I do not want to start a flame war, but I probably will. (This question seems to be inflammatory). I have some honest questions and I would like to hear honest opinions.

I decided last winter that I needed a new, bigger, better, faster computer with a current generation (pci-e) video card. (I currently use a Dell: P4 (northwood) 2.53 ghz, ATI 9700 pro....) I am a long time computer user (mostly professional) and always considered the personal computer as a tool. I am also a long time console gamer (Nintendo: NES thur Gamecube). Over the years I have owned IBM, Gateway, and Dell products. Unfortunately, I have recently discovered PC video games. My nemeses are Doom3, Half Life2, and Fay Cry. My paradigm of the personal computer has changed forever. It is not just a tool, it is a serious TOY. I must have a better toy.

I have "lurked" in your forumz for many months and I have learned much. In particular, I have learned: 1) I can build a better toy than I can buy, 2) I must graduate from being a "computer user" to a computer enthusiast (I have much to learn), 3) In order to play with the new toy, then I must have enthusiast components. (If you are still with me then you can probably guess where this is going.)

As you know, my first decision must be; What platform (CPU, chipset, and motherboard) do I start my "newbie" enthusiast career? Over the last few months I have read I must wait for AM2 and Conroe before I purchase anything. Well AM2 is here, Conroe is almost here, and I need to make a decision. I am starting my new career with a monitor, a keyboard, a mouse, and about $2k.

Any advice for a newbie?

lol ur in a beter position than i am lol (my oldie ...toy ) came to me in 2001 and i also have been looking for new things since last winter, maby a bit earlier, in regards to the games You play im shoor ull like Crysis , btw there is anotehr game called Haze in production, its third person perspective(i think), but in my opinion it beats Crysis in graphix(its clearer, and not so...blury if i can name it in a such way)

and in regards to the gpu's i would say its beter to wait till the dx10 cards come out, thats what im waiting for, also i plan to get the 2.4 core 2 duo, 2 gigs of ram and the Asus P5W DH mobo, the only thing that might change is the procesor and gpu fom my specs. the total would cost about 1300 with the operating system , I was planing to take on Vista, but ill stick with a windows Xp Home edition OEM(again)

illuminatirex remember what i said? "Hail Grammer"!
Now to the OP(thats you bikerdjr) I'm getting my self a core 2 duo with a ati chipset and an rd600 graphics card when it's released.

I'm going with Conroe. Originally I was going to upgrade to a S939 Athlon X2 4600+ earlier in the year. But then I read some articles about the upcoming Conroe CPU. Later in March, Intel released some "controlled" benchmarks, but they were still interesting. At around the same time I was also doing research on the AM2 Athlon.

Conroe represents a departure from the Pentium 4 design. Gone are the days when Intel is bashing people over the head with GHz. They took a page from AMD's book and re-focused their strategy on an efficient CPU architecture. Their "sleeper" CPU, the Pentium M which was developed by their Israeli team, also plays a major role in Conroe's design. Based on recent benchmarks from independent hardware review sight a lower clocked Conroe E6700 can beat the FX-62. Even the slower Conroe E6400 can give the FX-62 some good competition.

AM2 on the other offers nothing really substantial. It adds support for DDR2 RAM, virtualization, and some other things as well. But people focused on DDR2 thinking that alone would substantially boost the Athlon's performance. But it doesn't. AMD is not to blame though as they publically stated that DDR2 would only provide margin performance gains even under ideal conditions. For the moment the only real thing going AM2 will be faster CPU models such as the X2 5000+ and FX-62.

AMD's competitor to Intel's Conroe is supposed to be K8L, but that only exists on paper. In one thread, an AMD fanboy posted a chart showing that AMD will be releasing the FX-66 in Q3 2007. Strangely enough though, K8L was not mentioned on that chart. That could mean that K8L may not be ready until Q4 2007 or worse, 2008.

The only way for AMD to compete against Intel for the moment is on price. I would guess that the slowest Conroe, E6300, will be the equivalent to at least the X2 4400+ if both CPUs are not overclocked.

As for motherboards... A 975XBX mobo will cost a minimum of $200; basically the same price range as the 975X mobos. The 965 mobos will probably start at about $125. But don't forget that ATI and nVidia will also be releasing thier own chipsets. Hopefully that will cause the 975XBX mobos to drop under $200.

Well have fun. I suggest you do a Google search for Conroe benchmarks, and not just rely on what people in this forum will tell you. That way you'll at least be able to determine for yourself if the AM2 Athlon or Conroe is that best choice for your needs.

lol u got me again, what can i say im dislexic, i mispel things often,

byw is the P5W DH Deluxe a 975XBX or a 975x type?
and one more question will that mobo suport more than dualcore cpu's(multicores) i read that it wil, buti was not shoor if the sources were right, and in some cases that info was on couple etailer stes.

thx

btw what cpu are u planing to get from the core 2 duo's?....just curious

The base one the E6300. (And btw i mispell things all the time but i fix it it aint that hard just double check)

are u planing on oc'ing it? ...yet again any core 2 duo rocks comparing to PIV series

Yes.

right now? none.
i'll just wait until intel launches core2. then i'll wait a couple months to see lots and lots of benchmarks, and also i hope prices drop. Then i'll decide.

Waiting for quad core; Clovertown and K8L thanks.