Buying New PC.

[nmX.Memnoch]

have you ever owned an amd? amd's are good but not compared to the C2D at the moment. just think C2D right now.

No, and I never plan to. I don't feel the need to buy hardware from a vendor who only has a 15% market share. At least with an Intel I don't ever have to worry about hardware or software support, ever.

You don't need software support for it. Its an x86 processor. Just like Intel makes. You plug it in and it works. Windows covers a wide range of prcessors.

Technically...you do. You need the AMD Dual-Core Processor Driver, the AMD Dual-Core Optimizer, and a hotfix from Microsoft for it to work properly.

So far AMD and Intel seem to be in a price war. AMD is cutting prices to sell more. Intel is following suit. So far I want to see which has the best value for the money.

Actually...Intel has the superior product right now (and for the foreseeable future). They started dropping prices, AMD followed suit. Then AMD dropped again and Intel followed suit. Between purchasing ATI and being very agressive with their price drops, AMD is in a world of financial hurt right now.

Cool. Thanks for that. How does it stack up to the AMD X2 6000+? I found one on eBay for about $200. Its the latest one for their AM2 socket.

It'll stack up to it very well. You already mentioned you plan on overclocking. The current Intel lineup has a lot more overclocking headroom than AMD's current lineup. You should see 3-3.2GHz easy on an E6420 which just air cooling.

[weEvil]

You already mentioned you plan on overclocking. The current Intel lineup has a lot more overclocking headroom than AMD's current lineup. You should see 3-3.2GHz easy on an E6420 which just air cooling.

Hmmmm. Interesting. This sweetens the deal. Especially since I'll get myself some really nice water cooling (I hate noisy fans with a passion).

What about the e6600? Intel should drop prices again from what I read online.

Also, how much life is there left in this socket? I don't want to go Intel and then in a few months find out that they are releasing their last chip and coming out with a new socket. I want a little bit of future proofing.

Plus a 680i board is kind of pricey too.

And how does the e6420 match with the GeForce 8800? I'd like my system to be VideoCard limited more than CPU. I like to squeeze every bit of life the cards have out of them.

[jcarle]

You don't need software support for it. Its an x86 processor. Just like Intel makes. You plug it in and it works. Windows covers a wide range of prcessors.

Technically...you do. You need the AMD Dual-Core Processor Driver, the AMD Dual-Core Optimizer, and a hotfix from Microsoft for it to work properly.

Not to mention that the x86 platform just means that it supports the x86 codebase. Adding, multiplying, etc... There are specific things that are implemented in each company's processors that need to be supported by software. SSE, MMX and 3DNow instructions, for example.