I have been wanting to build my own box with AMD 6 core. I have always used Intel based machines and frankly have not done open-source projects. I want to get into that along with Systems programming but am worried if open-source projects (mainly Linux based) are going to be a problem to compile on AMD?
How difficult is porting (if it is needed) from AMD to Intel and vice-versa. Thanks.
It's unlikely that it'll be any more complex than compiling anywhere else. I'm pretty sure these kinds of very minor architectural differences are almost a non-issue these days.
Both AMD and Intel processors use the x86 ISA. You don't generally compile for a specific processor, you compile for the ISA.
Unless you turn on very specific flags (such as -march) while compiling, a binary built on one processor will run on another.
To say it again, there is no problem.
This does not mean the processors are the same. They have different performance characteristics, support different motherboard chipsets, and have different feature sets (for instance, IOMMUs or other advanced virtualization features). But you won't usually be accessing things like the processor-internal performance registers in your everyday life, so don't worry about it and get whichever CPU is right for your desired system configuration and price/performance point.