[TheRileyFactor]

I just read some about the Istanbul and a couple new AMD processors that are going 6, 8, 12 and 16 cores, which is crazy! I was out of the loop for a few years, and man have things progressed! I also read about that real soon they'll be out with the 35nm process, and then 25nm shortly thereafter. I also found out some information about a few Intel processors in the works, namely the Larrabee which is rumoured to have around 32 cores, but theres nothing official other than that its pentium based, which should be an interesting development. AMD was definitely caught sitting with Intel's Core 2 lineup, no question. The Pentium4 ran hot and slow, while the Athlon 64 was much faster, had a higher FSB and could overclock like crazy. I have been reading that the Nehalem architecture has an Octo-Core in the works, we'll see when it comes out tho.The Opterons are definitely winning out in the server/workstation market tho, IMHO because they are so much cheaper than Xeons. Xeons are great processors, but DAMN they're pricey! The system I just got supports virtualization, I'll have to try that out... i've never worked with it before...

We are definitely finished with the GhZ battles now though, its time to see how many cores we can cram into a system!

Oh... and to get a little bit back on topic (I think this has evolved into a much more in-depth discussion than Mark originally intended!) Aram is definitely right, all of the big computer companies have their strengths and weaknesses! HP makes some great media computers and some great monitors, but so does Dell. Given, I'm from central Texas and have MANY relatives and friends that work/have worked at Dell, so I will admit I am somewhat biased, but their systems are all great, and their service is even better. However, the best way to access that service is to buy the computer directly from them. Best Buy is an intermediary, and you can often get better deals buying directly from Dell because of the huge sales they so often run, and shipping is nearly always free. They even have a system based around the Core i7 (Studio XPS series) for under $800. HP also has a similar offering, but its at $949 base. The only company that I would advise you stay away from is eMachines. Their computers have good specs and are cheap, but they are made from very low quality components. I have had 1 eMachine, and my grandmother and uncle have each had one and all 3 died within 4 years, which in my book (I still have a Dell XPS that I got new with a 733MhZ Pentium III in it so long ago that runs just as well as it did new) is unacceptable. Dell has some great offerings, and they're having a huge sale on monitors and consumer electronics right now (I just bought a new monitor from them a couple days ago)

-Daniel