a choice between amd and intel coming soon

[dalex]

time for a minor upgrade
pc is for games,surfing,video encoding,downloading,large juke box,tv output just about everthing it can do
its now
asrock dual sata
amd 3700 at 2.53 ghz (fast enough until i need to multitask ie video encode and surf)
2gb good samsung ram at 230 mhz
25o gb hard drive
pioneer dvr-110d
7900 gs
vista ultimate
all parts coming out will be used in one of the kids computers

my choices are
£100 opteron 165 running as fast as its little legs will carry it

£150 asrock 4CoreDual-VSTA
Intel Core 2 DUO E4300
or Intel Core 2 DUO E6300

i have never built intel so i am in need of some advice here to enable me to make the right choices
please just give good honest advice
thanks
dave

 

[Snapshot]

The C2D is the better CPU but I haven't seen anything about the mobo yet and I suggest asking about it in the motherboard forum. The original Dual-VSTA didn't always overclock well and had distinct limitations in its PCIe graphics card support so it's worth checking that the new one is better.

Jonathan

 

[bramski]

I have an asrock 4core dual mobo and an e4300. Overclocked to 2.4 ghz on stock volts and fan and is rock solid. I could probably getmore out of it but I don't really know how much about overclocking. I'm still using my old DDR333 memory with it too.

 

[dalex]

Bramski
"I have an asrock 4core dual mobo and an e4300"

what graphics card are you running with that mate and is the pci e slot 4x or 16 x as information about this board is limited
thanks
dave