"Ron Gibson" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 23 Nov 2005 07:23:34 -0800, mso999 wrote:

Within my price range, and keeping the items I want to retain, I've
narrowed my choices down to the following:

AS8 with a Pentium 4 650 3.4Ghz Intel 865PE chipset.

AV8 with an Athlon 3800+ 64 X2 dual core, VIA K8T800 chipset

I've always used the Intel chips, but am leaning toward the AMD system

I am not in any way trying to bash AMD, but I've had no personal
experience with their CPU's and the Via chipset. Are there any issues
related to AMD/VIA systems? Also, I know CPU clock speed isn't

VIA is OK but straight out the box installs tend to default to preferring
Intel.

IOW I like the 865PE - Running it here w/ P4 3Ghz CPU, 800MHz FSB.

I'm not sure what you mean by "..straight out the box installs..." Are you
talking about Windows? I always assume any initial installation is going to
have issues until the drivers are updated, configured, etc.

I've always been using Intel CPU/Chipsets, and would normally stick with
Intel, but I like the idea of getting a dual core processor without having
to purchase new RAM & video. The ABIT Intel dual core motherboards all
require DDR2 & PCI Express video. That puts the price for the system
upgrade of of my range.

Also, AMD and VIA are a lot more "standard" now then they used to be when
they first started out.

As I said, I'm leaning to the AMD, but was looking for any feedback on the
configurations described and possibly if someone's using the AMD config, are
there any major (or minor) issues involved.

Mike O.