 10+years, but the latest FX processors have kind of left me confused for a while now. I would suggest an Intel at this point of time.

[VW2010]

I have about 16 GB of RAM on my desktop and a 2 GB Nvidia graphics card

wow.. Are you running 64 bit?. Hoping you are running windows, the 32 bit wont bother anything over 4GB of ram.

[ron_9191]

I think AMD is all about affordable computing. If you look at the specs and test results on paper, the Intel procs may beat the AMD's. However if everyday computing, this is very hard to notice, and you would hardly notice the difference.

I have been assembling computers for almost 7 to 10 years now and most of the computers I give my clients are AMD's. The reason, most of them are on a very tight budget and whenever I choose Intel, it just slips out of my clients budget.

Again about the overheating issue. It is a fact that processors heat up and the other fact is AMD heats up too. That doesn't mean that Intel will be an iceman when you really want it to work for you. Intel has been known to supply really cheap and useless fans with their processors, but AMD has been very generous about that. And if you feel the AMD is still heating up, then the best thing you could do is buy a processor fan with heat pipes which will cost you anywhere between 1000 and 5000 and it will be just fine. That said, I would never suggest anybody to buy a laptop with an AMD processor.

If you ask me, I will always go with an AMD no matter what. The reason, they are cheap, affordable, and they just do everything perfectly no matter what you throw at it. Intel processors go with any motherboard you keep under its feet. When you choose and AMD, it is very important you choose the right motherboard to get the right kind of performance.

[lohithrao]

Thanks guys, as expected very useful info...

Its pretty evident from the posts and my read from the net, that Intel will be faster but as mentioned by some here i may not notice that difference during my regular use and do i need such a performance at all.

gautam am into graphics, so working on video files or working on a hi res print file or on a huge flash demo is what my day today work involve and most of the times multitasking between softwares is common...

ron, am ken on the FX8core which mother board do you suggest and what is the cost today for the board+processor? btw i was told by a local vendor to wait till Jan as the pricess are pretty high at present...

[msdivy]

FX is 30% cheaper than i7 2600 but between 10~15% less in performance. Checkout here: AnandTech - The Bulldozer Review: AMD FX-8150 Tested

PS:

Maximum Speed | AMD FX Processor Takes Guinness World Record - YouTube

Originally Posted by ron_9191

That said, I would never suggest anybody to buy a laptop with an AMD processor.

The new A4, A6 & A8 are better than earlier AMD chips. They offer better value than Intel chips.

[vasudeva]

Perhaps the best option would be an i7-2600K or the newer i7-2700K. Get a good Z68 MB from Gigabyte/MSI/Asus, put around 6-8 GB DDR3-1600 RAM for the time being. The price difference between 2600K and 2700K is not much, but availability should increase (2700K is a 100MHz clock bump over 2600K and was launched around Diwali).

If you can wait, Ivy Bridge should be out in early 2012, though availability in India may be in March-April and prices should be higher than the above CPUs ($583 for an unlocked i7). i7-26xx may also see `ticks' and bumping of clock speeds perhaps.

[VW2010]

@lohit,

Ror the activities you mentioned, you do need some good graphics card over just the processor.

The 30% savings over the i7 can be pooled in some really good graphics card that will change the way the system works in integration.

I personally would chose the AMD and use the money for expanding RAM as well as the graphics card and may be a CPU cooler unit.

My current set is just a 720 BE with 4 gig ram running on 32bit win 7 (Soon planning to move to 8 gig 64 bit or better Ram config) and a mother board based graphics card (GA mother board). Vidoe editing is not a big problem and it does take time. Have a cpu fan and have also set up 3-4 board based fans to just cool the system. Even overclocking this set up does not heat up much and the performance is definitely noticable. I am sure i can milk out more with some good graphics card but my requirement for video editing or photo editing is very low.

Runs 1080 files so easilly using the VLC that i have never seen once the system waiting to complete anything.

Wanted to share to just give a comparison of what you can do with simple set up. So moving to i7 or FX processor will not let you down but you also need to other graphics set up to improve and make use of these processor ability.

[ron_9191]

@ lohit - overall the new AMD FX processors is a new concept all together. But for your kind of usage, I suggest it will be better you got with the AMD Phenom II X4 or X6, well preferably the Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition. Where you need to throw your money since you are into graphics is into RAM and a decent GPU and of course a Full HD or more resolution display.

I dont know your budget but I have a config for you

Chassis: Cooler Master Elite 310 Silver ATX Cabinet (RC-310-SKN1-GP)

Power supply: Corsair Builder Series 430W Power Supply (CMPSU-430CX)

Motherboard: Asus Crosshair V Formula 32GB DDR3 AMD Motherboard

Processor: AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Processor (HDT90ZFBGRBOX)

RAM: G.skill Ripjaws X 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 2133MHz Desktop RAM (F3-17000CL11D-8GBXL)

Hard drive: Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 1TB Sata Hard Drive (HDS721010CLA332-D)

GPU: ATi Radeon HD6870 1GB GDDR5 ATI PCI E Graphic Cards (AX6870 -1GBD5-2DH)

Monitor: ViewSonic 22inch Full HD LED Monitor (VX2253MH)

Keyboard & mouse: HP Combo USB Keyboard with Mouse

Optical drive: HP 24X Mulitifromat SATA DVD Writer (1260i)

This will cost you approximately INR65,000 or may be less depending on the price that keeps fluctuating everyday.

[rajb3125]

Originally Posted by lohithrao

Thanks guys, as expected very useful info...

Its pretty evident from the posts and my read from the net, that Intel will be faster but as mentioned by some here i may not notice that difference during my regular use and do i need such a performance at all.

gautam am into graphics, so working on video files or working on a hi res print file or on a huge flash demo is what my day today work involve and most of the times multitasking between softwares is common...

ron, am ken on the FX8core which mother board do you suggest and what is the cost today for the board+processor? btw i was told by a local vendor to wait till Jan as the pricess are pretty high at present...

I cannot comment from other points but I run PS and Adobe premier quite a bit (about 2000 image files and 10 hrs worth final video every week). I still run Q6600 with 16GB DDR2 and 8800GTX on P5K.

My experience is Processor/Ram/Board, doesn`t really matter that much. Pretty much all you gave as choices will suffice. You need faster scratch disk.

I run 2x I-RAM modules with 8Gb each as RAID0 for my paging file. For temp drive (just holding files while working on them), I use 2x Adata PRO 64GB SSD`s in RAID0.

Also do not skimp on PSU, get atleast 750W with 80% rating. Tiny fluctuation can cause corruption of SSD`s or worse kill them altogether.

[ron_9191]

@ raj, where did you get the i-ram modules from? I'd love to have them in my dell precision workstation Are they available in India?