needs new cpu thinking alien

[Masherbrum]

Cheaper does not mean it's "better."  

Skuzzy and others know why.   

[TheZohan]

the Phenom II is not better then the i7 .. its better bang for you buck .. you cant dispute that

[Skuzzy]

Again, define "bang for the buck".

If you want the absolute fastest system around, it is not a good value.  If you are doing video/audio work, it is not a good value.

In many applications, a dual core Intel CPU will beat the Phenom II quad core.  Those applications which cannot make use of multiple cores is a shining example.  Those same applications would be silly to use an i7.

Benchmarks mean squat.  In the real world, for many applications, it is silly to consider AMD right now.  It really boils down to what the computer is going to be used for.

[TheZohan]

i can spend alot less money and not worry about the 5 seconds i lose if i had spent 500.00 more on something better

[TheZohan]

by all means if he has the money to go to a Intel i7 system then i would go for it! .. i am not disputing the i7 will kick the stuffing out of the phenom II. 

but i don't think i have seen a Intel chip claim this

45 NM Phenom II has reached 6.3 Hz cooled with liquid nitrogen

http://www.nordichardware.com/news,8389.html

and set the 3Dmark06 world record

http://www.nordichardware.com/news,8816.html

but to be fair these are all done with enthusiast computers and not a normal everyday. but if you have the money .. why not

[hlbly]

I just bought a PC from tildeath seriously consider this man for a new PC . I will never buy one anyplace else again .

[TilDeath]

by all means if he has the money to go to a Intel i7 system then i would go for it! .. i am not disputing the i7 will kick the stuffing out of the phenom II. 

but i don't think i have seen a Intel chip claim this

45 NM Phenom II has reached 6.3 Hz cooled with liquid nitrogen

http://www.nordichardware.com/news,8389.html

and set the 3Dmark06 world record

http://www.nordichardware.com/news,8816.html

but to be fair these are all done with enthusiast computers and not a normal everyday. but if you have the money .. why not

Living in this world of OCing as a competetor the benchmarks we look at are not the ones on LN... hell we have a world record for a 295 card on LN, it means nothing.  Realworld benchmarks are the ones I mainly look at and the Phenom II is no where in the top scores from what a normal person can purchase.  In addition the Phenom II used for that benchmark (35806) was an engineering sample not anything like whats released.  This "world record" was done live with engineers available and achieved only after they went through over 2 dozen engineering samples.

Now a i7 965 has a score of 35550, this is a non engineering sample showing a total difference of 256 from an engineering sample, not to good in any of our books.

[Zazen13]

Alienware was my last big computer Purchase. I was not very happy with it at all (shipped to me with a bad stick of RAM and less than ideal MB for gaming). For the money I spent (~$7,000) I could have built 2-3 computers of equal quality. If I were to buy out of the box I would go Falcon Northwest. But, for the most part, as others have mentioned, it's worth learning how to build one yourself or getting someone who already knows how to do it build one for you.

I went to the Falcon Northwest customizer, picked all of the stuff I wanted, it came to $7,500. I went to Newegg, picked the exact same components along with all of the little extras and in some cases improved versions of the components and it came to a total of ~$2,500. The Alienware systems are similar. Five grand or a 200% mark-up is a bit much for priviledge have having one of those gaming rig makers slap it together for you imho.

[TheZohan]

like most things theres a premium and generic .. both the same for all intents and purposes .. one cost more to do the same thing.

[TilDeath]

like most things theres a premium and generic .. both the same for all intents and purposes .. one cost more to do the same thing.

I would put OCZ memory against any generic memory of the same basic specs... (1066, 1333, 1600, 1800, 1866, 2000  DDR2 ~DDR3 Dual or Triple channel) they are not the same, not even close.  Been there done that