On Sun, 27 Nov 2005 22:34:05 +0000, Mike O'Donnell wrote:


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.

Yes and yes.

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.

You may have other issues. I prefer Linux myself and except for the very
latest implementations it covers about everything using the default
kernel installation option.

Intel has been good in being consistent. Support for about all of their
stuff is solid.