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Hi.

Since 1993 with my first 386/40 (AMD) and 7 CPUs later I never got an Intel, only AMD. Now, my 2500+MP (@ 2410) is getting old and I need new gfx so I decide to look around to do an upgrade.

At the same price tag (£212/$424 USD) I have two top choices. Up to now I never considered to get an Intel CPU. But lately I see a lot of AMD funs, happily, switching to Intel, so I decide to open my mind
Packages
a) AMD X2 5200+ with Sapphire AM2RD580Adv (Crossfire) motherboard.

b) Intel E6300 with ASUS P5W DH Deluxe (Crossfire). Unfortunately I cannot find a cheaper Crossfire mobo based on Intel 975 than this one so the CPU can only be E6300 to be in my budget area. Also I read a lot around that E6300 is brilliant for overclocking even with stock HSF and a lot of people manage to make it faster than the E6600!!!! (Is that true?)

I would like to hear some productive opinions. (AMD vs Intel flame isn't productive).

Thank you
Panos.

Now the best choice is Intel one, Core2duo. U will can overclock it to 3ghz easy and maybe up to 3.5ghz. And u will be happy for 3 another years at least.

Can i ask you why u need Crossfire mobo ? U will get 2x Ati Radeons ? R600 is comming in end of januar and it will be 2x faster than today Radeons. And u dont need Intel 975 mobo, the 6300/6400 overclock better on Intel 965 mobo.

with a 975 mobo and a e6300, you will be limited to around 3ghz, which will beat out that am2 setup.

with a 965 mobo and a e6300, you could get it up to around 3.4-3.5ghz (see my sig).

mind you, with the e6300, you need ram that will keep up. ddr2-800 is mandatory, and if you get rams that can overclock to ddr2-1000 then you have a shot at 3.5ghz.

i agree about the crossfire, unless you see yourself buying 2 top of the line cards at the same time (~$1200), i don't think it is worth it.

Thank you both.

Good ideas. I wasn't thinking to go for an R600 first thing but wait for the ATI medium range DX10 cards to come out.

An X1950XT (the 256MB models are on the same price as the X1950Pro 256 at £130), will serve me well until then. So imho if I have Crossfire the X1950XT might be usefull as physics card when I get a DX10 one. Or it isn't viable and scrap the whole idea and get the R600 monster?

Regarding the motherboards if I go for 965 mobo, (Asus P5B I heard is good for overclocking?) having 1 slot is there any way to put physics card on later? Also P5B will save me £48/$96 so I will be able to get Corsair DDR 800 not 667 i was planning.
Thank you
Panos.

afaik, the only true physics cards available are in pci form, not pci-e. so yes you would be able to.

now if you were looking to turn say a x1600xt into a phys card down the line, that would not be dooable, unless you went with a p5b-dlx, as it has 2 pci-e slots, but one only works at 4x (this would still be suitable for phys, i would think).

really, i don't see dedicated phys cards catching on, or becoming a must have, for another year at LEAST. but you never know.

if you were looking at a budget 965 board to save some cash, i would look at a p5b-e, for matrix raid, or a gigabyte ds3 (you could also look at a S3, but make sure its a 965 chipset model, and not a 945 chipset model, i don't know why, but they made like 5 diff s3's, with both chipsets).

also, to answer one of your original questions, my e6300 totally smokes a stock e6600, 3.5ghz vs 2.4ghz. the extra cache is nowhere near enough to make up the diff. even at 3ghz, the e6300 would be a lot faster. now if you oc the e6600 to 3.5ghz as well, then it would win by a bit in some tests, a bit more in others. not enough to justify the price diff IMO (if you are trying to stay on budget).