Why is this HP AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core cheaper than this Core2 Duo HP?

[Denvers Dawgs]

Curious on why the newer Intel Core 2 Duo processor E6400 HP PC, which is supposed to surpass the AMD in all or most of the tests is $100 cheaper than the HPw/AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor 4600+?

Hewlett-Packard - Pavilion 4600+ Media Center Desktop a1630n is $934.99
Hewlett-Packard - Pavilion E6300 Media Center Desktop is $834.99

Wouldn't the newer more powerful processor be more expensive?

The only differnece I can see is the AMD has a NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE video card.

[deadrats]

Curious on why the newer Intel Core 2 Duo processor E6400 HP PC, which is supposed to surpass the AMD in all or most of the tests is $100 cheaper than the HPw/AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor 4600+?

Hewlett-Packard - Pavilion 4600+ Media Center Desktop a1630n is $934.99
Hewlett-Packard - Pavilion E6300 Media Center Desktop is $834.99

Wouldn't the newer more powerful processor be more expensive?

The only differnece I can see is the AMD has a NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE video card.

simple, even the the core 2 duo architecture is slightly superior to the amd64 architecture, a E6300 is still a slower chip than a X2 4600+ not to mention a cheaper one.

[redwudz]

It requires a little study at times to see what the better value is. Both processor companies make several different versions of their newer processors. In the case of those HP computers, there may also be other factors, such as price breaks for volume sales, different motherboard chipsets or companies 'dumping' CPUs for a low price just to make their market share seem higher.

Of course AMD or Intel wouldn't do that.

You could go to some of the CPU review sites and see if they have some better comparisons. A start would be a Google search for 'AMD VS INTEL CPUs' and see what you can find.

The good news about all this competition is lower CPU prices and more computing power for your dollar.

[Denvers Dawgs]

So the 4600 is actually more powerful than the Core 2 duo? My gf wants to get me a new pc for xmas, and I have decided either on the AMD 4600 or the E6300. So of those 2 which would you guys buy? I will be using the pc for photoshop and movie stuff

[deadrats]

So the 4600 is actually more powerful than the Core 2 duo? My gf wants to get me a new pc for xmas, and I have decided either on the AMD 4600 or the E6300. So of those 2 which would you guys buy? I will be using the pc for photoshop and movie stuff

the X2 4600+ is faster than the E6300, not the entire Core 2 Duo line up. the E6600 is faster than the X2 4600+ and the E6400 is probably tied.

in the end, you can't go wrong with any of them, i really doubt you would notice the difference in speed.

[jagabo]

I think it's a pretty close call. Overall the AMD 4600 has a small performance advantage but it will depend on the applications you use. You probably won't notice the difference in Photoshop unless you're doing a lot of batch processing and use a stopwatch. Video encoding will vary depending on the programs and codecs used. The graphics in the AMD system is probably a little better. That only matters in games and maybe Windows Vista if you upgrade to that in the future. I didn't look that closely at the two systems -- the presence of a PCIe slot for future graphics update may be a tie breaker.

[drwho]

I have been a user of AMD and now it is time to upgrade however I am going for Intel E6600 and ASUS P5N32-SLI Deluxe or Intel Q965 series mobos
AMD has lost the plot recently and will take them sometime to come up to compete against the new Core 2 Duo chips