Trough all these years I’ve had a lot of workstations. All of them faithfully served me armed with Intel processors. I was pretty happy with the performance I was getting but I was not really happy with some other things I’ll mention in this article. It’s August 2017 and despite the fact it’s crazy cold outside, my room is warm without me using an additional air-conditioner or anything else. My workstation case is wide open for monitoring so I have quick access to anything inside, for an upgrade or just quick maintenance.
My experience with Intel and AMD so far
My first machine was running one of the older AMD Athlons. To be honest I can’t even remember the exact model but it was doing well with Windows XP. Then I improved my configuration and started running Intel. My experience with Intel for the first time was on a Dell Precision™ 690 Workstation with two Intel Xeon CPUs X5355 @ 2.66GHz(8 Threads), ~2.7 GHz and on an HP Z-600 Workstation with 2x Intel Xeon CPUs X5675 (95W TDP, 6 core @ 3.06 GHz). Now I remembered my first experience with an Intel processor was on my HP laptop with an early Intel Core 2 duo processor (2006/2007) which is still performing surprisingly well taking into account its age.
I bought AMD Ryzen 7 1700X Processor 3 GHz, 65W TDP (64-bit Octa-core blazing-fast beast)
I’ve been following AMD for a certain period of time and especially their Ryzen 7 series processors caught my eye. I was watching videos online, comparing charts, reading forums until one day I decided that’s going to be my next CPU. One of my mates – Martin Tsvetanov who is being a very reasonable, technically literate person fed with fresh information about the latest technologies, also had a great impact on keeping my eyes wide open for their product. So I couldn’t wait to try the new Ryzen 1700 when it first launched. Got a few bucks spared and I just waited for a great offer to come. Got mine the X version from Webuy.co.uk on a reasonable price – 257 quid with the delivery.
Yes, that’s right the Ryzen 7 series made me switch and I never looked back. I am not a slave to brands, but one who is interested in what’s the heart and the essence of something. In this case, it’s hardware capabilities and quality. From the moment I ran my new machine, I left Intel back in the past and I can’t be happier with my decision.
(2019 Update on the topic)
Strengths and weaknesses of both AMD and Intel
AMD PROS:
- More cores
- More threads
- Faster higher clocks
- Most CPUs have included cooler in the price
- Lower power consumption
- Lower TDP (very cool)
- Integrated video
- Higher IPC (after Ryzen 3000)
- Cheaper. SO MUCH VALUE!
AMD CONS:
- At the moment I can’t think of any but I am open for your suggestions in the comment section below
Intel PROS:
- At the moment I can’t think of any but I am open for your suggestions in the comment section below
Intel CONS:
- A lot of security issues
- Locked (paid upgrades)
- Higher TDP
- Running extremely HOT!