Components for affordable, low-power, cooler gaming PC

[gtrasi]

Hey guys...I am not sure which gang to join, AMD or Intel?

Now Intel is leading the race with faster processors and its Core2 E8200 6MB is a cool buy, but the problem is with Intel theres no good onboard video mobo.

The good news is with AMD we now have 780G series which is getting good reviews so I decided to stick with AMD.
However I plan to use it with nVIDIA 8800GT , hopefully it should cause any drivers issues with AMD mobo (any thoughts?)...

If I choose AMD, whch proc shld i select...Do i go with Windsor EE or Brisbane?
Is 1MB L2 enough when Intel is cmgup with 6MB???
Also shld I stick with 65W or jump to 89w since X2 5600+ 2MB 89W Windsor seems nice?

Need advice!

[RickyTick]

How about a Brisbane like this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103212

and put it on this motherboard (Its Micro ATX, but a solid performer)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128090

[shyster]

Well I guess the first thing is why AMD? Is it just because of the integrated video card?

I have not used such a card, but it fundamentally is similar to what is used in laptops right? That means that while it has some lower end functionality and good use for a home theature system, for a high end gaming PC (high end in this instance meaning crysis, COD4, etc.) you need a seperate card. However once you install another card, that card also starts eating power, so now you have two power drains instead of just one.

In essence this really falls down to how good the hybrid system is. I have no experience with it, but just from reading about it shortly it seems it might only work with other similar radeon cards. That means Nvidia's stuff might not work, or at least not work correctly with the hybrid system.

Also just as a side note all of AMD's CPU's are still the 65nm technology which means you are just trading some power efficiency at the video card, but losing some at the CPU. It also means your computer will run hotter, and apparently the 780G board gets hotter than normal boards because of the onboard GPU.

All of these things are not firsthand experience though, so take them as you will.

As it stands currently though I would suggest that AMD's role in the future if they do not quickly catch up to intel will be for laptops and home theature systems. For actual desktops and especially gaming computers Intel is hands down the way to go.