[nmglug] suggestions on computers?

[Andrew Farnsworth]

On Fri Oct 24 11:19 , 'Mindshare Studios' <info at mindsharestudios.com> sent:
>I was just wondering if you guys had any suggestions for buying computer
>components... I'm thinking about building a new machine and I have typically
>ordered from Tiger Direct but I thought ping the list and see if there are
>other recommendations. Also, if anyone want to weigh in on AMD v. Intel that
>would be cool - I've never had an AMD set up so I have no personal
>comparison.

Damian,

As to where to buy, newegg just voided an order of mine because they could not
verify the address it was being shipped to with my CC company.  I was shipping a
new monitor to my mother's address as her old monitor is dying.  After speaking
my CC company and with their support monkeys 3 times on the phone and twice via
their chat system I thought it was all cleared up, the CC transaction even showed
up online and my CC company confirmed it had cleared.  Newegg's fraud prevention
department still would not ship to her address.

That said, I will now weigh in on the Intel vs AMD end of things.  If you are not
pushing the edge of computing power then consider them both equal.  Right now,
Intel is more compute intensive with their CPUs than AMD but AMD has better power
management, memory throughput, and a lower price.  In almost all cases you will
save power and money with AMD, but you will have slightly better performance with
Intel.  One thing to consider, if you need high levels of computing power, you
might look into nvidia graphics cards and using them for generic processing (like
folding at home for example).  If it is supported, you will get much more processing
done with a slower CPU and a better GPU than just a faster CPU.

Andy