VS  

The boxes are similar, the chips inside... well, that's the point of the discussion.

I have a AMD right now. But am planning on getting and Intel this year. I think they are infront right now. But that may change upon new releases.

For absolute max compute power Intel has a smallish lead.  For best compute power per $$.  I think AMD is still on top there

I agree - Intel's chips are probably more powerful, and at the top end of the market they have the Quad core range, but if you want a processor that doesn't cost £600 you're best off going with AMD

AMD's are brilliant value for money but never seem to produce as much speed that it says on the box.

Yeah.. but you can buy one with a faster on-box speed to balance it out, and still pay less 

e.g. looking at the prices on Scan.co.uk you can get a 3.2GHz AMD Athlon 6400+ Black Edition for less money than a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E6600.

[quite a lot less too - I just looked for the best AMD then compared to the next most expensive Intel]

I gotta admit theres not much in it between either of them. Both even come from California.

Overclocking?

AMD's chips have a bad rep for heat issues, so probably not so awesome for overclocking, I've heard good things about the Core 2 Duo/Quads on that score though.

And I think the "Black edition" CPU's from AMD are kinda aimed at overlockers, so if you want to clock an AMD chip, go for one of those.

I want to overclock my Laptop! Can I overclock my AMD Turion64 X2 Mobile Technology 1,6 Ghz processor easily?

mmm.. wouldn't count on it.

Turions aren't known for their overclocking potential, and the closeness of components in a laptop means that it'll be hard to get rid of the extra heat.

Technically, anything can be overclocked, but you have to be able to keep it cool at the higher voltage and speed. Chips that heat up easily and computers without good cooling systems limit how far you can push it.

I'm happy with 1,7 Ghz. How much should I be able to overclock it? It's closer to room temperature than burning.

I have no real experience overclocking, I just know that you want to proceed very slowly and carefully - make a small change to the clock/voltage settings, then make sure it still works under some processing load and isn't running too hot (how hot is too hot is a subjective thing, but if it gets close to 50 degrees then you've probably gone too far, best to stay below 40)

Couldn't tell you how much to expect, they don't tend to leave a lot of spare room in the default settings, although you may be lucky - could be that it's actually the same chip as a higher spec one but with the default settings turned down for better stability (maybe).

Anyway.. don't do anything too sudden to it, it's real expensive to replace everything if it fries.