Which brands do you prefer?

don't have a preference for cpu manufacturer. I just get what ever has the most performance for my money at the time. But i prefer the Nvidia graphics cards. Thus for my build in 6-8 weeks it will have a C2D and Nvidia Graphics card.

Generally I like AMD / nVidia (+Mushkin, Seagate, Asus) although I am now using a Core2Duo (for the great price for a 4M cache high performance chip, but the other systems in my house & group of friends are AMD).
Jo

I've always preferred AMD and ATI. AMD have been leading Intel for several years now. Of course, that all changed with the release of C2D, but by the end of next year, I suspect AMD will have the upperhand again...

ATI have been leading nVidia for any given generation of cards for sometime now (9700 and 9800 vs FX series, X850 vs 6800, X1900 vs 7900). Again, I suspect (hope) that the R600 will be faster than the 8800. Although, I've loved ATI ever since they released the original Radeon to compete with the GeForce 2.

In my last two systems it has always been AMD and Nvidia. And its not that I don't want ATI or Intel its just I have been getting better deals with AMD and Nvidia.
BUT as of now... If I had the cash I would so go for a C2d 6400 and an ATI x1900XT,

Hmm, imo it seemed gererally AMD and AMD users gravitated towards nVidia, while they wore the performance/price/overclocking crown...
currently it seems ATI wears that crown, but may change back to nVidia soon...
So it really depends what time period you are referring to...

I generally go for whichever provides the best performance. My old system was an Athlon XP and Radeon 9800Pro. My new system is an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 and Radeon 1900XT 512MB (thankfully before prices skyrocketed).

I was going to get the GeForce 7900GT instead of the 1900XT since it is a very powerful card that consumes about 48w of power instead of the 109w of power that the 1900XT consumes. But I want to play Oblivion, so the obvious choice is the 1900XT.

I am curious to see how the AMD/ATI merger will effect things. I honestly haven't read much about it, but I hope AMD doesn't try to push using ATI and vice versa by any means other than bundles and marketing.

Generally I prefer AMD/ATI. Both companies historically had the best price/performance/watt, but if I built a computer right now, it would probably be C2D with a 7900GS.

Both Intel and Nvidia seem to have figured out how things work now, so we will see how things progress.

Ethically I like AMD a lot more than Intel, but am neutral between ATI and Nvidia. They are all large companies however so I go with what I feel is the best deal overall.

Have usually went with Intel and Nvidia simply because when I was ready to build they happened to have the current superior products.
I have bought AMD before tho the only ATI GPU I've ever had is in my laptop.

I do regret my current rig a tiny bit due to the fact shortly after I built it AMD shot ahead and then ATI got their act together, shrug, hindsight.

At the moment I am once again ready to build and leaning towards e6600 or quadro 6700. As for GPU I'm not entirely sure if I'll go with 7900 GTO or 1900XT and see how the new GPUs play out or just jump in with both feet and get the new 8800GTX when it hits because at least for a while it'll be tops. Decisions decisions lol.

I've never had a preference. My latest rigs have been as follows:

Intel : Nvidia
AMD : Nvidia
AMD : ATI
AMD : Nvidia
Intel : Nvidia

I've liked my results with nvidia cards, but that's not to say I'm a Nvidia fanboy... I just like my Geforce I guess. I tend to go with what's best at the time. The ATI 9600 was a good buy though

all ati
most amd
but chipset , mostly via

HEY G!!!!!!!! Wowzers you got me so excited, I just had to use CAPS!!!

What's up dude? I've been lost in Oblivion for the past week modding the crap out of it so it looks better. I've got so many mods on it now it's not even funny

At first it ran like butt. But, with the help of Tweakguides.com I have enabled dual core support and made it ran smooth as silk without turning any of the graphical enhancements off or down. I'm even using QARLS textures, Parralax mapping, natural enviroments, higher detailed wine and beer LOD replacements, fixed the tiling have higher quality trees and other neat little add ons... and so on and so on. 1680x1050 with everything full, AF, HDR. Of course without AA because of the nvidia debacle and since it's at such a high res it's not so noticable.

I'm lovin' it.

You are running a Pentium D I see. Make sure you enable dual core support in the INI. It takes the brunt of physics processing and such off of your primary core. That was the biggie for me. Aswell as Preload... Here this page in particular is great.

http://www.tweakguides.com/Oblivion_9.html

Make sure you are editing the INI in your documents not in the oblivion folder.... and always make a back up




The first image was taken @ 1280x720... the second is at 1680x1050

I've always used Intel processors, only because I'm familiar with them; I really don't have a basis when it comes to CPU's. And I've had about an equal amount of ATI and nVidia cards, so again. No real preference.

CPU: Whatever performs the best --> right now Intel

GPU: Best performance + good drivers in Windows and Linux --> Ati is faster but I prefer Nvidia's drivers (Nvidia supports XvMC in linux, Nvidia drivers are alot easier to get working in linux, ATI windows drivers were always breaking for my last ATI card [9800PRO]).


So right now I prefer Intel/Nvidia, but I hope AMD and ATI make me change my mind soon

Aye, but they just need to spread it out more. I hate bouncing from one company to the next in a matter of a few months. 6-12 months = bearable. 3-5 months = screw you I'm still enjoying my new hardware.

I have a preference, but I buy whatever the bang for the buck is.

I prefer AMD, but Core 2 Duo's are the bang for the buck so I have one coming right now.

As for ATI, nVidia, there's so much stuff flying around about the two I just chose a X1900XTX that I got for 239 because I couldn't get a better deal through nVidia.

First Gen
- Primary: Pentium 4 1.5GHz s423/Intel 850 (AOpen AX4T)/GeForce 3 64MB (pre-Ti split model)
- Secondary: Pentium III 800/Intel 440BX (ASUS P3B-F)/GeForce 2 MX

Second Gen
- Primary: Athlon XP 2500+/nForce 2 Ultra 400 (ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe)/GeForce 3 64MB -> Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB
- Secondary: Athlon XP 2500+/Via KT880 (ASUS A7V880)/Radeon 9200

Notebook: Pentium M 1.5GHz (Dothan)/Intel 855PM (ASUS M6Ne)/Mobility Radeon 9700

Third Gen: Opteron 165/nForce 4 SLI x16 (ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe)/Radeon X800 XL -> Radeon X1800 XL

Next Rig (To become Third Gen - Primary): Unknown @ current, debating between e6600 or dual Opteron 22xx

All machines listed in order of acquisition, and all First Gen/Second Gen machines have gone to family.