I'm not defecting or anything, but...

I think I would move to an AMD if I wasn't so damned scared.

If someone could send me an email or post something here to dispell my fears, I may strongly consider re-considering my latest upgrade build... no matter how I flip the situation (P4, dual P3s), AMD seems like the logical next step; and yet fear of the unknown and blind devotion to the familiar is keeping me stuck on old.

Your words of wisdom will be GREATLY appreciated...

I should note that the cooling I've seen for chips seems really dramatic... can one get by with a lowly quality heatsink and fan when overclocking these chips?
Can my current harddrive and other cards still work in the new system? I'm ignorant and have a learning curve ahead of me.

for what it's worth, I'm running a KT7A RAID with 512 mb ram, an AXIA proc, and I forgot the heatsink/fan combo... Got it from pcnut though...

Temps are fine, Proc is smooth (1ghz) no problems at all for me and I put it together myself...

I'd do it again in a minute...

And the cooling is not too out of this world either... very easy to install, no screwdriver or pliers needed...


Scorpion12

I've gone thru dozens of systems. amd and intel alike, and let me say that these new amd processors are a snap to install. they put out a bit more heat than intel cpus, but they are much cheaper and performe better.

HEY PINKY!!! Remember me from the intel section??? Check out the sig, this was also my first time with an AMD, and fear not. They are very stable/reliable/FAST processors. There processors are much cheaper than intels, and there motherboards are about the same price.

Some tips :

Get a DDR motherboard (Epox, ASUS A7A266/A7m266, ABIT)
Duron's usually hitt around 950 and if you are lucky even more
Thunderbirds (1 ghz+) usually hitt between 1.33ghz-1.5ghz with air
Get best quality ram, don't go cheap on it, or it will go cheap on you on high fsb's
Try to get the best heatsink in your budget, the cooler it is, the higher the overclock
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for $213 shipped i got a ASUS A7A266 motherboard, and a Duron 750. I have an extremely crappy heatsink, and you can just see what results i got, they aren't too bad. I just got some DDR ram, and boy just it make a difference! What is great about the A7A266 is that it has SDR (3 slots) and DDR (2 slots) for ram. I wouldn't get the A7M266 because it has no multiplier manipulation, but if you aren't going to go very far, then it is a good board. It has better performance than the ALI Magik 1 chipset.

Just decide what you want to get for a certain amount of money and choose. Thats what i did, and boydid it turn out great!

GOOD LUCK Keep me informed!

Well Pinky if its any comfort your not alone I have always had Intel but I am just about to purchase my first AMD just waiting on the price of the Abit KG7 to come down a bit then I will be buying one with probably a Duron 700 or something cheap just to get the water setup working right then I will buy the fastest Palamino money can buy.

Have no fear, AMD's are great procs. I have been using amd procs for years now and have never had a problem. Actually, the only diffiult time I had building a system was when I built an Intel based system for a friend of mine. The only downside is keeping these piggy's cool. A generic hsf will do fine for stock speed and MAYBE a modest OC, if you want to push it, you will need one of the larger hsf's.

Fiz

Well, thanks for all the feedback.

I stayed with some of my current hardware and upgraded my cpu to a P3 1 Ghz.

When the time's right, I will most likely go with AMD.

See you again soon, all your comments helped tremendously.