Right now, the Core 2 Duo just rocks the house. That's a definite. Availability is still not what people wished it would be; and any store with inventory still on the Pentium-D has to be hurting on the fact that those things at any price are hard f*(& to move.
AMD has at least a quarter that it's going to "be behind" however, for people with AM2/939 boards, no need to panic - the fact that AMD's dropped chip prices drastically is at least a comfort. But for new builds, AMD's biggest thing is the price point, and the low-voltage procs. I've played some with the 3800+ LV version, and it is pretty slick. Is it a performance demon? Not compared to Core2Duo, but it runs so damn cool and uses so little power that it is perfect for a media center. http://www.lostcircuits.com/cpu/low_e/5.shtml 8W at Idle. 8W! using CnQ, the processor fan basically stops. Which in a media center is BRILLIANT because it means you've got almost no noise from the thing. But if you're a gamer, and you're building a new box, I'd build with a Core 2 Duo. Best Core 2 Duo boards I've seen and played with are the Gigabyte ones. The 965 boards. Great build, all Japanese capacitors, lots of forethought into placement of connectors on the board, and nice set of features. CW > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware- > [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Veech > Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2006 10:41 PM > To: The Hardware List > Subject: Re: [H] Intel or AMD (Oblivion?) > > As a comment, i want to get a Core 2 Duo system as well since apparently > it eats AMD for breakfast. But there are not yet any SLI enabled boards > available so i have decided to wait until then. But hell, with 2 7900GTXs > in SLI and a Core 2 Duo, lookout!!! > > > -----Original Message----- > >From: Scott Sipe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Sent: Aug 22, 2006 7:50 PM > >To: The Hardware List <hardware@hardwaregroup.com> > >Subject: [H] Intel or AMD (Oblivion?) > > > > > >I absolutely cannot make up my mind.. > > > >I want to replace my 6 year old AthlonXP system (GeForce2!). I've got > >two raptor SATA drives, and some other bigger drives, so I'm good > >disk wise, so I'll be getting new only: > > > >Mobo / CPU / RAM (2gb ram wanted) > >Video Card (whatever ATI card I can get a decent deal on) > > > >I'd like to spend in the range of $800 dollars or so (got some > >flexibility with price, if some more money raised quality a lot, I > >wouldn't mind). Ability to play Oblivion with decent speed is a > >plus :-) (though I think SLI is prrobably out my price range) > > > >I can't decide between a Core 2 Duo and an X2. I'm leaning towards > >Intel right now (with ability to run OSX better as a plus) but am > >having trouble picking Core 2 Duo motherboards--seems like a lot of > >new ones are slated to be coming out in the next several months. I do > >want to buy within a week or two, and don't want to feel like I'm > >buying crap hardware (though I guess that's always a problem...) > > > >Any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated! > > > >thanks, > >Scott
