This is kind of like the old "mac vs pc" debate which is now moot. The criticisms of the earlier AMD processors have been dealt with (mainly overheating and stability).

From what I can gather, neither Pentium or AMD is "better" but many people find that a well designed AMD system can offer more performance for your $ and this is the primary reason why I have an AMD system. I certainly am not opposed to a pentium, but I don't see the need to shell out the extra $ for it. Perhaps someone else here can offer another view?

drbam

As a guy who has built many of both, when done properly and comparing recent vintage systems, they both perform very well.

If you are Intel person, you'll find data that supports the fact that a Pentium system is superior.

If you are an AMD fan, you'll find data that supports the fact that an AMD system is superior.

What I find is this. When building a AMD system, I tend to have to watch more closely on what components I choose due to a few more incompatibilities with chipsets available. For example, with the NForce2 chipset. Choice of memory, power supply, video card, etc. tends to be a bit more touchy than with an Intel system.

However, Intel systems are not perfect either. Motherboard and video card choices can play a big part here too and often problems with those get turned into a Intel vs AMD CPU problem when they really are not the culprit. For example, ABIT makes some really great boards, such as the NF7-S NForce2 MB and the other various INTEL based boards, like the IC7, IS7, AI7. But their most recent IC7-MAX3 INTEL board has a lot of problems.

In some cases certain ATI cards won't perform well in either platform, but most ATI cards will perform well. Bottom line - There are no perfect manufacturers of anything for computers these days. They all have their flaws and you just need to do some good homework for component choice.

I find the best sources are the various motherboard forums out there. You just have to remember that when systems work, those people are not the people posting in those forums too often.

As for price, AMD systems are roughly 5-10% cheaper for low end systems, and less savings get applied to higher end systems when done correcly. The price gap is narrowing.

as has already been said they both are great.
it really depends on what your needs are,
A P4 will do more vst/samples due to higher memory bandwith, but the AMD had a little better floating point for effectsplug-ins.

Scott
ADK

Please also keep in mind that there are Intel de-normal issues with some plugins.

AMD has worked fine for me, saved a bundle as well.