Getting ready to spec new desktops

WLS-ITGuy

Is there any reason I should/shouldn't be looking at the A chips vs Intel or AMD chips?

Standard users, mostly Word/Excel users with a couple that do more graphic work (photoshop, InDesign).

marcinozga

What's A chip? AMD?

It doesn't really matter for light usage, but Photoshop and InDesign users need real horsepower, you need to spec it like a CAD or 3D workstation, Photoshop will happily use workstation graphics card, I'm not sure about InDesign, it's possible newer version use hardware acceleration too. You don't have to throw Xeons at them, but high end CPUs are definitely in order. And tons of memory, 16GB+

scottalanmiller

@WLS-ITGuy said in Getting ready to spec new desktops:

s there any reason I should/shouldn't be looking at the A chips vs Intel or AMD chips?

I don't know what an A chip is.

Assuming you want to run Windows, you have only one architectural choice: AMD64. That's the only kind of chip that Windows runs on today.

There are two makers of AMD64 chips: AMD and Intel. (Mass market at least.)

Of those, I prefer AMD, but Intel is excellent too. Intel made a huge point in the IA32 era that you wanted "genuine" Intel. Since the architecture now is AMD64, Intel's own mantra is that AMD is better and Intel is just a knock off. So if you trust Intel, buy AMD I guess

AMD tends to be better value, and right now due to supply chain issues, getting AMD tends to be easier. We deploy both, but choose AMD when we can. I'm on an AMD desktop now. Our new desktops that we are deploying broadly are HP EliteDesks that are AMD based.

1337

The A chips are probably AMD's A-series desktop chips.
https://www.amd.com/en/processors/athlon-and-a-series

scottalanmiller

@Pete-S said in Getting ready to spec new desktops:

The A chips are probably AMD's A-series desktop chips.
https://www.amd.com/en/processors/athlon-and-a-series

Those are what we use when we say that we use AMD chips. AMD A9 and A10. They are perfect for business desktops that aren't like CAD stations or whatever. I use the A10 myself. I'd really like to move up to the new A12. Ryzen is more for video game or high performance workstation usage, not standard office work. The A series are, IMHO, ideal for the average office worker (which includes IT people.)