Originally Posted by reno96teg
in that case, a good vid card is a hell of a lot more important than getting the fastest possible processor. at minimum go radeon 9800 pro or the nvidia fx 5900 ultra.
thats right. its all about the video card. ive got a 9800 and its awesome. get the pro and you'll be happy.
Originally Posted by reno96teg
from my experience, stay away from VIA chipsets. i've always found them to be severely unstable.
ive been throught prolly 8-10 motherboards now and ive found VIA chipsets to be as good as any other. ive had bad chipsets from every manufacturer. it just depends on the state of the bios and just the overall composition of the machine. when i choose a motherboard, i just look at the features i need and i choose one with a chipset thats been around for a while. even though you might not have the fastest board out there, you know all the bugs have been worked out of it. stability>speed any day
Originally Posted by reno96teg
and finally, no matter what the AMD zealots tell you, Intel > AMD. they may look nice in the benchmarks, but when it comes down to actually doing the work, Intel wins.
sorry, but thats just ignorant. ive heard so many people say that and its just not true. intel is all about marketing and frankly, people buy their chips because they saw the commercial on tv. IMO AMD and Intel are about on par with eachother. sometimes one is ahead of the other in technology and speed but theyre both great brands. the difference being that AMD gives you the same performance for typically less money. intel has to pay the marketing bill somehow
btw ive got an AMD 2500+ barton and its a beast. i havent overclocked it yet but i know when i decide to i can get up pretty high with it
do you guys know what hard drives are good? i bought a couple maxtor 160 giggers last summer and in like 7 months one of em died on me. i still havent returned it though. i just hate having to trust 160 gigs to an unreliable drive.
