Computer buying advice, which processor

I’m looking at a new computer base unit and have pretty much narrowed it down to 2 MESH systems. Both are £599, one comes with a 6 core AMD Phenom II X6 1055T processor and the other a quad core Intel I5 760 processor. There are a few differences in spec. but nothing to worry about. In terms of performance and upgrade potential which would be the best buy?

You want one of these:

Thanks, I’ll bear that in mind.

Online comparisions seem to have them neck and neck, the Phenom X6 having better overall performance in multi-threaded tasks but the i5 having much better per-core performance.

All else being equal, Intel for me!

That aside, I think the first question is what are you going to be using it for… gaming, designing, number crunching, rendering?

Intel i7 🙂

To be honest, they’re probably as close as makes no practical odds. In a modern PC, the CPU is unlikely to be the performance bottleneck.

Damn, looking around at what’s out there now… my poor Core2 Q6600, it used to comparatively rock!

I’m erring towards the Intel although there does seem to be some suggestion that the i5 platform is a bit of a stopgap and as such might have limited longevity.

I’d be using the system for the usual home computing staples – using Office 2007, a bit of simple web design, email etc. (for which my humble 2Gb dual core is fine) but a would like a system that allows me a good gaming experience (for which my current system is woefully under-powered).

Im very happy with my new i5 unit. My brother convinced me to move up from i3 and I have to say Im liking x64 quad running W7.

if you are interested in gaming you should spend more attention to the graphics card

Can’t imagine either of those giving you a problem with CPU power, but as anjs says you may want to look at the graphics – both of those have just about the minimum you could get away with for gaming. The AMD one has a slightly bigger power supply which may give you more scope for upgrading the graphics later, all other things being equal.

Very little in it but personally I’d go with the i5 between those two. Wouldn’t buy a Mesh though, have you compared pricing with overclockers.co.uk ?

For most normal use I’d go for less cores, higher clock speed when comparing like with like. I’d go i5 myself from those two, but only due to a complete lack of knowledge about the AMD current offerings – used buy them in the main.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/prods/barebones/Novatech/BB-965884G.html

How about that… 300 quid left over to finish the job: graphics card, monitor, dvd, hard drive, keyboard and mouse.

If your applications benefit from multi core parallel processing, get an AMD. If your applications benefit more from higher clock speeds, get an Intel.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_value_available.html

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

AMD tends to be better value quite often.. Yeah Intel is often faster.. but is the extra £££ for their CPU really giving you a justifiable/siginificant increase.. probably not

I’ve just got an AMD 1090T, pretty impressive for the money. Best value hex core processor would have to be the AMD 1055T currently, nothing gets near it for the price.

However, DO NOT BUY FROM MESH.

They will delay your order, my order took 6 weeks! No communication what so ever, huge times of waiting on the phone (calls which you are paying for) and clueless and unhelpful service advisors.

I spent 2 weeks demanding a refund as they couldn’t deliver after 30 days and still couldn’t give me a delivery time. They ignored every email I sent them, then they finally sent the pc out.

When it was delivered I had no windows product key! It expires tomorrow so I have had to shell out nearly a ton to buy a new copy of windows.

Ziggy, couldn’t you rearm it whilst you wrangle with Mesh? (slmgr.vbs -rearm). You can usually do this 3 times till you have a key and have activated properly – buys you a few more days (around 120 in total iirc)

I’m erring towards the Intel although there does seem to be some suggestion that the i5 platform is a bit of a stopgap and as such might have limited longevity.

First rule of PC club. It’s out of date the day after you buy it.

Wouldn’t worry about it, I doubt either is going to be a slouch, and almost certainly any ‘upgrades’ will involve new motherboard etc. etc.

Fancy hanging on for USB 3.0?

I’ve bought from Mesh in the past (well it was a long while ago) and didn’t have any problems, have they gone downhill? What suppliers would people recommend, Dell?

I am aware of the gfx cards but I was planning to upgrade the psu to a 700watt (using Mesh’s customiser) and apparently the i5 system is pretty good for ATI Crossfire which would allow adding a second ATI card at a later date (in any event it’s got to be better than what I have now).

What price & system spec are you looking at from Mesh? I was recently looking around and couldn’t find anything that was close to Overclockers for price (and they ship fast to). They tend to use high-end bits in their systems as well rather than the cheapest available component of a certain type (which is where a lot of the big name cheap suppliers cut corners). My system was actually DoA from Overclockers but they repaired and re-sent it quickly (was 8 days from time of order to getting a working system, would have been 3 if it wasn’t DoA!). Mesh just have too dodgy a rep for me to ever use (although admittedly most of that was from many years ago, I’m sure they went conveniently bust a couple of times to avoid having to honour warranties) http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=43

Per core speed is more important than number of cores for games so go Intel.

I have an OCed 540 at 4.2GHz and it simply flies, if anything the GTX 460 is what holds everything back. Make sure to get 4GB of memory at least if the motherboard can do triple channel then 3x2GB is best, no point on a fast CPU being held back by disk swapping. Think of a small SSD for the OS as well coupled with a big traditional one for file storage, it will provide a nice boost in loading times.

Generally any CPU over 100£ nowadays is just too fast for most other components of the system making the rest of the specification more important.

The MESH systems actually look great value for money but there is a load of complaints on the ‘net. The system I was looking at was this one. I can’t find anything close for the money.

CCL Computers tend to be the company I buy from, but their cheapest i5 system is £729 with the OS extra!

How about

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/pc/range/irush.html
or
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/pc/range/irushpro.html
or if you want to spend a little bit more

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/pc/range/iconquer.html

No friends around that can help you build one? For 600£ you can buy parts and build quite an impressive system all by yourself.

I built my current system, but like bikes I’ve always tended to find pre-built OEM systems much cheaper than putting together your own retail parts.

That is actually a pretty good price but the graphics card is what they’re saving a lot of money on, a HD5450 won’t handle a modern FPS at a decent resolution (with a watchable framerate anyway) so depends what you want the system for really.

Well I’ve made my choice and the order’s placed. I’ve gone for an I5 system but have listened to the warnings about MESH (confirmed by reading online discussion) and gone back to CCL Computers who have always been good.

I spent a little extra and significantly downgraded the default CCL gfx card (to one that’s still above the spec. of the one in the MESH) to bring the price down; this can be upgraded or paired in a Crossfire setup as an when. The i5 is a 750 rather than a 760 (in the MESH) but overall I feel happier about it. I’ve spent the money for a 700W psu and Windows Pro. to avoid hassle further down the line.

i3 OCed to 4.2GHz,Coolermaster cpu cooler, MSI dual GPU ready mobo, 4GB RAM, 1TB HD, 40GB SSD, GTX460, Fractal design case, 650W PSU… 500£

Add 70£ for Windows 7 and you have a cracking system!

Admittedly I had to wait for the stars to align (bought from Aria, the CPU,mobo, cooler and mem were 179£ inc VAT Fractal case only 65 and the PSU less than 55£, HD and SSD combined 95£ both – all on superspecials at the same time)

Only downside it has no support for RAID thus the SSD for the OS for me.