Ok, I'm doing a fairly major upgrade at the end of next month (Conroe launch [B]and[/B] huge AMD price cut), and up until now I have been dead-set on getting one of Intel's new Core 2 Duo dual-core CPUs. That was until nVidia released their new nForce 590 chipset. Although AM2 is nothing more than 939 with DDR2 support, this new chipset has more features than I've ever seen packed onto one Northbridge. Look [URL="http://www.nvidia.com/page/nforce5_features_amd.html"]here[/URL] for details. Plus it has that crazy-ass EPP shit that automatically overclocks your memory...voltages, timings...all of it...done. All of that plus SLI.
On the other hand we've got Intel's Conroe. Blazing fast, yes...but it runs on the same old 975 chipset that Pentiums have been using for almost 2 years now. They are bringing out the new 965 (Broadwater) chipset, but the 590 makes it look like somthing out of 2001. Dual video is Crossfire only....and I piss on Crossfire. To piss me off even more, nVidia is bringing out a 590 for Intel (supposedly) at Conroe's launch, but it doesn't support DDR2-800....667 only. There is supposed to be a revision late this year, but there is no way in hell I can wait that long.
So, the question...should I get the sexy, brand new Conroe with a sub-par chipset, or the lesser perfoming AM2 (I would get the least expensive 3800, as it would just be a stop-gap) with the un-fucking-real feature set, and drop in one of AMD's true next-gen chips when they come out next year??
It's the same old shit...now or later. Conroe blows the doors off of anything AMD has on the market right now, but there is a good chance that their 65nm process chips will be every bit as good...or better, with a much better chipset running under it.
Thoughts??