New system build -advice

[Chris B]

I'm putting together a new system and I'm torn between two options:

Option 1:
Mobo: Asus P5E-VM HDMI
CPU: Core 2 Duo E7200
RAM: 2 X 2 GB Kingston
HDD: WD 320 GB
DVD: Donor drive
GPU: Asus Radeon 4850 (onboard for starters)
Case: Coolermaster Elite 340
PSU: Corsair 450W
CPU cooler: Stock Intel cooler for starters

Supposedly the motherboard is very good !? And the CPU should provide excellent bang for the buck!?

Option 2:
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H
CPU: Athlon64 X2 4850e
RAM: 2 X 2 GB Kingston
HDD: WD 320 GB
DVD: Donor drive
GPU: Asus Radeon 4850 (onboard for starters)
Case: Coolermaster Elite 340
PSU: Corsair 450W
CPU cooler: Stock AMD cooler for starters

Again, the motherboard/CPU combo gets great reviews.

This will be a casual gaming rig, and I may even opt to get a slightly cheaper GPU. I will be playing games like Crysis, NFS series, Call of Duty, GTA4 (when released), but I'm not too hung up on max resolutions/effects etc. My main concern is not the price difference. The Intel setup will cost me an extra 100$ (aprox.).

I'm mainly concerned about heat/cooling/performance issues. I plan on cooling the CPU with a Ninja mini eventually (hopefully using only a 120mm case fan).

- How much hotter will the Intel run (if at all)?
- Will the AMD CPU become too much of a bottleneck for gaming (does it really perform that much worse?)
- Any general opinions, things to consider?

Any advice would be much appreciated before I hit the order button

[Helevitia]

Well, I just bought my first non-Asus motherboard ever. It's a Gigabyte. Although it's not horrible, there is no comparison to Asus. My next mobo I will be switching back. First of all, there is not one single BIOS update for my gigabyte mobo after 6 months of it being out. Asus updates like once a month or two or sometimes more. Asus has much better manuals and everything is generally setup easier to use.

Part of this might be the fact that I'm jsut not used to the Gigabyte setup after using Asus for so long, but just a small part. Just my 2 cents on the mobo aspect.