The Central Processing Unit - Putting the 'beat' back into the heart of your PC

The Central Processing Unit or CPU is the heart of the computer. No point upgrading to a more powerful graphics card if you don't have the CPU capabilities to utilise it. Although installing RAM is an easy way of speeding things up, the CPU will continue to be a bottleneck for you if not attended to over time.

Basically there's a choice of the more commonly known Intel chips, or the increasingly popular AMD processors. Although AMD have been producing CPU's almost as long as Intel surprisingly enough, they really only gained attention in 1999 with their Athlon series. Since then AMD have grown in popularity due to their power delivery at a cheaper cost then their direct competitor. However the cost gap has narrowed in recent times. Generally speaking the AMD chips are more powerful for extreme applications such as gaming. This is backed up by more tweaked features generally found on their motherboards. A good example of this is that the AMD chips are usually able to be overclocked easier than their Intel counterparts.

Intel have had more market experience and have prided themselves on producing more stable CPU's. This was a concern with the AMD chips of the past, coupled with their more difficult fan setup and consequent heating problems. However these days, AMD setups are quite easy and stable, not being as prone to overheating. Intel chips are often found in multimedia setups, such as the ever popularising movie or media boxes.

At the end of the day there is not much in it, however the latest reviews that I have read suggest the AMD dual core chips (the future of CPU technology) seem to have the upper hand. Usually other component factors will help make up your mind, such as motherboard features. We'll look at the motherboard tomorrow!

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