Hester - 9:37 am on Dec 2, 2004 (gmt 0)

I use AMD at home but next time I need a processor I am considering Intel instead. I went with the AMD XP range when I built my PC because they were much cheaper than Pentiums. But I ended up spending much more on cooling.

I personally find you can run a Pentium in a standard (ie: not very good) PC case in a hot room and there will be no problems. But my past experience with AMD started like this:

I built a basic PC but it kept overheating. The PC would suddenly stop working and refuse to boot up until I had opened the case and cooled it down. Admittedly it was near a radiator, but my previous Tiny PC with Pentium II never had problems in the same room. I had an AMD XP 1700 which runs at 1.4GHz but it was obviously running too hot. So I bought a copper heatsink, but when putting it in managed to blow the processor!

So I went to a local computer store and picked up a Duron 800MHz for about £30 - bargain! It was able to run Windows just fine - I wondered if my XP 1700 chip was really needed.

I spent loads on extra fans but the case would only fit so many. So in the end I spent £99 on a Lian-Li aluminium case with about 6 fans in it. I also bought thermal paste for the processor/heatsink and studied the AMD online guide to cooling.

Eventually I upgraded the processor and bought an AMD XP 2000 which runs at 1.7GHz. I also have things like narrow cables inside to help the airflow.

All this cost me much more than if I had simply gone with Intel. I find it hard to believe that the PCs at work (where it can get very hot) carry on just fine, even though they only have a tiny fan at the back of the case. (They are Pentium IIIs running at 1.7Ghz.) AMDs practically need a wind tunnel to keep cool.

So although AMDs offer great value, you also need to consider spending a lot on cooling. So in my case, I found Pentiums to be cheaper and more reliable overall.