what are the latest models and speeds available for home computing - INTEL / AMD etc...

and also which ones are best for performance as well as value for money

cheers

It depends on what you use your PC for, and how much you are willing to spend.

If money is no object then Intel's i7 processors are currently the fastest (and by far the most expensive), but if all you want to do is check your email and use Facebook, you wouldn't want to spend upwards of £200 when a cheap £35 dual core Celeron/Athlon would suffice.

value wise you cant beat a amd phenom x6 for less than £200 then buy a decent cooler and crank it up

value wise you cant beat a amd phenom x6 for less than £200 then buy a decent cooler and crank it up

I thought the same but looking into it one of the i5's produces the same productivity for the same price (slighly better infact)

u can clock the 1100t phenom x6 to 5.2ghz per core if using extreme cooling and 4.3ghz using a good quality heatsink/fan as the cpu's are unlocked i dont think you can squeeze much out of most i5 apart from the unlocked versions which i doubt are around the 200 mark

is it right that the new i series of processors are capable of much more but you have to pay more for the upgraded performance?

the new sandybridge i proccessors have been recalled due to a fatal flaw found, but once its sorted they will be the great

the new sandybridge i proccessors have been recalled due to a fatal flaw found, but once its sorted they will be the great

Actually it was the chipsets on the motherboards, not the processors themselves that were at fault, and it's not really a "fatal" flaw, just degraded performance after a while if you use the certain SATA ports.

u can clock the 1100t phenom x6 to 5.2ghz per core if using extreme cooling and 4.3ghz using a good quality heatsink/fan as the cpu's are unlocked i dont think you can squeeze much out of most i5 apart from the unlocked versions which i doubt are around the 200 mark

It's not really fair to compare AMD's old catalog with Intel's latest. When AMD finally get around to releasing their octo-core "Bulldozer" chips later this year, then we can do a proper comparision.

Actually it was the chipsets on the motherboards, not the processors themselves that were at fault, and it's not really a "fatal" flaw, just degraded performance after a while if you use the certain SATA ports.

that was it, think its the older sata 1/2 ports which to be honest if you have one of them cpus your more likly to have a sata 3 ssd

u can clock the 1100t phenom x6 to 5.2ghz per core if using extreme cooling and 4.3ghz using a good quality heatsink/fan as the cpu's are unlocked i dont think you can squeeze much out of most i5 apart from the unlocked versions which i doubt are around the 200 mark

Phenom x6 1100t - £180
i5 - 2500k - £170

The i5 also overclocks easily to 4.5ghz on air, the i5 beats the AMD in just about everything and for less money.

I used to be in the thinking that AMD gave better value for money but not anymore.

Maybe the only edge is that the cpu slots are very upgradable, but IIRC AMD are going the intel route with cpu sockets.

so it is as follows then...

gaming and intense applications = INTEL i7

for general home use = INTEL i5 or AMD PHENOM x6

so it is as follows then...

gaming and intense applications = INTEL i7

for general home use = INTEL i5 or AMD PHENOM x6

Partially, although an i7 with a rubbish board, mem and grpx card wouldn't play didly squat.

And an i5/Phenom with decent board, grapx, mem would play the latest games on full settings.

A cpu is just one player, if the rest of the team are rubbish 1 good player wont make a difference.

so for a laptop, say this spec for instance...

CPU = INTEL i5
RAM = 4 GB
BUILT IN SOUND AND GRAPHICS + HDMI + WIRELESS N

so for a laptop, say this spec for instance...

CPU = INTEL i5
RAM = 4 GB
BUILT IN SOUND AND GRAPHICS + HDMI + WIRELESS N

Unless your paying a fortune for a laptop its not going to be a great gaming machine.

I was more refering to desktops.

maybe i should have expressed myself better, i meant laptops, sorry

if its intel 'integrated' graphics, avoid it... nVidia Geforce 130M or ATI Mobile 4550 or above and you'll be 'ok' for gaming (Team Fortress 2 @ 60FPS on high) - anything more and you'll be laughing without a problem...

Because of the recent revelation of faulty 'Sandy Bridge' chips having been produced on Intel boards I would go with AMD and also, as Ghozer has pointed out - nVidia Graphics. Regarding Sandy Bridge chips - there will be some unsuspecting punters who by branded PCs and others who just by the boards like yourself won't know until it has killed your hard drive - dead!

swarfendor43

What about the Samsung R780 - is this a good spec to look for...

Operating System

Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (32b)

Memory

4GB (DDR3 / 2GB x 2) System memory

2 x Slot SODIMM Memory slot

Multimedia

HD (High Definition) audio

SRS 3D sound effect with mic. noise supression

4W stereo speaker (2W x 2)

1.3MP Web camera

I/O Port

VGA (Video Graphics Connector) port

High Definition MultiMedia Interface (HDMI) port available

Headphone-out port available

Mic-in port available

Internal mic. port available

PCI Express Card (34mm) slot

4 x USB 2.0 (Chargable USB included) (eSATA + USB included)

3-in-1 (SD, SDHC, MMC) multi card slot reader

RJ45 (LAN) port available

DC-in port available

Power

90 Watt adaptor

6 Cell Battery

Processor

Intel® Core™ i5 Processor 430M (2.26GHz, 3MB)

Intel® Core™ i3 Processor 330M (2.13GHz, 3MB)

Display

17.3" LED HD+ (1600 x 900) 16:9 Gloss

Storage

500GB (5400rpm S-ATA) hard drive

DVD Super Multi Dual Layer (SATA) / Blu-ray Read / DVD Super Multi Dual Layer

Input

100 Key / 101 Key

Touch Pad (Scroll Scope, Flat Type)

Physical

Dimension: 411.4 x 272.8 x 32 ~ 39.8

Weight: 2.84kg

Main Chipset

Intel HM55 with 64 Bit support

Graphic

nVIDIA GeForce 310M (Ext. Graphic)

1GB gDDR3 (Ext. Graphic)

Communication

Gigabit LAN Wired Ethernet LAN attached

802.11b/g/n (MIMO) Wireless LAN attached

Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR

Security

McAfee Virus Scan

BIOS Boot Up / HDD Password Security function

Kensington Lock port

Samsung Recovery Solution / Samsung Recovery Solution IV / No

Software

Adobe Acrobat Reader Easy Battery Manager Easy Display Manager Easy Network

Manager Easy SpeedUp Manager Microsoft Office Professional 2007 (free 60-day trial)

Samsung Update Plus

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Bit of an out of date graphics processor, but better than integrated intel anything.