I'm in the early stages of planning a new rig. I want to stay with an intel processor but other than that I have no bias as to which way to go. How about suggesting your favorite MB, Vid Card, etc.
Thanks,
Keith

I can tell you what I put in my new rig but I am a power gamer and may have different needs than you. What will your new pc be primarily for?

Another question... why limit yourself to Intel? AMD has a great line of processors that is priced cheaper than Intel and perform just as well if not better. I hope you are not biased due to the compatibility problems in the past with the old Cyrix processors

Anyway, here is what I have:

AMD 2000
MSI K7T266 Pro 2 MoBo
512 Mb Ram
PNY GeForce 4 Ti 128
Sound Blaster Live!
Maxtor 30Gb HD
Linksys 10/100 NIC

I forget the exact number but my system almost reached 10,500 3D Sysmarks from Mad Onion. Not a bad rig, if I say so myself!!

I don't know much about the new Intel offerings, but let me tell you one thing that I DO know for sure...

STAY AWAY FROM THE 845 CHIPSET....

Definately go with the 850. My friend just builf a 2.2ghz Intel with the 845 & he is already shopping for a new motherboard. Half of his games won't even play (Spiderman,SoF2,Ghost Recon)

Do a Google for gaming & intel 845... You should see what I'm talking about.

__________________
MSI 875P NEO-LSR Mainboard - Intel P4C 3.0Ghz (800Mhz FSB) - 2 x OCZ PC4000 512MB DIMMs - 4 x WD800JB 80GB/8MB Cache (RAID 0+1) - SB Audigy Platinum eX - ATi Radeon 9800 Pro AIW - Sony Trinitron 19" - Windows Server 2003 Enterprise

Rob,
I've always used intel processor's and I guess it's just what I'm comfortable with. I did see a comparison between Intel and AMD on heat tolerance which showed AMD in a very poor light

http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/01q...atvideo-05.html

but really since I use good heat sinks anyway it all boils down to personal preference. I am currently running promise IDE raid on two 40Gb Deskstars. Its seems alright but nothing to write home about. Any thoughts on using this in my new system. I'm not much of a gamer. Its more about the fun of building and bragging rights. Your system is certainly up there for "bragging rights". Thanks for your response.
Keith

Dan,
Thanks for the heads up on the chipset. This is just the kind of info I need.
Keith