A friend of mine is in need of a new PC. He wants a budget system for Internet browsing and MsOffice use. The choice is between the AMD2600+ or the Intel P4 2.66GHz FSB533. In our country almost all PC dealers suggest Intel because they say the AMD may heat up in our very hot summer. AMD is cheaper than Intel. Is it faster? Is it reliable as the Intel? Our average temperature in summer is 45 deg. cel. !! What do you experts think about this? Thanks in advance for your information.
You don't need that much power if that's all he's gonna do. Look at a cheap system with a low speed P4 or Celeron, or low speed Athlon. You're buying more CPU than you really need for web browing and office, seriously. AMD has been really good for me, but it ultimately depends on who you talk to. Some people are diehard Intel fans, and the same goes for AMD. I personally use whatever works. AMD does get hot, but so does the P4. AMD has refined their CPU's so that they don't put out as much heat. Anymore AMD and Intel CPU's are pretty much neck in neck in performance. Intel is a much bigger company than AMD, and has no trouble being able to produce their CPUs and chipsets. Generally, that's been the killer for AMD. They had to make a good chipset to get the Athlon going. Other chipsets that came out from Via, SiS and ALi, were pretty crappy. Via has done a pretty good job and has produced some very solid chipsets for AMD. SiS is cheap, budget stuff, and ALi has dropped off the map. Intel chipsets are basically the only thing you want for any Intel-based system. The other aformentioned companies do make chipsets for Intel CPU's, but generally aren't quite as good as Intel's. I've been using mostly AMD-based systems for awhile now, but I have had the opportunity to use an Intel system as well. If you have decent cooling, whatever you go with shouldn't be an issue. Go with whatever you can get the better deal on.
Hmm, I've been building PCs for a long time now, and I've never had a cooling problem with an Athlon CPU. They run very hot with the OEM HSF's, but that can be said of the P4 as well. If you get a good Thermaltake, Coolermaster or Vantec HSF, you should never have a cooling problem. P.S. - I live in the California desert, and it gets up to 53C in the summer, so take my word on it.
