first build, suggestions help?

[mgp141]

Ok so here it goes. Ive never built a computer before, but have been doing my research for a good few months now. I know there are supposed to be some nice price drops coming soon as well as some new products. Im thinking about doing this build with in the next few months and wanna know how you guys think this looks, im still not sure whether to go AMD or INTEL, as the amd chip ive listed is a nice price. Everything is in CND and the 2 systems, AMd or intel both come out around $1500 CND which is my budget (although cheaper would be nice), so. Any suggestions would be great, (psu, ram) I kind of just picked things that looked good. Thanks in advance

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ EE Dual Core Processor AM2 Windsor 2.2GHZ 512KBX2 65W 90NM Retail Box $126
ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe ATX AM2 Nforce 590 SLI 2PCI-E16 1PCI-E4 1PCI-E1 2PCI SATA2 1394 Motherboard $237
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB SATA2 3GB/S 7200RPM 16MB Cache Ncq Hard Drive $97
EVGA E-GEFORCE 8800 GTS 500MHZ 640MB 1.6GHZ GDDR3 Dual DVI-I HDTV Out HDCP DIRECTX10 Video Card $450
OCZ GX XTC PC2-4200 2GB 2X1GB DDR2 CL3-3-3-12 240PIN DIMM Dual Channel Memory Kit W/ Heatspreader $237
OCZ GameXStream 600W ATX12V 24PIN SLI Ready Active PFC ATX Power Supply 120MM Fan Black $107
Thermaltake Armor JR. Tower Case Black ATX 5X5.25 2X3.5 4X3.5INT No PS W/ Window $108

Or

Asus P5N-E Sli Nforce 650I Sli LGA775 Conroe Atx 2PCI-E16 1PCI-E1 2PCI SATA2 Sound Gblan Motherboard $157

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Dual Core Processor LGA775 Conroe 1.86GHZ 1066FSB 2MB Retail $230

best to wait until you're actually ready to buy before posting a thread like this. Any advice we give you now could be different within a week, never mind a couple months.

[Babrbarossa]

Welcome to the forum- I'd wait to see benchmarks for AMD's upcoming products before making a decision too- but here's a good thread for system recommendations under 1000 bucks:

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/amd/4...challenge.html

If you bought one today, I'd say a gigabyte 965p ds3, or an asus p5ne, 2gb ocz platinum pc6400, ocz gamexstream 600 or 700w (or something recommended in SKYMTL's PSU review), 8800gts, e6300

[sswilson]

As much as it pains me to say, unless the price difference for a cheaper AMD chip would allow you to either bump up the vid card or amount of system mem, your best bet is going to be an intel chip.

Unless money is really an issue, the C2D intels are so far ahead of the current AMD offerings that you'd need to pick up an X2 5000 or 6000 to get close to the lower end intels.

The only reasons I can see to purchase a new AM2 system vrs a C2D would be price, or if a person was already comfortable with Overclocking AMDs and didn't want to learn a new system.

[Babrbarossa]

But like Miso said- things are going to be quite a bit different in a month, and when the Barcelonas come on the scene, I say go for AMD, but I root for the underdog (and the company I own shares for)

[xShadowAero]

There is no disputing it, Core 2 is the way to go today, but get the 6600 on April 22nd (<- massive hint, ~$100 US price drop coming). The E6600 is by far the best value, 4MB cache, 65W part.

I am a fairly large system builder and I build both AMD and Intel products (LOTS of each, still) but when I benchmark them, there is absolutely no disputing the performance of the Intel Core 2 product. It's not even a close race these days. I'm no fanboi, I could care less either way to be honest, but I know what I would buy based on my real life testing.

Enjoy your new system, either way.