I've been undecided about this for a while, and now I have to make my decision tomorrow (last day of employee computer purchase program at work).
I want a system that performs well, but performance isn't everything. I want low power usage, and good upgrade prospects. I tend to keep the same PC for about 5 years, so it would be really nice if I could upgrade my CPU in a year or two without having to buy a new motherboard. 775 has been around for a long time, and Intel seems to keep pulling a trick where they keep making new chips that use the same socket but aren't backwards compatible with older motherboards, makes me a bit nervous about an upgrade future with Intel.
OTOH, AM2 is relatively new, and AMD has said that AM2+ and AM3 processors will be backwards compatible with AM2 motherboards. BUT with AMD floundering to regain the performance lead, what are the chances they will make drastic changes sooner and scrap the backwards compatibility plan? Or what if they continue on their path but only lag further and further behind Intel?
It kind of seems like Intel is the better choice, though my understanding is that AM2 EE chips are more energy efficient than C2Ds, and to make my decision harder the boards that have the features I want are the Asus P2B-E and the M2N-SLI Deluxe -- and the M2N seems like a much better design, especially since I will be using PATA and SATA and it looks like the PATA cable will block the SATA slots on the P2B.
I want a system that performs well, but performance isn't everything. I want low power usage, and good upgrade prospects. I tend to keep the same PC for about 5 years, so it would be really nice if I could upgrade my CPU in a year or two without having to buy a new motherboard. 775 has been around for a long time, and Intel seems to keep pulling a trick where they keep making new chips that use the same socket but aren't backwards compatible with older motherboards, makes me a bit nervous about an upgrade future with Intel.
OTOH, AM2 is relatively new, and AMD has said that AM2+ and AM3 processors will be backwards compatible with AM2 motherboards. BUT with AMD floundering to regain the performance lead, what are the chances they will make drastic changes sooner and scrap the backwards compatibility plan? Or what if they continue on their path but only lag further and further behind Intel?
It kind of seems like Intel is the better choice, though my understanding is that AM2 EE chips are more energy efficient than C2Ds, and to make my decision harder the boards that have the features I want are the Asus P2B-E and the M2N-SLI Deluxe -- and the M2N seems like a much better design, especially since I will be using PATA and SATA and it looks like the PATA cable will block the SATA slots on the P2B.