AMD e4850e or Intel E5200?

Jonnster · Post by **Jonnster** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 2:05 am

I am considering these two processors but can't decide if to go with AMD or Intel. Could anyone tell me which of these is faster and which runs cooler?

Trav1s · Post by **Trav1s** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 5:25 am

Pros and cons to both. What do you plan on using it for? Budget?

The AMD will be cheaper and the idle usage is lower.

Both can underclock well...

QuietOC · Post by **QuietOC** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 6:17 am

Just looking at the CPUs, the E5200 runs much cooler: ~20W max load power and idle power <5W. Unfortunately LGA775 chipsets use a lot of power.

I currently have a X2 5800+/740G and a E5200/G31. The X2 system can easily idle at much lower power than the E5200/G31 even when the X2 is overclocked. However, the E5200 can overclock to 4+GHz (i.e., very FAST). While it can be undervolted, it doesn't really help overall power use, but it does limit overclocking a lot.

Even at stock clock speeds 2.5GHz E5200 is generally faster than even the 3GHz X2 5800+. The big exception is memory performance, a stock clocked E5200 has half the usable memory bandwidth of an AMD CPU. However memory bandwidth generally isn't very important. The bigger, faster L2 cache on the E5200 compensates.

Trav1s · Post by **Trav1s** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 6:49 am

QuietOC wrote:Just looking at the CPUs, the E5200 runs much cooler: ~20W max load power and idle power <5W. Unfortunately LGA775 chipsets use a lot of power.

I currently have a X2 5800+/740G and a E5200/G31. The X2 system can easily idle at much lower power than the E5200/G31 even when the X2 is overclocked. However, the E5200 can overclock to 4+GHz (i.e., very FAST). While it can be undervolted, it doesn't really help overall power use, but it does limit overclocking a lot.

Even at stock clock speeds 2.5GHz E5200 is generally faster than even the 3GHz X2 5800+. The big exception is memory performance, a stock clocked E5200 has half the usable memory bandwidth of an AMD CPU. However memory bandwidth generally isn't very important. The bigger, faster L2 cache on the E5200 compensates.

Now that is good to know! I am working on a e5200/G31 system for my office and the parts will arrive today.

n00dle · Post by **n00dle** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 9:50 pm

QuietOC wrote:I currently have a X2 5800+/740G and a E5200/G31. The X2 system can easily idle at much lower power than the E5200/G31 even when the X2 is overclocked. However, the E5200 can overclock to 4+GHz (i.e., very FAST). While it can be undervolted, it doesn't really help overall power use, but it does limit overclocking a lot.

Hi there, do you have any draw figures you would care to share regarding idles for these 2 systems? Thanks!

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:09 pm

well, the amd boards have a massive amount of features for dirt cheap over intel.

dvi out with real graphics chip, firewire, all sub 119 dollars too. This is more of a reason in my mind to choose amd if you arent gaming.

n00dle · Post by **n00dle** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 12:43 am

In my case, it's to upgrade a server so all I need is low power 775 board, no fancy things needed

dimach · Post by **dimach** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 1:30 am

Interesting to know draw numbers for AMD system.

I'm building E5200 based systems and it is very impressive. My setup

1) Foxconn green motherboard G31MG-S
2) E5200
3) noname 1G DDR2
3) PicoPSU-120
4) 8GB CF connected using ide adapter
5) Scythe mini ninja

This is temporary connected to 12V line of my main server via multimeter.
After it boots debian linux and cpu scaling kicks in, so cpu runs at 1.2Ghz, it idles at just 1.7A or 20.4w! If powered by 12v brick with 90% efficiency, it should be 23w system.

Note the current draw is about 2.7A or 32w during system boot and BIOS menu ... so if you want good numbers, boot your system!

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 7:58 am

what do you do with 8 gig hd?

QuietOC · Post by **QuietOC** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 9:07 am

n00dle wrote:Hi there, do you have any draw figures you would care to share regarding idles for these 2 systems? Thanks!

Yeah, I've posted those several times on this site. Search on my username...

line · Post by **line** » Tue May 05, 2009 7:58 pm

dimach wrote:This is temporary connected to 12V line of my main server via multimeter.
After it boots debian linux and cpu scaling kicks in, so cpu runs at 1.2Ghz, it idles at just 1.7A or 20.4w! If powered by 12v brick with 90% efficiency, it should be 23w system.

Thanks for reporting this. Have you had a chance to check the capacitor brands on this board? I'm curious if Foxconn uses Japanese brands throughout on its lower end boards or if it goes with cheaper brands to keep costs down.

dimach · Post by **dimach** » Sat May 09, 2009 1:23 pm

line wrote:Have you had a chance to check the capacitor brands on this board? I'm curious if Foxconn uses Japanese brands throughout on its lower end boards or if it goes with cheaper brands to keep costs down.

How do I check this? I can't seem to find any brand name on these capacitors ...