Ok... it's all FREE here... what yould you choose for FREE?
Intel or AMD?
nVidia or ATi?
For me I would def. go for an Intel/nVidia combo... get me a nice low wattage proccy and the nVidia 7950GTX... Would def. overclock the 7950...
And DEFINATELY an Intel motherboard because IMO if you are useing an Intel motherboard with an Intel processor = best performance/compatibility
I don't like AMD, I'm not saying they suck but AMD does'nt make motherboards...
amd now does make mobo's, sapphire=ati=amd, sapphire is the one who makes all built by ati cards, they also make motherboards now for ati, ati is now owned by AMD, thats why amd bought ati, so they can now make their own chipsets for their cpu's.
and amd has been stomping intel for years, now core2 is faster then current amd chips, but amd hasnt put out a chip thats ment to go head to head with core2 yet, that comes mid next year(maby sooner if rummors are true), my personaly choice today is amd am2+ati x1900/1950xt/xtx
you would be supprised at how good a properly built amd system can be, my board+cpu is cheaper then any core2 chip avalable and gives 600-700mhz overclock no problem, and its a cheap chip, im waiting for 65nm chips or "k8l" befor i go dual core tho.
never count out any company, if intel had the future proof solution/rep as well as price advantage i would be using a core2 now, but intel has a bad habbit of changing sockets/socket specs, core2 chips are software "fused" to not work in older boards, this was done to FORCE you to buy new boards, and when core2 came out the bulk of the boards avalable where made by intel, and all of them used intel chipsets.
personaly i like the fact that i KNOW i can slap in a new cpu when one comes out, amd has promised that am3 chips will work in am2 boards, that means 3-5years of new chips for am2 owners intel wont do that, it would mean they wouldnt sell as many chipsets/boards.
im not a fanboy, i have setup 2 core2 systems and yes they are nice, i hate pentium4/d(aka nutburst) but thats due to poor design and heat.
oh and one other point i would like to make, amd support=easy to deal with and very helpfull, intel support(rma)=arrogant+slow.
case in point, i rma a chip to amd, they get me a new one in less then 2 weeks no need to call them and ask what the status is.
i rma an intel EE chip(p4/xeon) no word 3 weeks later, so i call them, they dont have any of them in stock, they only have the next model up or a non EE version, they cant give a date when they will have a replacment chip to send, so i ask to talk to a manager, 45min later i am told that intel dosnt upgrade on rma even if the chips tested to be faulty, a week later i call them back finnly am told they will call me back the next day, they do, and inform me they wont be getting any new chips of that model any time soon and am offered a lesser non ee chip, i say no and ask to talk to a manager, they put me on hold for over 1hr then hang up on me, i then called them back very angery, had to threten leigal action, they sent me the next model up, when it arrived a week later it was just the chip no cooler, the person i was doing the work for just ordered a new cooler from newegg, i called intel and asked why they didnt send a cooler and was told that there was no record of them sending anything and my rma had been closed, finnly got on the phone with the manager, he said they would send a cooler, 3 weeks later i got a cooler from them via UPS ground.
also the support reps and managers i talked to where VERY arrogant, one tryed to say it was probbly the board that was at fault for the chip not working, till i told him it was a $350 INTEL motherboard, then he started to blame the psu/ram/exct, when i informed him that the chip was dead the rest worked fine with a celeron test chip i had he tryed to argue with me, then when i called back(was routed to the same rep) they had tested the chip and found it was totaly faulty even the test machien couldnt get any responce at all from it(not a computer but a little test thing intel uses on chips, the thing can also be used to un-fuse core2 chips
)
well after that i desided i never want to deal with intel rma again, so if i buy intel im buying at frys or another place i can buy an extended warr that is no questions asked exchange.
amd on the other hand i have rma'd with a couple times, the first time with a64 they sent me a 3700+ clawhammer to replace a 3000+ newcastle (s754) when the newcastle died (mobo had a melt down) thats a chip that caust $120 being replaced with a chip that was around $350 at the time of rma, they had 3000+ chips in stock but they upgraded me without even asking, took 1week 3 days to get the new chip.
my am2 chip that died took 8days to rma, i got another one from a buddy(psu blew taking out the whole system) he gave me all the parts said i could rma them and keep them IF i would choose the parts and assimble them for him for a new system, amd tech rep called me and told me that they arent even gonna test this chip, they will just send me a new one as soon as this one arrives(shiping tommarow) and that the 3500+ are in short supply so i may endup with a 3800+(singel core) or if they are out of those i may even get an x2, this was just how amd deals with it, no asking by me, no hassles, they just want to keep the costmer happy, specly those of us who build systems for other people
blah long post, but i guess what im trying to say is that amd is good stuff and a good company, they treat you right and make a great product, intel on the other hand is arrogant, they will give you the runarround hoping you just go buy a new chip/system insted of forcing them to honour their warrintys.
oh and a little advice when dealing with any tech support, be polite and clear in your communications.
i have had people say that for example
ecs
foxconn
biostar
have bad/horrid support, however in my exp the oposit is true, if you communicate with them clearly and are polite you will get a responce, it may take a while but they will get in touch with you, and in my not so limmited exp they will have you talk dirrectly to a support tech(the guys who do the acctual work not an opirator), they will send you a new bios chip no charge, a new backplate for ur case, hell in the case of foxconn they replaced 12 matx boards for me and didnt even have me ship the dead ones back, all where 3-5months out of warr and had bad caps(black ooze comming out and bulged) they wanted a pic of the boards that was it, they sent us new ones FREE and even shiped them fedex express saver(took2 days to get them to us) the new boards where even a new model.
blah very very long post
injoy