Which one to keep?

[floppybootstomp]

My second computer located in my bedroom is used mainly for multimedia, video and audio various functions.

I have two machines as contenders for this use and I want to sell one and keep the other and I'm wondering which one to keep.

It basically comes down to a choice between which motherboard and CPU to keep as both have DDR3 RAM so obviously interchangeable and it's possible each CPU cooler would fit both setups.

The first choice - the one I'm using now - is about seven years old and the CPU is a 2nd Generation Intel i7 whilst the 2nd choice is about 14 months old and uses an AMD FX3+ CPU. Both motherboards are now discontinued but the AMD CPU is still available to purchase.

The Intel setup is still performing respectably and is pretty fast but is now looking a little long in the tooth whereas the AMD setup is much newer and is newer technology, for instance it has an M.2 slot and the Intel board does not.

I really can't make up my mind about this so if you have any views or opinions or advice - please share. Here's the choice:

One:

Asus P8 Z68-V Pro Motherboard (Socket LGA1155) Rev 1.xx

16Gb (2 x 8Gb) DDR3 Kingston HyperX Blue Memory 802Mhz (1600)

Intel i7 2600K 3.4Ghz Sandy Bridge 4 Core CPU

Noctua NH-U12P SE2 CPU Cooler

Or:

Gigabyte 970 Gaming motherboard

AMD FX-8350 8 Core 4Ghz CPU Socket AM3+

16Gb DDR3 Memory (4 x 4Gb) Running at 1333Mhz 2 x Kingston Hyper; 2 x Corsair

Coolermaster Hyper 212X Cooler

 

[Ian]

It looks like that i7 is still quite a bit quicker than your AM3+ (and only 1 year older in terms of CPU release date). Does the Intel system feel faster?

The M.2. slot is a nice feature of the AMD board, but I'm not sure if it would be worth it over a standard SATA SSD if you've already got one. May as well save the £ and put it towards the next system.

I'd probably decide by benchmarking it and picking the fastest one, unless you think you could upgrade the AMD CPU in future and keep the rest of the hardware.

 

[Abraham Andres Luna]

You said you want to use this PC as a media server? So benchmark your hard drive reads and see which one is faster

 

[floppybootstomp]

Thanks for replies folks

Both setups have the OS running on an SSD with mechanical HDDs for storage. I'm not using this machine as a media server but as a sometime video and audio editor and recorder. As well as the usual stuff including some games but no games that would test the 1050 graphics card.

In terms of speed it's a close call but the Intel does seem to have the edge on the AMD.

In fact, over the last ten years in my experience Intel have had the edge over AMD in all systems I've built and any AMD systems I used over a length of time all had quirks and anomalies whereas the Intel machines did not.

I almost came down to keeping the AMD and selling the Intel simply because it was a newer build but the performance of one over the other should be the deciding factor.

Ok then, can anybody recommend a benchmark? I haven't used one in years.

 

[Abraham Andres Luna]

Ok then, can anybody recommend a benchmark? I haven't used one in years.

https://unigine.com/products/heaven/
https://unigine.com/products/valley/
http://www.futuremark.com/benchmarks/3dmark11
https://www.maxon.net/en/products/cinebench/

 

[Ian]

There's PassMark too:

https://www.passmark.com/products/pt.htm

It's only a 30 day demo though, IIRC. For video editing, it'll need strong performance over pretty much every sector - but it'll be disk heavy.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Thanks for replies folks.

I don't think any benchmark software that is used primarily for graphics benchmarks would be any use to me as the Intel machine has an Nvidia GTX1050 and the AMD machine has an Nvidia GT1030.

I recall using a benchmark software app named ATTO when I was testing RAID setups in machines and it seems it's still available but you have to let them have your email address and phone number.

However, I have made a decision, I'm keeping the Intel computer as although it's seven years old it still performs like a champ and handles video editing effortlessly. The AMD computer could probably cope but it's untested in that field.

And keeping the AMD machine would involve almost a complete strip down of each computer to swap components about and that's a fair bit of work to carry out which would also involve reinstalling an OS or two.

I'll offer the AMD machine for sale here first for £225 ono plus postage and I have the original case box with polystyrene inserts so could post safely. There's a relatively small customer base here though so it'll probably go on to Gumtree and then Ebay.

Thanks again for all your helpful replies

 

[Ian]

That's the choice I think I'd have gone for too .