Out of Pod Experience

In the upcoming months I'm building a new rig.

I'm undecided about the CPU though.

I can't decide between Intel or AMD, I'm looking at either an i5 or A8/FX chip.

Suggestions?

Intel if you find the price acceptable.

My main problem with AMD right now is the silly amounts of heat they pump out and their power usage. Their performance is good but Intel is still better.

Try AMDs top end products and you might change your mind. Also AMD is know bad/inaccurate temp sensors.

I picked up an AMD processor and a Radeon Card on black Friday. My old rig was an intel i5 1st gen I got for free, but I won't go into that. I am able to run 5 accounts, with max graphics with zero issues.

I also have an i7 laptop with a nvida 725m chip with 2gb of dedicated memory. it can run 1 account full grpahics stable, I have not stress tested it yet, but need to. Long time AMD and ATI fan, I recommend AMD, the price is less and honestly the performance is not a huge difference if your not doing things like rendering big projects. Plus AMD is WAY cheaper.

I like my new desktop.. i'll post specs when I get home

Yeah, it just doesn't matter. The CPU's are all overkill, all the real problems with performance is elsewhere. Get a very nice cutting edge mobo with an AMD cpu over some intel system you pull off the walmart shelf, the AMD system will blow away the Intel system.

I never had problems with the heat, I've never lost an AMD system. I have lost three intel systems. I've had many systems since the 80's, four right now. The only one sitting here broken from two AMD and two Intel - is the intel system.

Looks like the Intel AMD debate is still going strong........

But seriously.....

In the 90's, I was all about using Intel CPU's on the best board. Then real life hit me about ten years ago, and now, I use AMD as I'm on a budget. Actually, the wife sets the budget, a fairly modest one, to build myself a computer every few years.

My current build, I picked an AMD Phenom II x6 1100T Black Edition. It was, at the time (2.5 years ago), a hell of a lot cheaper then a comparable Intel CPU. It does run about 50c under most conditions, but I'm using the stock cooler, and as long as I keep the heat sink clean, I have no issues with it.

I also coupled the CPU with a mid - high range ASUS motherboard, 16GB of memory, yadda yadda. The only thing I would change now, is the video card. My GTX 480 is getting long in the tooth.

So....

Intel if you have the money, as they have taken the higher end CPU market.

AMD if your on a budget. Their CPUs are, in my opinion, still overkill for most anything.

i7 intel, if you go that way.

For most practical purposes, AMD is just as fine as Intel, and more reasonably priced.
If you're a performance nut however, and price is not much of an issue, go with Intel.


More to the point, for EVE-Online, anything other than heavy-duty fleet combat, AMD is more than enough.
In heavy-duty fleet combat, not even the fastest Intel can really give you a truly smooth performance at max graphics detail.
So might as well save the cash and go AMD.


Side-note...

I'm using the same old 1GB GTX 460 "v1" I got initially for this machine three and a half years ago (before that it was a paltry GT 8500 in the previous machine), which is noticeably less than what you have, but it's still decent enough for most of the stuff I bother using it for nowadays (and that includes EVE-Online).

In fact, if you plan on keeping moderate graphic detail levels and only single-boxing, some of the modern integrated graphics solutions are already adequate for EVE, you don't even need to bother getting a graphics card at all.

Don't skrimp go intel.

Are 4 hyperthreaded i7 cores better than 8 FX cores when running more than 4 instances of EVE? Or when, say, an extra monitor is being used for HD video playback or some other high priority applications are running simultaneously with EVE to drive the number of concurrent high priority threads over 4?

Basically, is the efficiency of Intel cores enough to make hyperthreading superior to extra lower efficiency cores when running more than 4 high priority processes?