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Old 16th August 2009, 18:21   #1
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AMD Phenom II vs Intel Core i5 - Which is better?

Which one is better? I weigh AnandTech higher than others but haven't been able to follow hardware trends and reports lately.

Please also include the cost benefits and entire platform cost when comparing the mighty 2 (or if bringing in i7)?
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Old 16th August 2009, 21:11   #2
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Well, the highest end Phenom II 965 is able to compete well with Core i7 920 at a much lower cost. Phenom II has approx 758 million transistors where as Core i7 has 731 million transistors.

So I suppose that Core i5 will have less number of transistors. But they have excellent core at their disposal.

All depends on cost of ecosystem. AMD is able to deliver AM3 package at lesser cost as compared to X58 from Intel.
From what I know, september 6th is the date when these Core i5 Socket 1156 is going to hit the market with I suppose P55 chipset from Intel.

We will have to wait and watch here but given the recent 2-3 years past, if one has more money or very very heavy applications, go for Intel or stick to AMD.

What I wonder is this : Intel's 9XXX processors, specially the ones on higher end are able to deliver very good performance. I wonder how will Intel place Core i5 performance wise. Not much separates high end Yorkfield from Core i7. I mean is the difference big enough for Core i5 to slot in ?
If they are replacing Yorfield, then again ecosystem cost comes into play.

EDIT : Forgot to mention that Core i5 will have dual channel Memory controller.

Last edited by aaggoswami : 16th August 2009 at 21:16.
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Old 18th August 2009, 12:13   #3
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Ah, this is everything I could have whacked off from any website like tomshardware's or some games website. Aag buddy, I'm not looking for the technical specs of the product, the transistor counts and number of memory paths. I have a system which I need to replace with one of these processors (i7 won't scale to my need of running 6 VMs with 8+ gigs of RAM, so that is out of question).

I need to choose between i5 and Phenom II. i5 will never close in on i7 simply because i7 is a much better architecture for a processor, but my applications (VMware or Hyper-V) don't need i7. The decider is cost, but if someone can refer to some VM Benchmark numbers, I will be more htan happy. This will be occasionally used for gaming, but I'm not a hardcore gamer and will never be so.

PS: Last I read on any forum, Phenom II 940 on AM2 was beating i7 920 or on the heels very frequently. i7 920 will be beaten by 945+ Phenoms any day. Will appreciate if someone could link their response to some comparos on the web.


Quote:
Originally Posted by aaggoswami View Post
Well, the highest end Phenom II 965 is able to compete well with Core i7 920 at a much lower cost. Phenom II has approx 758 million transistors where as Core i7 has 731 million transistors.

So I suppose that Core i5 will have less number of transistors. But they have excellent core at their disposal.
All depends on cost of ecosystem. AMD is able to deliver AM3 package at lesser cost as compared to X58 from Intel....................

EDIT : Forgot to mention that Core i5 will have dual channel Memory controller.

Last edited by given2fly : 18th August 2009 at 12:27. Reason: Edited quoted msg
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Old 18th August 2009, 12:21   #4
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I too am in market for two powerful servers. This link will most probably decide the buy/make for me.

Thanks!
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Old 18th August 2009, 19:35   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sn1p3r View Post
I too am in market for two powerful servers. This link will most probably decide the buy/make for me.

Thanks!
Is i5 even launched.???

Dude these are desktop cpu.

and for serious biz, don not use assembled server.
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Old 18th August 2009, 19:47   #6
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See this link for `possible' core i5 prices.

Possible Core i3, i5, i7 Prices Leaked - Tom's Hardware
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Old 22nd August 2009, 03:32   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SirAlec View Post
Is i5 even launched.???

Dude these are desktop cpu.

and for serious biz, don not use assembled server.
@SirAlec: I understand that these are Desktop, but our requirements are not that great. Currently we are running 5 laptops + 2 desktops (one HP and other assembled in 2005) in my organization, we have expansion plans and I tested Ubuntu on VirtualBox. I thought using a DROBO/RAID, I can secure the data and use high powered parallel servers. What do you suggest? If this does not work, was thinking of blade.

Which ones? Thanks!
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Old 22nd August 2009, 07:43   #8
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Corei7 is much faster compared to Phenom II for sure.
Problem with Phenom II is that it does not clock well on AIR, it really shines under cold. Corei7 clocks slightly better compared to Phenom II on AIR. Its in the 5.5GHz + speeds that Phenom II gets a bit closer to Corei7.

I am saying this based on my personal experience since I happen to have both platforms and thoroughly tested both at higher speeds.

As for Corei5, my guess is it would be comparable to Phenom II.As in both should be pretty close to each other.

Last edited by Amey : 22nd August 2009 at 07:44.
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Old 22nd August 2009, 16:56   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sn1p3r View Post
@SirAlec: I understand that these are Desktop, but our requirements are not that great. Currently we are running 5 laptops + 2 desktops (one HP and other assembled in 2005) in my organization, we have expansion plans and I tested Ubuntu on VirtualBox. I thought using a DROBO/RAID, I can secure the data and use high powered parallel servers. What do you suggest? If this does not work, was thinking of blade.

Which ones? Thanks!
It depends upon the role of the server. If you want to use desktop as a server role than definitely go for intel based.
what application will your server host. or its specific role ?

blade server will be expensive and useless for lesser loads. but low end servers (branded) are now available with all brands.
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Old 24th August 2009, 10:57   #10
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I recently built a Phenom II 920 based PC for about 40k with 4 GB DDR2 RAM, 500GB HDD and ASUS M4N board. Found it to be cheaper by about 3-4k than comparable Intel chipset PC.
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Old 24th August 2009, 11:46   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SirAlec View Post
It depends upon the role of the server. If you want to use desktop as a server role than definitely go for intel based.
what application will your server host. or its specific role ?

blade server will be expensive and useless for lesser loads. but low end servers (branded) are now available with all brands.
The server is to run approx 10 users virtual machines, so that they can access it via internet and have a standard UI. The application range is limited.

1. MS Office. 2. Emails 3. Internet for few users (SEO guys only). 4. Accounting softwares (A/c guys). 5. Customized ERP for sales/packaging/trading/delivery guys.

+ Virtual/physical server for RAID/data.

+ can play games for me and my friends at night
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Old 24th August 2009, 15:36   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sn1p3r View Post
The server is to run approx 10 users virtual machines, so that they can access it via internet and have a standard UI. The application range is limited.

1. MS Office. 2. Emails 3. Internet for few users (SEO guys only). 4. Accounting softwares (A/c guys). 5. Customized ERP for sales/packaging/trading/delivery guys.

+ Virtual/physical server for RAID/data.

+ can play games for me and my friends at night
10 users Virtual machine?? I didn't get you. You want to boot dumb terminals from server.


Yeah! the application are simple. SImple server will do. A xeon based can be assembled within 30k.

Play games on server that is hosting ERP and accounting data, i wouldn't dare that.??
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Old 25th August 2009, 02:34   #13
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AMD's are mostly cheaper for comparative performance mostly in Gaming.

Intel generally rule the top by a huge margin.
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Old 25th August 2009, 11:01   #14
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Compre both of them : AnandTech Bench (beta): SYSMark 2007 - Overall
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Old 25th August 2009, 13:44   #15
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I am seeing that Phenom II is generally routing Intel Q9550 and Intel i920 on a regular basis, except for those apps which are optimized for Intel CPU architecture. One more thing to note here is that AMD is somewhat better suited for virtualization with MS optimizing their APIs for their CPUs.

The best of my search so far is that on NewEgg, DDR2 800 FB-DIMMs are selling for just about 100$ for 4 GB on a single stick. So I'm tempted to look out for Opterons also (the Instanbul one). Opteron 2427 is a very good processor with 6 cores, an ideal thing for virtual servers (more cores, more processing power). Let me sit back this weekend, and I might come up with something good.
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