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Originally Posted by audioholic Guys I am in the Market for a new Motherboard+CPU+RAM. I have a Core2Duo which had a few overheating instances due to a cleaning session gone bad and now it just fails to multitask without pauses. Pardon me for too many questions.
I found the AMD range of processors quite attractive WRT the general specs like no. of cores, clock speed etc. However when I started reading comparos of these CPUS with intel they were found to be rated inferior. But I find that intel CPUs are very expensive for the specs they offer. For the price of an AMD 8 core processor, I am getting an i3 with two cores and the same clock speed.
My requirements are mainly processing power since I work on Audio, Video(Not any advanced graphics or rendering) and images. I am NOT a gamer and the benchmarks which pointed out to Gaming experience dont hold good for me. If there is anything that I care about graphics then I should be able to watch a full HD movie without any struggle and some other apps running in parallel when watching movie. Current PC fails to play 1080i without breaks.
I have a max budget of 25k just for CPU, MB, RAM and a case. Not specific about a branded case and iBall etc can do good. Also I am particular about the MB having good onboard audio and a decent onboard GPU. Currently I have the following in mind:
Motherboard: ASUS M5A78L-M/USB3 - Rs. 4600 - Has onboard ATI Radeon HD 3000 as well as 8 channel rear audio.
CPU - AMD FX 8120 - Rs 9310 - Has onboard graphics
Ram - 4GB - Will add another 4GB later - Rs 2500
Case + PSU - iBall(some design I liked) - Rs 2000
Any changes that can be made? I thought of a better MB but that requires a dedicated GPU which I am not interested in.
Also, do you think an intel processor in the same range of less than 10k will perform better than the AMD I have chosen?
Which is the better choice between the FX and the A10 series? More cores or higher clock speed? I also read that A10 doesnt have graphics onboard. So will it work with the motherboard I have chosen?
Also please enlighten me about the graphics part. FX supports onboard graphics and the ASUS M5A78L also supports graphics with different ports. So does that mean I will have two GPUS? Or in case I hook an A10 5800K onto the M5A78 mother board, will it still require a graphics card? I am confused on that aspect.
Or is it a better idea to go for a quad core processor of the A10 series and spend the difference amount on a graphics card? |
Greetings audioholic,
Firstly, to compare Intel and AMD cpus w.r.t. cores and clock speeds is not a good idea. Intel generally is more efficient with their cores, clock speeds and power consumption.
For instance I have a core i3-2120 3.3 Ghz 2 cores/4 threads, and it is just 65 watt tdp and is still very much comparable to AMD's 125 W quad cores with 3.6 Ghz, etc.
There is a webpage that I consider for checking out CPUs (cpubenchmark (.) net), it gives performance ratings to each cpu.
Since you say that the main thing you are looking for is processing power and you work on audio and video, there is something known as single threaded performance, which you need to know about.
Consider this as the max processing power a single core has got in the multi-core cpu. This is where Intel overpowers AMD at almost every price range. Heck my i3-2120 has better single thread performance than many octa/hex/quad core AMDs and even some i5s.
And you really shouldn't go with a mobo with integrated graphics, because neither they are very strong GPUs and you are just wasting money if you opt for an APU or Intel with good integrated graphics, and also these mobos are priced higher.
The intel alternative I recommend you closest to the fx-8120 in terms of performance is i5-4430 (priced around 12000).
Its like 8 weak cores vs 4 strong cores. Although the combined processing power of the octa-core may be more, but the quad-core will perform better in programs unable to split their work into as many as 8 threads. When encoding decoding a video, only a single core can work on a single video file, or atmost 2. With AMD you may convert 8 files simultaneously, which is good in some ways, but for converting a single large file you are pretty much not there. With i5, you are better off I feel. With the i5 4430 you are getting Intel HD 4000 integrated GPU which is a decent chip (and better than graphics provided by fx-8120) and if you are not a gamer will more than suffice your audio/video needs.
Most programs/games today are only optimized well for dual cores and at-most quad cores.
And brother I am not saying AMDs are not good, for the price and raw processing power, the fx-8120 will eat up pretty much any processor. But, its just that 8 cores is a kind of an overkill if you are not a multi-tasking geek.
And, more to that, intel CPUs are considered more reliable and have a longer life span.
The choice is absolutely yours, with whichever product you feel more comfortable with