New budget pc, AMD or Intel?

MadCow809

MadCow809

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Building a pc for my aunt... Struggling here to keep the price down below $500 since I need to buy just about everything (HDD, RAM, CPU, MOBO, VGA, Case, PSU, DVD-RW etc..) Anyway, I've got two options here... Please help me to pick one.


AMD :

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ Brisbane 2.1GHz - $54

ECS A780GM (ATi HD3200, Hybrid Crossfire Option) - $80

TOTAL : $134

OR

Intel :

Intel Pentium E2160 1.8Ghz - $70 (Prob gonna change the FSB to 266 or 300, since the E2160 is extremely overclockable, even with stock factory fan)

GIGABYTE GA-G31M-S2L (Intel GMA 3100) - $67

TOTAL : $137


VGA Card Option :

HD 2600XT 256MB - $75

HD 3650 512MB - $75

nVIDIA GeForce 7600GS 256MB - Old video card that I have, if this 7600GS end up being the slowest card, then I might use this card for the new setup and get one of the above cards to replace the 7600GS.


Gonna settle this on Monday and place my order through newegg. Will expect the parts will arrive on Tues/Wed, my aunt will needs this setup for this coming weekend, so its kind of urgent.
 
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I'd go for AMD. And the second gfx card there.
 
AMD is better on the budget side usually and I can't stand ATi drivers (or cards really), so any nVidia card gets my vote.
 
Viper007Bond said:
AMD is better on the budget side usually and I can't stand ATi drivers (or cards really), so any nVidia card gets my vote.
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yeah, ATi does makes crappy drivers. But with the same kind of budget, I can only get a 8500GT if I decide to stick with nVIDIA. And the AMD isnt exactly on the budget side seeing as the Intel option is only $3 more expensive.


Which option should perform better? AMD or Intel?
 
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Well I've got an Intel dual core processor(E2180, I think) and it works very well. But I don't know how to overclock it for better game performance.
 
I prefer AMD; my old Sempron worked better than the Pentiums I've had.

As for the graphics card, I'd choose nVidia because it seems you can find all the support you need on the first page of a Google search.
 
If you're going to be using a dedicated GPU, there's no point in buying a motherboard with an integrated one (I doubt your aunt will want to deal with hybrid crossfire/sli. Come to think of it, why does your aunt need a dedicated graphics card?), and I doubt you're going to overclock much with a cheap motherboard, PSU and RAM, even if the CPU has potential.
 
My vote goes to AMD. I've had several of them and they have always worked great.
 
AMD gets my vote.
 
I prefer Nvidia, but to be fair, ATI's drivers have really improved over the last few years. Their current gen cards are pretty good.
 
I'd say go with Nvidia, ATI has a long history of shity drivers, As for whether to go Intel or AMD, I would go Intel; as of now they have the better CPUs and in general I find their produces to be a bit more stable.
 
What is your aunt going to do with the system?

Extra graphics cards and hybrid crossfire are nice, but if she's only going to use the pc for a bit of office work, internet browsing and emails there isn't much between the two.

I'd go for intel and nvidia because it's monday, tuesday is more an AMD day.
(novices won't be able to tell a difference between the two what so ever)
 
Kip_6666 said:
What is your aunt going to do with the system?

Extra graphics cards and hybrid crossfire are nice, but if she's only going to use the pc for a bit of office work, internet browsing and emails there isn't much between the two.

I'd go for intel and nvidia because it's monday, tuesday is more an AMD day.
(novices won't be able to tell a difference between the two what so ever)
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It will be used mainly for Photoshop CS and Illustrator CS, she does lots of clothing design for customers on these programs.

chaos386 said:
If you're going to be using a dedicated GPU, there's no point in buying a motherboard with an integrated one (I doubt your aunt will want to deal with hybrid crossfire/sli. Come to think of it, why does your aunt need a dedicated graphics card?), and I doubt you're going to overclock much with a cheap motherboard, PSU and RAM, even if the CPU has potential.
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Thats exactly why Im puzzled.. Will the onboard G31 (GMA3100) card be good enough for those programs? What about the HD3200 option?


And the G31 board overclocks like a champ, my sister has one, which is why im tempted to give my aunt that same setup, seeing as my sister's pc runs pretty much all her programs without lag. E2160 @ 300 x 9 on stock factory fan, voltage and stock NB settings.
 
Onboard != integrated.

Integrated = fake video card. Your CPU and system RAM handles it all.

Onboard = there's a GPU on the board (my mom has a nVidia 6600 for example), but it uses the system RAM.

Go with onboard. She won't need a proper video card, especially since she's not doing any 3D work. Photoshop is all CPU.
 
Viper007Bond said:
Onboard != integrated.

Integrated = fake video card. Your CPU and system RAM handles it all.

Onboard = there's a GPU on the board (my mom has a nVidia 6600 for example), but it uses the system RAM.

Go with onboard. She won't need a proper video card, especially since she's not doing any 3D work. Photoshop is all CPU.
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Not with the HD3200, it comes with its own dedicated memory. Not sure how much though, but the Intel options steals memory away to use as a video card.

So, if Photoshop is all about CPU, should i stick with the AMD option?
 
MadCow809 said:
So, if Photoshop is all about CPU, should i stick with the AMD option?
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It won't matter, but AMD has yet to beat Intel's Core processors.
 
argatoga said:
It won't matter, but AMD has yet to beat Intel's Core processors.
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Thats irrelevant, the pc wont be for me, so AMD's option is very tempting with the HD3200 onboard video and at stock v.s stock comparison, i think the AMD might be a tad better.
 
MadCow809 said:
It will be used mainly for Photoshop CS and Illustrator CS, she does lots of clothing design for customers on these programs.

Thats exactly why Im puzzled.. Will the onboard G31 (GMA3100) card be good enough for those programs? What about the HD3200 option?
Click to expand...

If you ask me, the GMA3100 is overkill for what your aunt needs. Unless she's playing 3D games, all she needs is something to provide a video output. Save money on the GPU/mobo and spend it on the CPU, instead.

MadCow809 said:
And the G31 board overclocks like a champ, my sister has one, which is why im tempted to give my aunt that same setup, seeing as my sister's pc runs pretty much all her programs without lag. E2160 @ 300 x 9 on stock factory fan, voltage and stock NB settings.
Click to expand...

If you know that particular G31 board overclocks well, then by all means, get the Intel over the AMD-based system. On the other hand, if money is more of a priority and she can wait the extra half-second it takes for a photoshop filter to finish, you could go all out and get an AMD motherboard for $25.
 
Can't comment on the AMD/Intel thing. Never had anything else than Intel in my PC.

I hear AMD is faster for the same money.

When it comes to vid cards, that's a no brainer. ATI for the win.
 
AMD gets my vote too, especially in a budget build, BUT if you're into overclocking, certain Intel CPUs will overclock like crazy.

Since you're building it for someone else, I wouldn't overclock it. It could make for some harder-to-solve problems in the future for someone who isn't too computer savvy.
 
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