I often use Athlon and Duron CPU's, and with the newer chipsets and a good motherboard overall, they seem to do just fine. I have yet to have a serious problem with one of these builds that was associated with the CPU or chipset. One thing that IS currently an issue with Athlons is that they tend to produce more heat and therefore need a quality cooling solution - a combination of a sufficient heat sink and a good ball bearing fan, preferably approved or recommended for Athlon.

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gid day ethan If you buy athlon just make sure its a thunderbird range dennis

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http://www.tomshardware.com Here you will find pretty much all you need to know about the AMD/INTEL dilemma. They also have a lot on video cards, but the geForce2 GTS with 64mb ddr is the way to go. I prefer the AMD tbird over any of the intel chips out right now because of its stability, upgradability, and cost. Intel can't beat the price with any of their processors, and the t-bird has also out performed the intel PIII's and in a lot of situations the P4's. The chipset I would stay with for the t-bird would be the latest VIA chipset, just because they update theirs the most, and AMD will only update theirs once in a blue moon. Stay away from the DDR memory on the mb as none of the motherboards or chipsets are designed to fully take advantage of it, and it really isn't running any faster that the pc133 memory out right now. The MB that we have used to build all of our t-bird 1.2 or 1.3 has been the Aopen AK 73 pro (A) board. It has a 3 year warranty, supports the processors 266mhz bus, and the pc133 memory, but make sure it is the (A) board that you get. Well I think that is it, have fun.

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Hi Ethan: The PIII is a dead end for upgrades, sure enough. The Willamette P4 is also a dead end because of the release of Northwood P4 which will use a different socket altogether. The Athlon T-Bird is also a dead end as they have some new chips under development as well, I believe they're all named after hammers . . . like Claw for example. As far as stability goes, search this forum for yourself and see. Intel for all the ramblings of the AMD crew, makes a solid and stable chip, with solid and stable chipsets. They run cooler and have fewer hardware issues. I suggeted a PIII 933 and a GeForce 2GTS because there is really no software out there that will make that thing even break out in a sweat. I readily admit that for raw speed, AMD rules the day . . . at least for now. But since there is no software that really taxes any of the higher end processors on either side of the board . . . what difference does it make? All things being equal, Intel runs cooler, requires less power (i.e. more efficient) and is probably the most stable platform available. I guess if you're a fanatic, who wants to see how far he can push the envelope, AMD is probably your best bet. By the way . . . scuttlebut is that there will be one more PIII at 1.3GHz based on a .13 micron production process. Probably due out in Q3 this year. Supposedly based on the socet 370 interface so current mobo's should accept it. Take care and be safe. -TimeRider

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Hi Ethan: Make that a 1.2GHz PIII. Check it out here Take care and be safe. -TimeRider

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I have an Athlon TBird 1Ghz and I love it. Athlons tend to get better 3D ratings because of the better floating-point on them. Make sure you get a good motherboard though, some of the Socket A's are junk boards. Check out AMD's web site for recommended ones, and get one that supports DDR. Right now RAM is cheap as hell (got 256 MB PC1600 [200Mhz] for less than 100 bucks from crucial). I got a GeForce2 MX 200 (I'm poor) for less than 100 bucks and get consistent rates of 65 FPS in UT (Unreal Tournament). Works pretty damn well for me. Also, so far there aren't any programs or games that use anything on the P4, so that may well be a large waste of money. I agree with TimeRider in that you will definitely want a 7200RPM HDD and ATA/UDMA 100 support. However, I have the Aladdin chipset on my board and it works quite well, so you might consider it instead of the VIA. Glad to help (if I did). Neal

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My vote is AMD. It outperforms the PIIIs and as previous posts mention the P4... My understanding is that NOW the only thing the P4 is good for is stuff like Photoshop and High End Photoshop at that. I like Both my AMD 1GHz. I have a PIII 1GHz that I have to test for a client, but other things on my plate. Regarding the Upgrade Issue, Can anyone think of an actual system they were ever able to significantly upgrade??? I remember converting my IBM Clone XT to a 80286 processor. This still confuses my Uncle who thinks I must have been in touch with MIT back then...NOT... Anyway, consider when you by your computer, by it about 3 or 4 levels below what is the best. This will give you a system that you should be able to use for several years. Further, if you go down to your local Computer Store (ExFrys and Egghead Manager here) and look at the games that are being sold and check their system requirements. Make a note and check out with you friends and the Internet to see when those system requirements were the top of the line. Calculate the time from then to know and you can guestimate how long it takes for Software to catch up to hardware. This is no exact science, but it should put you upgrade issues at rest. If you can afford it, spend a little extra money and get yourself something that you will be comfortable with. I would say a 1 GHz AMD should be good. I saw them for under 200 at PCClub... check around.... Lastly, if you are planning on playing games, and your post says you are, then check out TechTVs ultimate game machine. www.techtv.com. They have been actively creating a system. Their recommendation, with support more indepth than mine, is the AMD. Also, you may be able to cut some corners and transfer somethings from an older system e.g. HDD??? I know that some people will blast me for this, but you do want to save money now. If you have at least 10GB or more, save that HDD and transfer it into your new system, wait to upgrade it later. Check out ASUS.com for your motherboard. I just built an all black system for a client to his specifications with ASUS and AMD... He loves it and he plays Quake and other First Person Games. I hope this helps Bashton

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It depends where you are going to buy the system from. If you are going to buy it from a local vendor you can probably get an AMD system cheaper than a P3. The P3 is pretty much at the end of it's life. I'm not sure what the deal is with the current Athlons but I'm sure they have something in the works. If you are looking to spend as little money as possible for the best possible system you are caught in the middle of a catch 22. Most vendors offer the best deals on stuff they are trying to move out to make room for newer systems. Right now this is the CPU range of 766-933 Mhz. You will find the best "deals" on a system like this. I'd make sure you get atleast 128 MB ram in this system. DDR Ram is the newest thing in RAM at the moment but I'd really stay away from it. Only AMD processors support it currently. AMD makes it's own chipsets but they aren't readily available like Intel's. So AMD has to rely on companies like VIA and ALI for chipsets. I'd really stay away from these things. They aren't the most reliable products all the time and are some what buggy. This is what prevents me from buying AMD products. If there was a good chipset for AMD chips I'd have one. So my recommendation would be Intel. Now with Intel you have two options. You can get a P3 which will use PC133 RAM or a P3/P4 that will use Rambus ram(AKA RIMM or RDRAM). This RAM is somewhat more pricey but not as costly as most think. You can get 128MB of PC800 for $75 on www.pricewatch.com. This is a decent deal. Now if you are buying this system off a vendor they are probably going to charge you alot more for a system with it. Intel is schedule to release a chipset that will support DDR in Q4. If you are really set on DDR I'd wait a while and get a system based on the Intel DDR chipset. As for graphic cards if you are looking for a great cost vs performance card there isn't a better one than the GeForce2MX. It's budget chip. Get the MX 400 model though. It's slightly more money($20-$40) but the performance is much better. No one mentioned the Celeron or Duron. These chips are great, cheap as dirt and their performance is pretty decent. I think you can get an 800 Mhz Celeron for like $80. I know that Intel has a decent outlook on the future of the current Celerons so you might be able to upgrade this more than a P3 system. (Chip wise anyway) Also it won't cost as much. They are no P4 but this chip sounds like it might be a fit for you. Motherboards for celerons are fairly cheap too. This wouldn't be a bad low cost investment. Also graphics processors are becoming less CPU dependant so this is an advantage for a Celeron gaming system with a good video card. If you get a Celeron based solution make sure the mobo is based on an Intel chipset with 4X AGP and ATA-100. Ok so this is what I have to day in English now. You need to make a decision about how long you want this system to last and how much money you want to spend. IF you want maximum system life buy the latest and greatest. You can milk 3-4 years out of it hopefully. IF you go cheaper get a P3/Athlon chip around the 900Mhz mark. It will have a life of 2 years or so. If you want to go cheap go with the Celeron solution. You can probably get 2 years out of a system like this no problem and it will most likely be in a friendlier price range. My recommendation: Go with the fastest Intel Celeron you can get with 256MB PC133 RAM and a good video card. Don't place too much emphasis on the chip and neglect the video card. I'd go with a GeForce2 GTS with 32/64 MB of DDR. This system will be quick now. I just built one for a friend and it's just as fast as my P3 933 with 128 MB of RDRAM(800) and it cost a decent amount less. Good luck. Ron

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Just to give u my experience with Athlon. Bought a Compaq Athlon 1.2gig, 60mb hard drive,128 ram. This pc is great..Not one problem since out of the box...Signed up for cable connection which really makes it fast...This is my first AMD...Always had Pentiums...I can say the AMD outperformed the P3......good luck....also it was not pricey.....$1100.00 which included flat 17" screen, DVD, CDRW.....good luck

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