Nagulat naman ako, binuhay pa tong thread na 'to. The desktop CPU landscape has changed exponentially over the past 7 years since this thread was created.

the only hitches/complaints with AMD is that it easily heats, requiring a bigger processor fan and of course, requiring a bigger power source.
Not true. Let's not generalize. It depends on the CPU. The Athlon X2s ran hotter than the equivalent Core 2 Duos at that time (circa 06-08). Today, AMD's Trinity CPUs run pretty cool, and there's really no need to upgrade to an aftermarket cooler unless you're overclocking. Even with the higher end AMD Vishera FX CPUs, the temps are fine.

In fact, it's Intel's current Ivy Bridge CPUs that run hot. The Ivy Bridge i5-3570K and i7-3770K aren't as overclockable as the previous Sandy Bridge and Lynnfield i5s. Reaching 5.0 GHz is hard with an Ivy Bridge even with liquid cooling because of the high voltage that these chips need to run stably. That said, overall, even AMD's fastest CPU can only dream of competing with Intel's i5, much less the i7 with its Hyper-Threading.

Bottomline:

For a budget PC, get the AMD Trinity A8-5600K (less than 5k). Better overall than the i3-3220 of Intel because it's a true quad-core and has much better integrated graphics (can play most high-end games).

For a high-end PC, you can't go wrong with the i5-3470, or if you're overclocking, the i5-3570K.

But it's still really dependent on your budget and what you need the PC for.