| Intel E6420 vs. AMD 5600+ |
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Conclusion:
So now that we have benchmarked these processors and have gotten to an idea of which one is better, lets talk about the price of these two. According to newegg the AMD 5600+ is priced at $150 and the Intel E6420 is priced at $186. At a difference of $36 for only the processors for the average consumer the AMD is definitely the best bang for your buck. The Asus M2A-VM is priced at $64.99 retail box through Newegg and the P5B-VM is priced at nearly double at $112.99 through Newegg. It truely seem that the Better by Design program does lead to a much better overall price for the performance the consumer receives.
Looking at strictly a motherboard and processor selection we have an Intel combo with a pricetag of $298.99 and an AMD combo with a pricetag of $214.99 with a difference of $84 in AMD's favor. For an OEM solution that you might purchase through a supplier or PC retailer this $84 could lead to a much lower pricetag on the other end.
These two processors are very powerful and trying to pick between them is a very hard choice for any consumer. If we look at the facts we have seen on the benchmarks the AMD 5600+ has achieves a better overall score consistently than does the Intel. While the Intel E6420 did do better when overclocked most consumers of OEM or prebuilt machines as well as many DIY builders are not interested in overclocking as most of these modern machines are plenty powerful in stock condition. For the average consumer, we would have to say that the AMD 5600+ is a better choice- the speeds are phenomenal and there is no reason that a person should need anything more. For those that are into intense gaming or have a high graphical demands, simply changing the motherboard or adding a dedicated video card to this processor would supply a great boost in video processing power to either of these combos. If you were interested in using the Intel and overclocking it, then you would need to keep in mind that you will likely be limited by the motherboard in each of these cases and not the processor and that additional factors such as cooling would need attention. Neither of the motherboard/processor combo's in this article are intended for the overclocking crowd.
The average consumer also uses onboard graphics, according to U.S. retail sales reports published March of this year. A shocking 94% of customers use the integrated on-board graphics for their main video output device. Considering the price of the new DX10 video cards on the market we would be using onboard graphics as well for anything other than gaming.
In light of all of the data published in this review, we have to come to the conclusion that the AMD Athlon 64 x2 5600+ is the better choice for most consumers.
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