My First Gaming Rig... Under $800

[Brodom]

You can say

"They are pretty much equal, it comes down to a price issue and personal preference from there. If newegg is having a sell on one chip then you should go for it."

maybe a silly question, but between the following two setups:

INTEL:
Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 Wolfdale 3.33GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops
+
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3L LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards
or
AMD:
Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor - Processors - Desktops
+
Newegg.com - MSI K9A2 CF-F V2 AM2+/AM2 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards

Wouldn't the Intel setup run cooler, cuz of the lower amount of Watts?

 

[Evolv]

Instead of a E8600, you can get the E8500. It has exactly the same specs but is cheaper and can easily overclock to E8600 speeds.

On idle the 940 will consume less watts. On load it will probably consume more. The 940 temps could reach 55-60 on load with overclock. So they're probably the same, temp wise, it mostly depends on what cpu cooler you're using.

If you're more into gaming you might want the E8500. But if you want future proof/gaming, then the 940 would be a good choice. I'd go for the 940, considering the price performance value you get out of those.

 

[Hussein19891]

Like sanremo said, temps are about the same.

In fact AMD states that Phenom II chips can handle a 1.5Volt Vcore. Phenom II is able actually handle higher temps then Intel chips.

Going with the E8500 you could oc to like 4.00~4.20ghz on air. While Deneb will oc some where between 3.7~4.00ghz on air. The E8500 is the better choice if your not heavy into multi-tasking.

 

[zmatt]

I haven't seen anyone break 4ghz on air with deneb yet, I would say 3.7-3.8 is the expected results. The e8500 will run much cooler than the phenom, after all the phenom is a quad and the e8500 is a dual core. The e8500 will also oc higher on air since dual cores generally are easier to oc too. However in the long run quads will be a better option. The only problem I have with the future proof idea, is that every time we see a cpu feature that needs to be taken advantage of it take about 2 generations of cpus before the software uses it, and by then that future proof chip you bought is obsolete. Case in point, I started using 64bit processors in 2005, most software is still 32bit half a decade later.

Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops

The price/performance ratio on this chip is much better than the e8600. They are practically the same chip anyways.

 

[Hussein19891]

I started using 64bit processors in 2005, most software is still 32bit half a decade later.

It is really a shame microsoft isn't pushing their 64 bit OS instead of their wretched 32 bit.