Hardware 2.0

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Best of the Best - Part 2 - AMD CPUs

By Adrian Kingsley-Hughes | September 24, 2010, 6:00am PDT

Summary: In this, part two in my “best of the best” series, and in this post I’ll be looking at AMD CPUs, again in three price brackets - Budget, mainstream and high-end. To give you even more value I’ll also suggest a motherboard to match the CPU in each price bracket.

With great choice, comes great responsibility when it comes to picking the right part for the right job. One type of question that I field a lot is “What’s the best XYZ for $XXX?”

To try to lift some of the fog surrounding what the best bang for the buck when it comes to CPUs and GPUs I’ve put together a series of posts that I will update on a regular basis looking at just that.

In this, part two in my “best of the best” series, and in this post I’ll be looking at AMD CPUs, again in three price brackets - Budget, mainstream and high-end. To give you even more value I’ll also suggest a motherboard to match the CPU in each price bracket.

Previous posts in series: Intel CPUs

Note: If you are interested in purchasing any of these components do a search using the terms I’ve highlighted in bold either via a search engine or at your favorite supplier.

Also note that all prices are approximate.

Quick-jump: Budget | Mainstream | High-end

Next –>

Page 1 of 4

More from “Hardware 2.0”

Best of the Best - Part 1 - Intel CPUs

Leaked AMD Radeon HD 6770 and 6750 spec sheets

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AMD Athlon, Motherboard, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., CPU, Processors, Semiconductors, Hardware, Components, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology.

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Hmm.......all the clatter about not comparing Intel to AMD ....

dtroyerSMU 29th Sep 2010

...when this article is purely about AMD. If only people could read!
"In this, part two in my ?best of the best? series, and in this post I?ll be looking at AMD CPUs, again in three price brackets"
So funny to see so many that cant read happy

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excellent series about procs!

Linux Geek 24th Sep 2010

If I were you, I would try to tabulate the data you have and add extra information about performance and energy benchmarks.
Great work, keep it up!

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RE: Best of the Best - Part 2 - AMD CPUs

babyboomer57 24th Sep 2010

@Linux Geek

OK, who ARE you and what have you done with the real Linux Geek?

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RE: Best of the Best - Part 2 - AMD CPUs

crativearun 24th Sep 2010

it been done, wanna know about the performance and energy benchmarks
http://goo.gl/nz2B

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RE: Best of the Best - Part 2 - AMD CPUs

donnydo77@... 25th Sep 2010

@babyboomer57
No that was a jab I can appreciate!
Tactful and humorous, well done.

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This is silly in the extreme

Economister Updated - 24th Sep 2010

Intel and AMD are direct competitors and substitutes and you do not compare their performance in each price bracket?

What are you afraid of?

Pointless, absolutely pointless.

Edit: "With great choice, comes great responsibility when it comes to picking the right part for the right job. One type of question that I field a lot is ?What?s the best XYZ for $XXX??"

Well, you failed to even attempt to answer that question, so why did you bother writing?

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Not Pointless!

kyron.gustafson@... 24th Sep 2010

@Economister ... Adrian has provided some good information here on picking CPUs for a given price category. He has also provided information on some creditable motherboards to install the CPUs in.

For people who want to build their own systems this is not pointless.

If you really want to dig into comparisons and specifications I would suggest visting Tom's Hardware web site.

The simple answer is if you want the best XYZ for $XXX buy AMD. If you want the best XYZ no matter what the $XXX buy Intel.

Thanks Adrian. These are the types of articles you do best.

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Really?

Economister 24th Sep 2010

@kyron.gustafson@...

"Adrian has provided some good information here on picking CPUs for a given price category."

So which budget CPU is best in the $50-60 price range?
He did not tell you. He listed Intel and AMD CPU's, but did not compare, so you do NOT know.

For as long as I can remember, Adrian has ignored AMD CPUs. Now he includes them in a separate post with no comparison at all. If you are happy in your ignorance, fine, but I expect better.

It is my impression that AMD is better value at the low and and AMD cannot touch Intel at the high end. Whether that is the case or not, I would expect a blog like this to tell me. Unless you are an Intel or AMD fanboy, his blog is absolutely useless.

Ask yourself this question: Why did Adrian fail to include AMD for a LONG time, and when he finally does include AMD, he does it in a totally meaningless way?

In my mind, it speaks volumes about his impartiality/objectivity. On this particular topic. I have no reason to trust him at all.

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RE: Best of the Best - Part 2 - AMD CPUs

materva 25th Sep 2010

@kyron.gustafson@... I disagree with your statement: "best xyz no matter . . .buy Intel." Almost since the advent of AMD it's been obvious that with Intel you are paying through the nose for a "name", a "cool logo" and a "sweet jingle". The two company's products comparatively bench nearly identical with AMD as often as not taking first place prize money.

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RE: Best of the Best - Part 2 - AMD CPUs

JimboNobody 24th Sep 2010

@Economister I concur. what is the comparison between AMD and Intel at same price point.

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Thank you (nt)

Economister 24th Sep 2010

@JimboNobody

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Master Joe Says...Research

MasterJoe 24th Sep 2010

@Economister This is why you have the ability to do RESEARCH. Go see what actual owners of each CPU are saying about it. Personally, I'm an Intel guy. I admit that fully. I tried AMD once, had a really bad experience, and won't go back, unless I were to have an equally bad experience with Intel, which I've yet to have. So, I pay a higher price for what I believe to be a better CPU. People complain about Intel charging higher prices for a better CPU, but they'll pay $3000+ for a Mac running pretty mid-range hardware that could be built into a PC for less than $1000 in most cases. Explain that. Sounds like a bit of AMD bias, and nothing more. I believe this article gives a fair description of what it set out to do, and that is demonstrate the different brackets of AMD CPUs. The ONLY thing he doesn't mention (and I wish he had) was the clock speed for the high-end AMD CPU. Aside from that, it doesn't say Intel vs. AMD. They were two independent articles, published separately on purpose. Your trying to make a point, but I believe you are missing one.

--Master Joe

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I cannot argue with most of what you say

Economister 24th Sep 2010

@MasterJoe

If you prefer Intel, that is fine. If someone prefers AMD, that is fine too. If that is the case however, for most people, no real soul searching is required. CPUs are generally priced according to performance. You pay more, you get more (duh). If you have unusual CPU loads, the situation may get a bit more complicated, and as you say, you need to do a bit more research. I would not expect Adrian to go to that level of detail in this blog.

I did not miss the first part, but did not read it. Please just re-read the first paragraph of his blog and ask yourself whether Adrian answered his own question. He did not. To most computer users, Intel and AMD CPUs are direct substitutes and both will do the job. Therefore you cannot answer the question Adrian posed without a comparison of the alternatives, plain and simple. If you do not compare, you are doing your readers a disservice. I think the readers deserve better and I think Adrian can do better. The real question is why he does not.

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Comparisons are never so simple

klumper 25th Sep 2010

@Economister
Intel and AMD are direct competitors and substitutes and you do not compare their performance in each price bracket?

Especially once you consider factors as divergent as clock for clock performance, power consumption, overclocking potential, durability, brand label salability, etc, etc. Fact is, you can cherry pick benchmarks to paint practically any end-result or panacea, branded to your favorite stripe. Only, subjectively and deceptively so.

Now if it's that easy, why don't you do the numbers and factors' crunching and give us all a few cheap laughs. wink

It is my impression that AMD is better value at the low and and AMD cannot touch Intel at the high end.

Loosely knit (and historically) that's fine, but in the end even that synopsis isn't dead accurate. Intel's Core architecture changed everything. Just be happy AMD is crawling back in the game, as for a while there they were on resuscitation tubes. The same place Intel was headed until Core 2 - a la PIII + PM - took them from an unexpected Netburst meltdown grave to the wild blue yonder.

They say it pays to be lucky.

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I need different comparison

p.vinnie@... 24th Sep 2010

I can see laptops available in the market with Intel and AMD CPUs. I want to know comparison of CPUs (side by side) so that I can make informed decision. I am familiar with Intel offering for example i3, i5, i7 etc, but do not understand same for AMD. Can someone point me to resource where this information available?

I know there are hundreds of CPUs in the market, but at-least some popular ones would help.

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hard to go side-to-side

shryko 24th Sep 2010

@p.vinnie@...
You're going to be hard pressed to find a complete, exact side-by-side comparison, especially including price (as it varies depending on where you buy it, and it fluctuates so much)

Generally, Intel Pentium/Core i3 are aimed at lower end, with Core i5 being the moderately powerful.
AMD currently aims their Athlon II brand at the low-to-mid range, and their Phenom brand at the high end.

When you see a brand name with x2 after it, it means dual core. x3 = triple core, and so on.

Really, if you would consider a Pentium/i3, look for Athlon II x2 or x3. If you'd want an i5, look for an Athlon with x4, or a Phenom. If you'd want an i7... go Phenom x3 or x4.

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RE: Best of the Best - Part 2 - AMD CPUs

Jimster480 24th Sep 2010

@shryko Remember that intel has hyper threading. So X6 = i7. Their performance is comparable (sometimes even better) clock for clock against a i7 Quad.

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More about AMD's nomenclature

goyta Updated - 29th Sep 2010

@p.vinnie@... shryko did a great job explaining the basics of AMD branding. I'd just like to point out two things.

First, the number after the processor is a (VERY) rough indication of its power. So, you can expect a 965 BE to perform slightly better than a 955 BE and much better than a 550. The suffix "BE" means "Black Edition" and this in turn means that particular processor has the multipliers unlocked and is more easily overclocked (sort of the "K" in some Intel models).

Second, AMD prices are so slashed down these days (even more so after the X6s came in) that the lower Phenom IIs can be considered mid-range. And even the higher range has been redefined. For example, the Phenom II X4 965 BE, until recently AMD's fastest processor, is a great quad-core processor, but the price difference to the mighty Phenom II X6 1055T (which I find an even better deal than the 1090T, unless you are an overclocker, because it's significantly cheaper while having nearly the same end speed) is now so small that it's hardly worth buying the 965 any more.

But I was only trying to be didactic, because of course you won't see a power-hungry 125-watt X6 (read ~180-190 W peak) in a laptop, which is what you asked. Since laptops are relatively closed configurations, you'll have to look at the price, the other specs, and try to see as many tests as you can. But the rule of thumb that AMD gives a better price/performance ratio while Intel gives better absolute performance usually also applies here.

A good place to have a ROUGH idea of how processors compare is PassMark's CPU benchmarking site at http://www.cpubenchmark.net/ . (It's rough because it's biased, as it obviously only shows scores with their own test product, but it's still valuable as a quick reference and to have a general idea, and more complete than any other I know.) Good luck!

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RE: Best of the Best - Part 2 - AMD CPUs

puppadave 24th Sep 2010

Adrian; Time for me to vent... Been around a long time (now 75yrs) and a long time member of this "service".. Used to be a "fun" place to log on, give and take good computer tech info.. Now however, guys like Economister are taking the "fun" out of logging on... I don't care who it is that writes and article.... Negative, negative, negative.... Why don't they try to input some helpful information instead of knocking another persons work... Oh, by the way, I also read, carefully, the complete article (blog) before I comment...Sorry, but I see his sign and others like him always negative... grow up

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Well,

Economister 24th Sep 2010

@puppadave

if you call it "fun" to be fed meaningless blogs, there are all kinds of places on the web you can find that. I still have a few neurons firing and have a slightly higher standard perhaps.

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meaningless blogs...

sjohnson@... 24th Sep 2010

@Economister

If you feel that this is a "meaningless blogs..." Why do you waste your time reading and bothering to comment when there is so much information available to you? My time is too valuable to spend reading meaningless information.

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I will tell you why

Economister Updated - 25th Sep 2010

@sjohnson@...

Apathy is the greatest danger to society. It allows those with less honor, integrity and honesty to get away with things they should not get away with. It undermines the very fabric of society.

We have too many corrupt and selfish politicians and business leaders. That is why I respect whistle blowers, investigative journalists and just plain folks who care about the facts and the truth.

If you look at the history of Adrian's HW columns, they have shown a very strong Intel bias by not including AMD at all. Many people asked him to include AMD for a long time and he finally did it, but in a way that does not allow comparison. When his opening paragraph talks about the best bang for the buck, any self respecting blogger/journalist would write about precisely that, which means comparing Intel and AMD in each price bracket. I can see no logical explanation as to why he does not, except that he favors Intel.

Intel has a long history of dirty and illegal conduct. If you do not think they try to influence HW sites and bloggers, I have a bridge I can sell you. Based on Adrian's HW review history, there is certainly circumstantial evidence that he is partial to Intel for whatever reason. He has also consistently failed to explain why he is, as far as I have been able to determine. His conduct raises all kinds of red flags with me. It is very possible he receives favors from Intel in order to promote their HW. I am sure that goes on all the time in the HW business. Intel just paid AMD a lot of money to settle their complaint and if I am not mistaken Intel is still being investigated.

You may think writing is a waste of time, but I think it is my civic duty. Do you feel it is a waste of time to hold corrupt politicians, business leaders and others accountable? If you do, you are doing your country and your children a great disservice.

Like I said, apathy is the greatest danger to a democracy. but I get the impression that is what you advocate. I think Adrian owes his readers an explanation, but I am not too optimistic that one will be forthcoming. I am sure he is fully aware of this discussion but has so far chosen to stay quiet. That makes me even more concerned.

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RE: Best of the Best - Part 2 - AMD CPUs

Tfixer Updated - 24th Sep 2010

@puppadave
I concur. I miss the old "Byte Magazine" days when comments were thoughtful and often added information. If I didn't get something out of the posts by Adrian and the others, I wouldn't choose to read them or wouldn't subscribe to the feeds. However, I rarely read comments anymore because I don't want to wade through the "You're stupid! No, YOU're stupid!" crap of the 10-year olds with self esteem issues.

Maybe ZDNet could add a filter to the comment sections to allow the reader to blank comments from certain posters?

Tom Hargreaves

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I agree wholeheartedly with your sentiment....

Economister Updated - 24th Sep 2010

@Tfixer

for a lot of the talkbacks here.

However, when something is so obviously deficient and maybe deliberately obfuscative, I feel I have an obligation to point that out.

Things are not always what they seem. Intel has a history of dirty tricks. If they can bribe retailers to try to keep AMD out, paying off bloggers to favor Intel is small fry.

I do not know what the facts are, but Adrian's history of HW reviews shows a strong Intel bias by not including AMD at all. He has finally relented and included AMD but in a way that does not provide a comparison to Intel CPU's at all. Inquisitive minds want to know why.

You may feel fine to keep that happy mushroom feeling. HW companies (and politicians) like that a lot. They like to lead people down the garden path and not ask too many questions; a sort of blissful ignorance.

I am concerned, given how you chose to post, that is the way you prefer it.

Edit: Just one more example of Intel's (and others') conduct.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/feds-tech-companies-reach-agreement-to-halt-anticompetitive-hiring-practices/39658?tag=mantle_skin;content

Read it CAREFULLY

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Bytemeister blues

klumper 25th Sep 2010

@Tfixer
I miss the old "Byte Magazine" days when comments were thoughtful and often added information.

This was before our binary, garage born heroes had morphed into the megalomaniacal moguls of industry - and mistresses to international finance - they've become. You know, the days when the sky was still the limit, the microcomputer was the coming king, and mass cynicism - from things like offshoring schemes and record setting unemployment - had yet to set in.

The world has largely gone to hell since then. Byte threw in the towel too (some say it was the arrival of Windows 98 that caused the Bytemeisters to blow their secret source code circuits and trash their compiler decoder rings). wink

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RE: Best of the Best - Part 2 - AMD CPUs

jrbales@... 24th Sep 2010

@puppadave. I concur with your observation. Instead of snide, negative comments, please provide useful info such as personal experience or links to articles/reviews that enhance the article. A blog is not usually a place I expect a full review anyway. If I want that I go to Anandtech or Tom's Hardware.

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The world is a lot nicer

Economister 25th Sep 2010

@jrbales@...

when on Valium

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The fine art of trolling

klumper Updated - 25th Sep 2010

@puppadave
Been around a long time (now 75yrs) and a long time member of this "service".. Used to be a "fun" place to log on, give and take good computer tech info.. Now however, guys like Economister are taking the "fun" out of logging on...

The art of give and take includes being prepared for divergent points of view. We all learn from this very thing, yes, even @ 75 years young. As long as one isn't blatantly trolling (good trolling is an art) or flaming mindlessly (tasteful baiting and flaming is an art), talkback comments should be fair game.

Now whether you agree with him or not, Economister has never fit that kind of description. Hell, others here might toss me into that category. [ Whaa?? shocked

]
And we KNOW that isn't true. wink

Besides, what is the ultimate purpose of laughter, if we can't start with our silly selves? silly

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About time...

Snooki_smoosh_smoosh 24th Sep 2010

It is great that you are finally doing a best kits for AMD and Intel as opposed to just Intel.

When I do my personal builds, I always choose AMD. Great processors for a great price, and AMD stands behind their work for a full three years, and I have never had an AMD processor die on me yet, even years after the warranty was up.

My AMD systems have always been stable, and never have any issues with them.

That isn't to say that Intel processors aren't good, because they are, but spendy. $1k for the highend i7! Ouch. I get better bang for my buck by purchasing the AMD high end processor.

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RE: Best of the Best - Part 2 - AMD CPUs

babyboomer57 24th Sep 2010

@JM1981 THANK YOU!

I have been saying the same thing for years. I used to build systems, and most people would choose AMD over Intel because of bang for the buck. Not only that, but I never had a single AMD processor fail other than power surges that wiped out the entire system, not just the CPU. I can't say that for Intel, I had more than one processor come in DOA, especially back in the Pentium 2 and 3 days.

It all comes down to personal preference, both make excellent devices, but I will always choose more speed for the same money - i.e. AMD.

Thanks, Adrian, for getting back to the hardware side of blogging. You are good at that.

By the way, anyone else remember the old Cyrix CPU's? Holy crap what a POS. Those things made a Celeron look like a supercomputer processor.

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RE: Best of the Best - Part 2 - AMD CPUs

Jimster480 24th Sep 2010

@babyboomer57 O dear Cyrix CPU's.

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"more speed for the same money"

Economister 24th Sep 2010

@babyboomer57

Yup. That is what a "Best of the Best" CPU blog should tell you. Unfortunately, this one does not.

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Oh irony of ironies

klumper 25th Sep 2010

@babyboomer57
By the way, anyone else remember the old Cyrix CPU's? Holy crap what a POS. Those things made a Celeron look like a supercomputer processor.

Ironically, Cyrix units used to be turned to in basically the same way AMD's have been since then -- as the economy minded and cheap man's alternative. It was Cyrix pups more than anything else that forced Intel to crank out Cely's to compete on the low end of the market (well, along with K6's).

If you're an AMD fanboy, be careful slinging stones at phantom mirrors. Just sayin'.

[And to answer your question, yes I have a number of Cyrix chips lying around, to include a few encased in EOL units in the garage, mostly in baby AT's.]

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RE: Best of the Best - Part 2 - AMD CPUs

m3kw9 24th Sep 2010

A good over all summery for people that don't want to analyse all the numbers. Tabulating detailed defeats this purpose. Searching google, you get around 10 sites with every detail you want.

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RE: Best of the Best - Part 2 - AMD CPUs

Jimster480 24th Sep 2010

There are far better choices than this. An $80 board with a 880 or a 785, paired with a X4 620 is the best bang for the buck. With a total cost of around $160, it offers performance that stomps all the Intel CPU's upto the i5 quads, with HDMI, DVI, VGA outputs, e-SATA.

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Yes but.......

Economister 24th Sep 2010

@Jimster480

IF you are in Intel's pocket, you cannot say that. How about it Adrian?

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The best label of all

klumper 25th Sep 2010

@Economister
Yes but....... IF you are in Intel's pocket, you cannot say that.

There's lots of reasons for choosing Intel over AMD. Just as there's lots of reasons for choosing AMD over Intel.

C'est la vie ... and some things never change. At least we all agree on one thing, choice is the best label of all.

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RE: Best of the Best - Part 2 - AMD CPUs

F.Gaudet@... 24th Sep 2010

I think the overall CPU recommendations are good and serve as a good reference point for the less-technically inclined.

Uber-geeks (like I) and gamers already get their detailed info & comparisons elsewhere, and in the end whether a CPU edges out another by 5% or 10% is completely irrelevant to the average user.

What is missing is an equivalent recommendation for video, both discrete and on-board/on-cpu; the choice of video cards has much more impact on video and games than the CPU...

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RE: Best of the Best - Part 2 - AMD CPUs

philipqv2 24th Sep 2010

I'd suggest the AMD Phenom II X4 495 (3.0 Gz) for about $100 as the best in the mid-price range. I've been using both Intel and AMD CPU's for all these years, and had failures in both brands. Overall, my experience is more bang for the buck with AMD processors. Just did an upgrade with the above CPU and MSI 870A-G54 mobo and 4 Gb of DDR3 for about $325 and it's a sweet machine.

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RE: Best of the Best - Part 2 - AMD CPUs

hantoyo1@... 24th Sep 2010

Nothing but pure advertising mainly. I saw nothing after reading the ' entire ' article that indicates anything but advertising. Oh by the way, I highly recommend staying away from Biostar motherboards. Been some years now, about 6 to be exact, but they had become a very low end product meaning a lot of troubleshooting investigating issues that shouldn't be occurring. This pretty much tells me that Adrian only knows advertising. One other thing, I'm 58 and been working on all kinds of computers since the 70s and PCs since the 1980. And yes I am an AMD fan and I hate to admit that I have to use Intel in this Sony laptop. I'll never buy one again. Why? False advertising!!!!
Not all Intel cpus of recent vintage have HT because the OEMs desire instead to disable some of the more attractive features and those same OEMs make it near impossible to enable those features. So what a person has to realize is that he/she may be spending damn good money for a so-called fancy product, only to find out later that that same product has been disabled to the point that an AMD cpu would fly like the speed of light against a snail's pace in comparison.
What I have just given is probably a better article then was the above.

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Biostars are up and down

klumper 25th Sep 2010

@hantoyo1@...
Oh by the way, I highly recommend staying away from Biostar motherboards. Been some years now, about 6 to be exact, but they had become a very low end product meaning a lot of troubleshooting investigating issues that shouldn't be occurring.

I have mentioned this very thing before in this column, that Biostars remain iffy. If you handle enough of them, this you come to know, now as in the past.

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someone needs to do REAL WORLD benchmarks

bigjohn1980 24th Sep 2010

Running one application at a time and getting a score is BS.
When I boot my computer a half dozen things are loading. I want a real world benchmark, with 2 computers configured with the exact same applications at startup, and then running MULTIPLE APPS at the same time. This is the ONLY way to show one architecture better than another.

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RE: Best of the Best - Part 2 - AMD CPUs

jrbales@... 24th Sep 2010

Adrian, it just goes to show you can't make everyone happy! I did fine both parts useful. Even had there been a detailed comparison, I'd still do further research before throwing down my money. Instead of complaining about the article, give personal experience or links to articles/reviews. Much more interesting than just complaining.

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RE: Best of the Best - Part 2 - AMD CPUs

docesam 25th Sep 2010

thank you for your effort but what is really useful is to make part 1 and part 2 in one part with 2 tables : one table for performance points/price ,the other table with performance alone.period.

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RE: Best of the Best - Part 2 - AMD CPUs

Hallowed are the Ori 25th Sep 2010

My question is why is the high end AMD choice $600 cheaper than his high end Intel choice?

Does the 6 core AMD outperform the much more expensive quad core Intel?

.

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Sheesh,....................

Economister 25th Sep 2010

@Hallowed are the Ori

you are expecting an impartial and balanced blog, giving the readers some USEFUL information, comparing CPUs in the same price brackets.

Maybe the answer is that Adrian is motivated to help Intel collect that $600. If so, what motivates him? Care to comment Adrian?

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RE: Best of the Best - Part 2 - AMD CPUs

ITOdeed 25th Sep 2010

The biggest difference between Intel and AMD processors is how they are marketed. AMD makes great stuff, but does not know how to market it like Intel does. And as fast as computers become obsolete now, it's best to opt for the less expensive alternative, AMD, equipment, who obviously has no advertising budget. Though not deserved, AMD has the reputation of being wimpy, wimpy, wimpy, while Intel is HEFTY, HEFTY, HEFTY, all because of advertising. AMD, please rename your processors, to something other than wimpy names. I'm tired of apologizing for buying one. happy

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Beyond more agressive marketing

klumper 25th Sep 2010

@Micromush
The biggest difference between Intel and AMD processors is how they are marketed. AMD makes great stuff, but does not know how to market it like Intel does.

Intel also has the established name. Period and basic end of story.

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RE: Best of the Best - Part 2 - AMD CPUs

Deadstick50 26th Sep 2010

WOW, between Adrian's Intel bias and economister's axe grinding I'm begining to wonder why I signed up for this blog/advertising site....I used to have a good bit of respect for ZDnet......back in the day!

@ all whinners & axegrinders, try Toms Hardware for indepth data...if you want no bias however, WRITE YOUR OWN!
Im off to Toms! you children go ahead and fight all you want!

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Anandtech is better

Economister 26th Sep 2010

@Deadstick50

I do not recall you making much of a contribution around here.

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RE: Best of the Best - Part 2 - AMD CPUs

opcom 27th Sep 2010

I likes this. Because I only replace a computer when it dies or maybe after 7 years, it's good to have some suggestions of appropriate motherboards to go with the processor today.