Intel or AMD, ATI or Nvidia etc.

[Bunyip]

just what i needed!!!
thanks

[ChasR]

If you could choose between.

1. Processor:
AMD  Office computers, Gaming Rigs
Intel  Video Editing


2. Videocard:
Nvidia  If all I played was AH2
ATI       everything else
The manufacturer is not critical the chipset is.


3. Mainboard. Abit
I have both Abit and ASUS boards and prefer the Abits, 875/865 Intel chipset orNForce chipset for AMD
 
There is big diffrence in mainboards.

4. Ram. Corsair dual channel DDR kits- Value Series for office computers,  TwinX low latency for gaming rigs.  Manufacturer is not as important as latency.  Other good Manufacturers include Mushkin and OCZ

Intel's 925XE chipset may cause me to change recommendations in the future.  4.0 GHz on a 1066 MHz FSB w/DDR2-667 ram may prove to be very potent, but it will also be very pricey to begin with.

[paulieb]

For those about to buy an Athlon 64 or Athlon FX motherboard and CPU, I'd wait a couple of weeks. Both Socket 754 and 940 are in the process of being replaced by Socket 939. The Socket 939 CPUs allow dual channel non-registered memory, plus even if you only buy an Athlon 64 3200 now, you can still get an FX-53 later and NOT have to swap boards.

Video cards: I'm gunshy about the NVidia 6800. Seems the power requirements are kinda ridiculous. I've had nothing but NVidia for the last 5 years, but will be moving to ATI with the X800 XT as soon as we can get them here.

Memory: not much reason at this time to use anything faster than DDR 400. 1 gig should be plenty... for now.

[Gie]

I'm using 2 years old AMD 2000PR on Asus MoBo with 512MB RAM and ATI RADEON 9000 64MB . OS - W2kSP4.
AH2.06  runs  fine (tested only offline).
75 fps in open air, 40+ near airfield and drones.
Increased visualization  settings - no much changes in performance.
Guess I will stick with this setup for another year or more.