Once again in to the breech dear friends. CRY HAVOK!!! And release the dogs of war.
FOR ME, for me, Intel has given me years and years of great service. Not only is the chip internally thermally protected, it's smart in how it goes about trying to cool itself down. It's throttles back 50% when the upper limit is close or has been reached. It checks over a period of time for any cool down. If it continues to run hot, it will issue a signal that tells the motherboard "It's too freaking hot baby. See ya...". If the motherboard is set up to listen then it does a hard shut down.
You have to seriously work at getting an Intel chip to give up the ghost.
But every AMD chip I've had if it got too hot it when up in a puff of smoke. It's my understanding that AMD depends on the temp sensors on the motherboard to protect it. By the time the underside of the chip gets hot enough to trigger a shut down, it's too late.
Modern AMD chips may have internal thermal protection. But as recent as 5 years ago they did not. I had a real nice AMD based rig and I knocked over the case one night. It was a prebuilt Dell. Something obviously came loose somewhere cause next time I fired it up it never made it to XP boot up screen. I heard a loud pop and it was over with.
Either chip will do the mundane everyday stuff. Either chip will game. Not all of either chips will overclock. A lot of them do.
It comes down to what fits the job you have in mind for it.
Me? Intel all the way...
And the debate rages on...
