is a quad core phenom or phenom2 better then intel dual core?

[Shadowmeph]

I am really new to the AMDs and i am not sure what works with which board . to me AMDs have so many board it confuses me.
and since most AMDs are cheaper ( at least I think that they are) I was wonder if a quad core phenom or phenom2 better then intel dual core? I ask this because I was thinking of moving up to a quad core CPU but looking at the prices of Intel quad cores that are around the 2.6.3 ghz rand ..they are really expensive. I could probably get a decent AMD quad CPU for the same price as a Intel dual core, this is why I asked the question. I do have a amd Athon 64x2 5600+ but that thing runs about the same as my old P4 3ghz cpu.
where can I find info on a good mix of Motherboard and cpu ( AMD) because I am thinking of going AMD if they are decent in price as well as performance

[jcmaz]

AMD 720BE is about the same as your E8400.
Btw, the original Phenoms were crap, Phenom II's are better :)

[Kayen]

Phenom II's are very good.
X2 550 i'd say is equal to an e8400, at much less of a price.

X4's 955 & 965 are pretty damn nice, with both being BE's as well.

[Kilauea]

I would think an Athlon X2 5600+ to be quite a bit better than a Pentium 4 3.0.

I can't tell you how my Phenom II X4 940 performs compared to a Q9400 or to a Q9550. But I am very satisfied by its performance.

As JC said, the original Phenoms weren't too good, but the Phenom II are quite competitive in terms of price/performance.

As for Mobo.

AM3 mobo will require DDR3 RAM and AM3 CPU
AM2+ mobo will work with Phenom II(even the AM3) and require DDR2 RAM

[Zero82z]

Original Phenoms were much slower than Core 2 CPUs. Phenom II CPUs are a bit slower clock for clock but are pretty close. I would personally choose a quad-core Phenom II over a dual-core Core 2 CPU if they were the same price, but depending on what you do with your PC, you might benefit more from the faster single and dual-threaded performance of the Core 2 CPU than you would from the extra two cores of the Phenom II.

[Caldezar]

It really depends on what you're doing I'd say. If you're doing a lot of heavy multitasking, then you'd be better off with a Phenom II. Or if you do a lot of graphic design or modeling/animation that has you running multiple programs and transferring between them, then again you'd benefit from the quad core setup. But for most single, focused applications, you'll probably see a very slight increase from an e8400 or better Core2.

[kingnubian]

Mulithreaded apps or multi core aware applications will benefit more from a quad over a dual all things being equal. For day to day computing honestly I don't think that there is a difference. Still the Quad may be a better "future looking" investment as more & more apps are being designed to take full advantage of any additional cores.

[bumfloss]

if I were you I would pick up an amd 940 be quad core and a gigabyte ud4p (ddr3 edition for future proofing.

that would be budget conscious and very effective IMHO

[snoosebum]

I believe 940 only has a DDR2 controller. You must be reffering to the 945 955 or 965.

[bumfloss]

Originally Posted by snoosebum

I believe 940 only has a DDR2 controller. You must be reffering to the 945 955 or 965.

yeah srry my mistake I didn't know that. Now I do