88crxSi

not really. when you compare what they are faster than.. the mid range Core2 E6600 has a MSRP of about $300 US, it smokes the $800 AMD Athlon FX-62 (top of the line AMD). and there is 1 slower Core2 model for a little less, but it gets slightly outperormed by the FX-62.

IMO, BOTH of those motherboards are overkill if you dont do gaming. I would wait for Core2 to come out and compare prices. If getting a Core2 system is a few hundred more than a current AMD system then i would do it.

otherwise, for regular PC use w/ light gaming i'd suggest the following.

Main Board: Asus 570 Ultra board (socket AM2) $121.90
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...nufacture=ASUS

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2-4200 (make sure to get AM2 version) $229.98
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...D&promoid=1020

Memory: 1 gb (2x512mb) OCZ ddr2 PC2-6400 $113.60
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...OCZ Technology

Hard Drive: 250gb wd Sata2 (current quiet champ) $105.32
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...estern Digital

DVD: BenQ 1650 DVDRW $47.09
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...nufacture=BENQ

Case/Power Supply: Antec NSK4400 380w $90.44
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...ufacture=ANTEC

Video Card (option 1 - higher power): Powercolor 256mb x1900gt $343.66
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...13&vpn=X1900GT 256MB&manufacture=PowerColor

Video Card (option 2 - lower power): Sapphire 256mb x1600pro o/c $164.45
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...cture=SAPPHIRE

Total w/ Vid1: $1051.99
Total w/ Vid2: $872.78

all prices are in Canadian dollars and are regular prices, wait a few days and that site will have the weekly special on and some things will be cheaper.

In my opinion if you dont game AT ALL, like literally 0 then get onboard video and save a few hundred.