As a computer professional, I often get asked about what kind of computer people should buy for their home use. And usually following that question will come some sort of enquiry along the lines of “Should I get an AMD processor or an Intel? And what’s the difference?”.

Here’s the short answer

As a general rule, most business computers will do perfectly fine with a basic processor, sometimes called just a ‘chip’. Whether it’s an AMD chip or an Intel Celeron, most basic business functions will see no impact regardless of the type of chip your computer has. For home or office, this is the type of chip that I most often recommend for my clients – a simple computer that will handle email, office productivity applications and will surf the Internet with ease. If you don’t need more, then why pay for it? AMD chips generally cost a fair amount less than Intel.

When you start getting into specialized applications is where things get a bit trickier. What if your home computer is going to be used as a gaming station for your teenager? Or if you’ll be doing image manipulation at work? Then I’d say go Intel Pentium 4. The benchmarking tests I’ve seen say that Intel will usually beat out its’ AMD rivals in graphics, so where pictures are involved in a serious way that’s the direction I turn to.

There are other deciding factors as well – depending on your need different options make sense. For example if laptop power consumption is a primary concern, I tend to lean towards AMD’s chips – they have a lower power consumption under load in most cases than their Intel counterparts. If I’m running a multi-processor server, then I’m going to push for an Intel Xeon chip. For 64-bit processors I’d go for an AMD, and for the new remote management tools I’d look at Intel.

There’s really no right or wrong answer. The bottom line is that your choices will be affected by your requirements and your budget. So talk to your tech support provider about your needs, current and future, and you should get the advice you need to make a smart business decision.