No sermon it's up to you. Just remember I built you a Intel Machine and you had Zero problems with it. I built you a bleeding edge AMD machine and you never could get all the bits to work correctly.

Now that you have O in the family I know which one I would rather have (The one that you don't have to constantly tinker with :-)

I've had three AMD boards now (the most recent one being my first home-built PC, which I blogged about a little while ago...) and I've never had a board-related problem, other than lack of expansion space and that's a problem on ALL boards when you're buying based on what you can afford NOW instead of what you want to be able to do with it in a month or six.

The PC that drove me away from Intel was an HP PI 75 (the last Intel I had....) It hella sucked for several reasons. Most notably the lack of expansion and the crappy chip architecture. Intel has come a long way since then but I still haven't gone back....

Well, I will stay away from the intel/amd debate, much like I avoid mac/pc debates. But I will pipe up about one thing.

cart.horse.

Looking forward to possibilities within a 64bit chip is a smart move. But honestly I think looking at buying one is a step not needed right now. Considering the fact that there is only one 64bit operating system available now, what's the hurry. Once M$ gets its sh!t together and finally releases to the public a full 64bit OS, then it should be considered.

Why you would want to get hardware that doesn't have the software to take full advantage of it confuses me a bit.. and I'm a techno-nerd. I guess I have had one too many times where the software finally came out, but was designed for a little different hardware architecture. Oh well.

Let me know what problems you are having. I might be able to help you out with hardware.

* The 64-bit OS for AMD is due out 1st quarter '04. Yeah, yeah, I know, but it should mean it'll be out some time next year.

* AMD optimized this processor to run 32-bit code just as well as 64-bit code. When it came out three months ago, all reviews showed it to be THE system to get performance wise. The new intel "extreme" chips have leveled the playing field somewhat, but they don't have the same potential.

* It's just plain cool ;)

Ok, guys, you can do better than that (at least I hope).
Build from scratch or buy one together already.
Service plan or not (if purchased). HAH!
64 vs 32
Intel vs AMD
Lets discuss IPv4 and IPv6 next time.

compatibility, reliability, cost, upgradable

are you sure 64 is the next BIG thing?
there are a lot of things going on focusing on the motherboard right now: Memory, Bus arbitration, Cache (L2 and other(s)), Multiprocessors, I/O
figure out what you NEED and WANT and for WHAT then work from there

(Sorry, just finished my Graduate Level Advanced Computer Architecture Course this semester).

It takes a woman, a sister-in-law at that, to set you guys straight. I have no idea what any of you are talking about. I have a brand new scanner, copier, fax and something else that is still in the box after almost a year. I also have a new DVD player still in a box on my couch. Won't someone come home and help me? ROTFLMAOPIMP!!!!!!