The Better Processor

[Silverback]

I am in the throws of replacing three computers. I suppose after 12 years, I have wrung the current ones dry.

Anyway, is there a better processor between a

Intel® Core™ i3-2120 (3.30 GHz, 3 MB cache, 2 cores) or a

AMD Quad-Core A6-3650 APU with Radeon HD 6530D Graphics (2.6 GHz, 4 MB L2 cache)

The computers are all business driven, do not play games or movies but I need them to operate at peak efficiency.

Your opinions would be most helpful

Cheers all
D

[rah]

If all you are doing is browsing the web and creating office documents then you won't notice a difference with either. No harm in going for whichever is cheaper. You'd get more bang for your buck on other parts of the computer like an SSD or more ram.

Do you do a lot of multitasking, or somewhere down the road plan on doing more intensive tasks? If so that changes things.

[Silverback]

Yes Rah, at any given time there are a minimum of 10 programmes running at a time that are fairly substantial in memory usage

[rah]

Then between the two you provided I'd go with the AMD one since it's a quad core. If you don't mind bumping up to the next intel one though, a i5 quad core would be where you would want to go though.

[Silverback]

Great...then that is what I will do. Many thanks for the direction Rah

[edhan]

i3 CPU should be okay. I am more likely to go for more RAM like at least 8 GB or 16GB with Windows 7 64-bit as 32-bit will not utilize more RAM.

[rah]

If he is going to be doing a lot of multitasking the dual core i3 will not hold up against the quad cores. The price difference isn't that much more, so why not just jump up to the quads?

[Silverback]

The deal is done gentleman. I ended up going with an 1-5 quad core with 8 gigs of Ram, a 1T HD and Windows 7 Pro. It came in this morning and I am in the process of setting it up. I will be installing the XP mode and Virtual PC on the system as well to accommodate any older software.
I appreciate everyone's input. It was invaluable in coming to the right decision after being on a 10-year old piece of equipment operating Win XP.

Thanks for the guidance.
Denis