OK, I'm taking the plunge into building a PC. Although I have replaced most everything inside a PC before, this will be the first one I've built from scratch. I'm not sure if I'm starting at the right spot or not, but I've started by trying to determine which CPU I want first. After that, I thought I'd find the motherboard I want that will work with the selected CPU. Anyway, I've been looking around at CPUs and figured out enough to be dangerous. LOL It seems like I can get an AMD much cheaper than an Intel, but yet the preformance of the Intels seem to get much better reveiws. (IE. An AMD 6 core seems to be more comparable to an Intel quad 4 or even dual core is what I'm believing from my research. Is this correct?) Based on this; which of these CPUs would you recommend? 1) AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ965FBGMBOX 2) Intel Core i5-660 Clarkdale 3.33GHz 4MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 73W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80616I5660 3) Intel Core i5-661 Clarkdale 3.33GHz 4MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 87W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80616I5661 I want a fast PC which will be good for multitasking, AutoCad, possibly streaming video to a HD output, and general PC for the home.
Neither, an i5 760 is what I'd recommend over either. Much faster than the X4, and the i5 600s are only dual cores.
Thanks for the feedback. Ok, I see you post a lot on here and I respect what you have to say. I'm also one that likes to understand what I'm doing rather than just do it because. So, why is the the 760 better than the 600s. I think I understand the quad core benefits over the dual core. I understand how this helps with multitasking, but I also think I understand that only certain programs will take advantage of the multiple cores. (I may be way off base on the multi cores, so please straighten me out if I'm confused.) Anyway, the 600s are listed as faster than the 760. Is speed not everything when you factor in the dual core versus the quad core? If I felt like I would not be running programs which would take full advantage of the Quad core, is the 760 still better than the dual core 600s? (I'm not sure of which programs utilize the advantages of multiple cores to be honest.) Sorry for all the questions. I'm just trying to understand before I make my decision with how to go. You've probably figured out I'm hung up on speed. Am I putting too much emphasis on speed of the processor?
The i5 600s are 19-20% faster per core, but any program that can use multiple cores obviously doubles in speed. This plus if a program does use two cores, on a quad it isn't sliowrd down by other background applications as the other two cores take care of those.
