i3 vs Phenom II

[union23bj]

Hello everyone-I am officially a noob in here and I'm seeking insight due to the great computer minds in my life becoming suddenly unavailable. I am in the market for a new computer. I am a hip hop artist and I use my computer for multi-track recording(cubase,audition,FL,etc...) I've been doing this for many years, since having a P4 with a gig of Ram was top of the line and over the years I haven't moved much further. My wS pc is a 2.4gig single core Intel with 2 gigs of ddr ram, and it performs well for what is needed but its starting to crash out and I am going to do a upgrade with what I can find locally cheap. So my question is this--what is the better choice
3.20 Ghz Intel Core i3 processor
8gb DDR3 Ram

or
2.8 GHz AMD Phenom II X4 820 quad-core processor (with 6 MB shared L3 cache)----4gb ddr3 ram

same price--I'm asking this because I can remember a time when I heard it argued that the single core Intels were competing with low end dual AMDs--I've also heard alot of this Hyperthreading in the i3 being almost like a quad--please help me with this decision-I feel uninformed.---thanks in advance.

[Poci]

The Phenom II

But try and get it with 8 gigz of RAM instead of 4.


You can build one cheaper then buying from an OEM

[union23bj]

Yeah I will probably up grade to 8 gb ram down the road if I get that one-but it will be months/year--thats why I asked this-I would build one if i could-I just don't feel confident in my skills--these are from people that have them ready built as I described(not stores).

[Activate: AMD]

Theres not a huge gap in performance in many applications, but the Phenom is probably the better choice due to its better performance in multi-threaded encoding apps. These are probably more relevant for you than the gaming performance benchmarks, which the Intel seems to win. I'm not very familiar with your programs, so if you can do any more background research to see if they're multi-threaded or not and what kind of CPU's they tend to favor (higher clockspeed and individual thread performance vs having more cores) then you'll be able to get an idea which chip will suit you better.

[MacGurkin]

Either choice will be a big win for you if you're coming from a single core P4.

[yunk3r]

well it depends if the software you are using takes advantage of multiple cores. if it does you will see more of a benefit from phenom II of it can't then you should get the i3. if you don't know, and you cant find out if the software you use can take advantage of multiple core I would go with the amd phenom.

[undersea]

Why 8g? Win 7 works fine with 4.

[bernheim]

One thing to consider is the Phenom has a TDP of 125 Watts while the I3 just 65, I have a similar decision to take and the wattage is a thing that worries me a lot, shouldn't it?

Thanks

[Lenny]

Many of the Phenom II's including the 820 are 95W. I'm running an AMD X6 1055T which is 125W. It's really not a big deal unless you are looking to built a low power PC.

[bernheim]

With respect to heat I can only imagine light bulbs, 2 60W bulbs I think generate a lot of heat and the surface is greater

[uddarts]

the tdp wattage is under full load. also the higher the psu efficiency, the less heat that's produced under load by the system.


ud

[Pehu]

the tdp wattage is under full load. also the higher the psu efficiency, the less heat that's produced under load by the system.


ud

I'd imagine that PSU efficiency only affects the heat produced by the PSU itself. Why would it affect anything else?
Still, an efficient PSU is always a good place to start (and one should keep in mind that a high wattage PSU isn't usually the most efficient choice for a system with a low power draw).

[uddarts]

I'd imagine that PSU efficiency only affects the heat produced by the PSU itself.

yep.


ud

[bernheim]

Phenoms II consume 125 Watts, the 8xx line are actually Athlon IIs (no L3 cache) hence consume just 95 Watts as I understand