Computer Purchase Query

[Whacker]

Nothing against Asus, but I've heard reports that their support rather is rather... . I having nothing against Intel either, but I've heard some one say that their is only a 5% overall difference between the two, and second, I don't know how to overclock even if I tried . Still, does the C2D run cooler, and is thier another motherboard (I prefer retail)?

Support from most hardware manufacturers is going to have a checkered history. Asus right now is one of the stronger companies in terms of tech and soft/firmware support for their products. eVGA is another that has been getting good marks and reviews, and was a determining factor in my decision to purchase their products. Apparently Gigabyte, who have generally been strong players in the mobo market, have been getting some hard raps for bad tech support over the past months. I don't really stay on top of things like this, but in the reading I did several months ago up until the purchase of my current PC indicated what I just stated. Current research from verifiable/reputable sources will go a long way to providing you with good information to base you decisions on.

In terms of performance difference, it really depends on what the application is. In general, when comparing "apples to apples" Intel to AMD products, 90% of the time the Intel CPU is going to do better on the benchmarks. The amount that it "wins" by is going to again vary by software application and version. Be warned, many of the shoddier review sites (such as Tom's Hardware) will skew tests and reviews to favor whatever product it is they are testing, it can take a trained/experienced eye to spot it sometimes, which is why I don't like commenting on "performance numbers or percentages" because it depends and can often change quickly.

In terms of overclocking, if you have the hardware that will support it, you can easily overclock any C2D cpu up to 10-25% on stock cooling, provided the rest of your system components will bear the load. There are a large number of sites and forums that outline how to do this so one just need google. Even if you aren't comfortable with this, a stock speed C2D such as the one I suggested will last you a very long time and provide good performance.

Lastly, in terms of running cooler, not only do the C2D's run significantly cooler than their AMD counterparts, but they also suck a good deal less power both idle and under load. As I said it's not that AMD is an inferior product, they've just fallen behind this round. Look at the last gen, P4's vs the XP/64's, AMD had Intel blown away by a long shot.