Background : last week, the SATA controller on my motherboard (Asus A8N-E) got fried (freak accident, no idea what caused it) and it can no longer access any SATA device. I have decided to build a new rig as my main system and hopefully salvage my current one as a backup system. I have not been actively looking at hardware for nearly 2 years, so am not up to date with current developments. So I am going to begin with a few questions as I am still undecided about whether I should go with AMD or Intel.
I understand that current Intel Core2Duo CPUs are supposed to be better than AMDs current crop of models. But since I am not really complaining about my previous AMD 64 3200+, I assume any modern CPU should be good enough for my purposes (web browsing, word processing, minor image processing, loads of MP3 ripping and light gaming). Which one is better : AMD 64 X2 5000 compare or Intel E4500?
Seems like I have more motherboard choices with Intel system than AMD. The AMD motherboards I found were considerably cheaper than Intel based motherboards. I am basically looking at an Asus M8N-E for the AMD system or one of the Gigabyte (GA-P35-DS3L or GA-P35-DS3R) motherboards for the Intel based one. Is the M8N-E good and stable? I have read some negative things about it (but that was quite a while ago) so am wondering whether it is worth it - I do not intend to overclock.
I am also looking at some passively cooled video cards - might want the new rig to be able to deal with high definition video decoding (not likely to rip so encoding should be a non-issue). We just got high definition digital terrestrial broadcast in Hong Kong, and I was thinking about adding a TV card to take advantage of this. Any passively cooled video card recommendations?
Thanks in advance for all the help!
I understand that current Intel Core2Duo CPUs are supposed to be better than AMDs current crop of models. But since I am not really complaining about my previous AMD 64 3200+, I assume any modern CPU should be good enough for my purposes (web browsing, word processing, minor image processing, loads of MP3 ripping and light gaming). Which one is better : AMD 64 X2 5000 compare or Intel E4500?
Seems like I have more motherboard choices with Intel system than AMD. The AMD motherboards I found were considerably cheaper than Intel based motherboards. I am basically looking at an Asus M8N-E for the AMD system or one of the Gigabyte (GA-P35-DS3L or GA-P35-DS3R) motherboards for the Intel based one. Is the M8N-E good and stable? I have read some negative things about it (but that was quite a while ago) so am wondering whether it is worth it - I do not intend to overclock.
I am also looking at some passively cooled video cards - might want the new rig to be able to deal with high definition video decoding (not likely to rip so encoding should be a non-issue). We just got high definition digital terrestrial broadcast in Hong Kong, and I was thinking about adding a TV card to take advantage of this. Any passively cooled video card recommendations?
Thanks in advance for all the help!