Todays CPU. How fast do you wanna go?

Whenever i'm at work and i'm dealing with a customer in regards to speeding up their computer or they ask the question "what makes the computer run faster" or "how can I make my machine go zoom like my Porsche outside", I have to explain the few parts within the computer and the few things on the software side of the machine that really make the thing tick. Than of course you get those that wanna know why Mac, the oh so popular, expensive, aficionado, Starbucks drinker brand of laptops runs so fast and smoothly on less specifications or way faster with the same hardware. Quite honestly RAM or random access memory only controls how much your running at once on your computer, software wise. The other 50% of this like, how well it'll all run together or how fast you can go through all 25 tabs you have open on Chrome will depend on your CPU or processor. The main brain of the computer definitely holds up its own when it comes to bringing it all together really.Having the proper CPU will make your video card, RAM, and hard drive all love one another and will let the motherboard make all these things communicate so much more smoothly and elegantly. So once your done wrapping your mind around how all these parts work together and how the CPU is really the boss of how fast your computer is gonna go than you can move onto what chip your going too look for and whether or not AMD or Intel is the better choice.

This is probably one of the biggest red vs blue, man vs women, ying and yang battles i've ever seen other than the ATI vs Nvidia battle which is generall the same thing. But onto what were really here to talk about Intel vs AMD. So i'm gonna come out straight and tell you honestly this is like anything else in the world, it's really personal preference. yes TECHNICALLY Intel almost always has the edge over AMD when it comes to the performence department, the chips just always seem to run faster, BUT AMD does take the cake when their top end chip is less than 300$'s and Intels top end chip is around 1000$'s. See what i'm getting at? AMD also runs a bit hotter than Intel which can sway your opinion. Intels higher end chips and even some of AMD's higher end chips you'll never be able to fully utilize with today's current computing software games and applications. So in the end you really have to do what you wanna do. Personally my current machine runs AMD, but I would buy an Intel for my next chip. Hows that for a little bit of both worlds?

So let's say you decide to go with Intel right? Well what's there to know? Alot, Intel has many chips like AMD and the prices all vary greatly. Currently the most popular of the Intel chips run in one series called the "i" series. hosting three different chip types the i3, i5, and i7, each is aimed for different crowds of people whether it would be a casual user to a gamer like myself. Each chip also has its own features like Turbo Boost or HD visualizations depending on each chip. Each chip is considered a quad core (4 cores) processor and is able to use hyper-threading which creates virtual doubles of each processing core. Core i3's being the lowest of the group run between 1.3GHZ and 3.2GHZ with lower L2 Cache than its bigger brothers. Generally better for laptops and light desktop applications, the chip is still very powerful and can hold its own even when doing very like pictures or music application based work. The i5 is a bit of a step up running with Intels Turbo Boost which can make any core of the processor run much faster when needed. This series runs between 1.4GHZ and 3.3GHZ like the i3 but half of the higher end versions come with 6M of L2 cache which boosts the speed and productivity much more. The core i7 being the fastest chip of the group, running with 1.6GHZ to 3.4GHZ and L2 cache up too 8M, this is the fastest chip Intel offers (excluding i7 Extremes) These bad boys can be used for a wide variety of work and gaming. The i7 offers all the features you would need in a CPU. Expect to pay upwards of 250$'s for one of these. Set aside the pricing, Intel offers competetive products for the market that all work within our laptops and desktops, these products are some of the fastest on the market as well. Will this be your next chip?