While we follow customer demand in general, there are also times where system builders use their expertise to sell what is best for the consumer, even when that bucks the general trend. My views on RAID are a good example. If AMD had a CPU that was compelling enough, you bet that we'd be pushing it in front of our customers. But I have to admit that I know very little about AMD's current processor performance.

Yes, this is a system builder, that does not pay attention to processor performance. Now, techically we build systems here at Tek Republik, but since we are so busy with game console repair, I don't even advertise it. In this story at Tom's Hardware Chris "mindfreak" Angelini sets up story from a system builder who does not pay attention to processor performance. I find that hard to believe. Sorry, but if you don't pay attention, I don't know how you know what to build. I guess that was Dell's excuse for all those years wasn't it?

The story is some setup on the EU ruling against Intel it appears. Apparently because AMD does not march a rep up to this system builder face to face, they don't know anything about AMD CPU performance. Funny, but it was almost a year since I talked to someone at AMD, actually at AMD this past Thursday, but I never didn't know what performance looked like becuase of that. Oh, and I know what Intel performance is, and they have never, ever briefed us in 11 plus years. I find this excuse incredibly lame. Sorry. That's how I roll.

Then I read this.

The bottom line is that AMD CPUs are far more likely to be unseated during shipping. When the package in transit hits a large bump, the mounts of the heatsink can flex, and the heatsink pulls away from the motherboard. The thermal paste acts to provide suction, so the heatink pulls the processor with it. What's worse, if the bump is large enough, the CPU can pull completely out of socket. When the heatsink retention pulls everything back together, it mashes the CPU pins, effectively destroying the CPU in most cases. The solution is to use a smaller, more sturdy heatsink, which limits the product we can offer.

I seem to remember, over 3 years ago, building 20 computers for a TXGF lan with AMD CPUs. I seem to remember using Coolermaster coolers, that used the mounting holes to attach to the other side of the board. Moving to and from the lan party none of them fell off. In 3 years plus of use none of them fell off here at Tek Republik. In fact none of the CPUs, or the boards have failed, or overheated. I'm typeless.

Powering this $2499 (as of 4/27/09) system are several components featured in the recent AMD Dragon platform refresh, namely dual 1GB ATI 4890 graphics boards and an AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition CPU sitting in an Asus M4A79T Deluxe socket AM3 motherboard. A 7200-rpm Western Digital 1TB hard drive, 4GB of DDR3-1333 memory, and a Pioneer BDC-202 Blu-ray reader/DVD burner round out the configuration. The machine runs Windows Vista Home Premium, with Ulead Video Studio, BurnNow, and Intervideo's WinDVD supporting the optical drive.

We had a major reorganization at AMD last week that should not only make them more efficient. It may also make them the leading change agent in the server space as we move to a more cloud-based computing model. However, that begs a change on the client as well and interestingly enough, I was at Intel this week for an update on their Digital Home initiative and think this is the best effort I have seen from them in over a decade.

As boring as ZT System's Affinity 7308Ma may look on the outside, it's actually one of the best deals we've seen for a $699 desktop. Not only does it pack a Blu-ray drive and almost every display output known to man, its quad-core AMD Phenom II X4 chip helps this PC set a new performance standard for its category. Midtower PCs might seem boring in the crowd of Netbooks, Nettops, and touch-screen all-in-ones, but for those still interested in an affordable, workhorse desktop, the Affinity 7308Ma should prove an enticing bargain.