You should keep in mind that those are your words, Sheriff, not mine. When I compared the CPUs in the price range of $120-200, I said that Intel was, "fairly uncontested here." I did not say that AMD was completely uncompetitive (or any other stronger language)
When I said that the 5600+ was quite competitive, you responded with "Not really . . . . "
After all, as an unbiased consumer, why would you focus myopically at the $139 processor that offers good performance, when you can spend $30 more for a much higher performance Core 2 6000 series (that is also lower power), or spend $12 less for something that offers only 5% less performance, but 40-50% less system power dissipation?
I focussed on the 5600+ processor because that is the only AMD processor I would consider buying(not for me personally, but if someone wanted a budget system), as I feel it is the only one that offers reasonable value for money compared to Intel's offerings, especially if you want to go with a motherboard with integrated graphics.
Also, as for your why not spend $30 more question, because as the Tech Report link shows, the 5600+ is very close in performance to the E6600, which I presume is about the same speed as the E6550? And again the power usage is not that big a deal according to the Tech Report.
i keep shaking my head when folks point to a 90nm offering as being "competitive."
competitively significant means a combination of price, performance, power and availability.
amd no longer produces any 90nm parts. if amd actually has a lot of 90nm inventory remaining that means they weren't selling as fast as they were making them. that means the oems weren't buying them. what does that say to their "competitiveness?"
if they don't have the 90nm inventory overhang then any such matrix comparisons are completely meaningless.
You make a good observation. When building a system, $30 won't get you another gig or more of ram or the next step up in a graphics card but with Intel's product line up and pricing, you can get a faster cpu. It's a no brainer.
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