really hope this was not supposed to brand me as so called "intel peasant"
if it was than you are severely wrong on every single point
- i love benchmarks of every kind and i always prefer benchmarks for my specific use case, if i am building JAVA server i would check benchmarks benchmarking other JAVA APP stacks not some game benchmark or office productivity one
- I always buy cheapest motherboard that will work for my use case not 300$+ OC motherboard just because some extra bells and whistles

PS decent motherboard for Intel 4770 is only $35 and AMD one is $33 not much in savings
- I have a lot of money left (as software developer with 15 years of experience working in big multinational companies - not blizzard

i earn around 5+ times of what i actually need and 10+ times of what people around me earn, most of money i spend on different types of "fun"
- actually i used a lot of AMD CPUs in past including their first x86 compatible CPUs in 486 days but that was when they were actually better than Intel since core architecture Intel leads both in performance and in price/performance on CPU front, also i still use AMD GPUs since they are much better than Intel and are practically twice as cheap as nVidia of similar performance AMD CPU bad, AMD GPU good ...
- yes unlocked Intel CPU is more expensive but not by much, and i dont buy unlocked CPU since it is generally not worth extra costs because overclocks last 2-3 years are not even close to 30%+ they were in previous generations, plus it is bad idea to overclock CPU that you will leave turned on 24/7, but even if I wanted tooverclock 4770k is not much more expensive than 4770
- best PRODUCT (not game) for benchmark for me is one that is closest to what i will actually use on that specific PC/workstation/server, i don't really play that many games this days (WOW is work not play for me)
- Intel uses significantly less electricity than AMD and if you pay your electricity yourself (like most grownups are) you should include electricity cost and maintance cost if any in your price calculations, it is NOT 10W diffrence between AMD and Intel it is much more
for example FX-4100 someone mentioned here uses 95W if NOT overclocked and its less than half performance of 4770
2*FX-4100 will spend 190W total (not counting 2 motherboards even just 2*CPU) and 1 *4770 spends 84W that is 100W difference for CPU alone, if you plan to bot 24/7 (3 shifts times 8 hours/day or 2 shifts times 12h) and calculate for 2 years replacement policy (upgrade after 2 years) and use 10 cents/KWh price (i pay more but 10 cents is real price for most of western world) you are saving $172 in 2 years by buying Intel 4770 or intel 4770 costs you only $130 ... can you buy 2*FX-4100, one extra motherboard and whatever else you need for $130?
this is what big companies assume as TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) and what most people dont take into account when buying their PC or air-conditioner or house or fridge or car ... and they should, cheapest is rarely best ...
- Anandtech has best benchmarks in consumer industry and has both high end and low end ones you should choose ones that are specific to your use case, i run my WOW bots at 300*200 pixels resolution so i take closest benchmarks to those and for that specific game since WOW is CPU bound and most other games GPU bound, plus i repeat tests at home with my real use case (minimized details/resolution/custom config.WTF ...)
- in my country you can (and I do) use "no matter what money back guarantee" you can buy anything except perishable food and return it in 1 week or less (even opened) to store and get your money back no questions asked so there is no place for post-purchase rationalization
- i am way more than 12, hint, i can barely remember my 30th birthday
- while toms hardware can be useful resource i am far from loyal or even satisfied, i prefer Anandtech instead
- my mother and father did not pay anything for me (not even college) since i was 18 all my hardware was/is bought by myself after that day, i moved out on day of my 18th birthday