I would like to pick one to buy around the end of the year!!! i7 is a better processor BUT the AMD candidate has better toys (ie. cooling)

Intel Specs:
*AZZA Fantom 900 Gaming Tower Case
*750 Watt -- Corsair CMPSU-750TX Power Supply
*Intel® Core™ i7 920 Processor (4x 2.66GHz/8MB L3 Cache)
*XIGMATEK Dark Knight 120mm CPU Cooling Fan System H.D.T.
*EVGA X58 SLI Intel X58 Chipset CrossFire and SLI Supported w/7.1 Sound, Triple-Channel DDR3, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, 3-Way SLI PCI-E MB 3-Way SLI
*6 GB [2 GB X3] DDR3-1333 Triple Memory Module
*NVIDIA GeForce 9800GTX+ 1GB

Final Price: $1,389

AMD specs:
*AZZA Fantom 900 Gaming Tower Case
*750 Watt -- Corsair CMPSU-750TX Power Supply
*Quad Core AMD Phenom™ II X4 955 Black Edition Quad-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology
*Coolermaster V10 Hybrid TEC CPU Cooling Fan System
*ASUS M4A79T Deluxe AM3 DDR3 AMD 790FX CrossFire Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, Dual PCI-E MB
*4 GB [2 GB X2] DDR3-1333 Memory Module Corsair or Major Brand
*ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB PCI-Express x16

Final Price: $1,175

Both Have Vista Home Premium 64-bit as well, will be duel booted with Windows XP, service pack 3, UNTIL windows 7 is released.

Any Recommendations?

Well id stick with the Intel i7, its what my gaming PC has, (ok, my PC restarts ramdomly for no reason), but I think its the power supply, but the intel i7 is one amazing processor, so id stick with that! Besides, ive never used a AMD, so I cant give a opinion on that lol

Oh, and about the OS, I like your idea to dualboot, and I really like that you will get Windows 7 when its out, but Microsoft currently have a Windows 7 Release Candidate, which you can get for free (seems stable, my friend usues it as his only OS on his two laptops, and looks amazing!), and it disables in EXACTLY one year, so you could just get its release candidate

I don't want to add to the Intel vs AMD CPU-fued, but overall it's quite simple though:

Intel with it's newest CPU (i7-series) is faster in most situations than the regular AMD counterparts, but its a trade-off:
AMD's might be a bit slower but they are cheaper and the motherboards generally are more socket-compatible, i.e. they last a lot longer as far as upgrading the PC is concerned. AMD also for a long time was more generous with it's power consumption (lower TDP). Intel seems to have fixed those problems lately.

In general if you want the performance crown and you have the money for it, chose Intel. If a little performance drop does not scare you off and you want "more bang for your buck" (upgrade compatibility and longevity of the system), choose an AMD based system.


Same goes for GPU's:
Performance wise (under Windows) they don't outrun each other much, but if you want your system to run with a stable, decent 3d performance on OS-es other than windows, I suggest sticking with NVidia. This applies to installing and support of the driver(s), more specifically on Linux.

ATi has made quite a progression from the old days, but it's still not quite on par with NVidia's support and performance today, as far as Linux goes.


@Doom: Odd question? Why a NVidia 9800GTX and not a 260- or a 280-series of cards? (Newer Chip, with possibly a die-shrink and lower power consumption).

@Otellino: It might also be a heat-problem, check your temperatures and verify if your airflow is not compromised.
Especially when the crashes or reboots are occurring only if you are gaming.

i would say wat i know, i and my dad have always been nivida for grpahics, and intel for procesors... so i stick with what i know hehe

but thats just me

biulding