As Baltic Trader mentions, battles between major players on hardware arena, are beneficial for us, the consumers. I wish to permit to myself to transmit some new facts on this domain, wishing too to be helpful for who will plan to upgrade their equipment in near future.
By the last bold move of Intel, a new set of processors will be launched this mid-to-end July, codenamed "Conroe".. They are adding nearly 40% more performance on these (already) very powerful AMD FX-5x series processors, while (in addition) lowering or keeping the same level of power requirements. This means these new Intel processors will generate less heat and will not demand a surplus of (already voracious) power from our comp's PSU's. In addition, they will be priced surprisingly low too.
On the AMD's side, in the close horizon, there is not a good reply to contain this Intel tidal wave. AMD is enjoying since many months a total "Power Supremacy" that is billed heavily to the costumers however. It is close to certain that AMD will cut drastically the price of its processors (those wonderful FX-5x's) after july launching of Intel. A technical reply based some nano-architectural improvements are not to be expected before 2007.
So for a new buyer, AMD or Intel? Todays, many people are asking the same question. The quasi-consensus is about to see these Intel Conroe's on the work after July, seeing also AMD's price cuts and making a decision on performance/price basis... I am one of these. We will wait until this autumn.
For me, a good assembly of computer rig is beginning with a good "Case" and a good "Power Supply Unit".. Nearly always neglected by the buyers, these two components are most important parts of a computer *on the long run*. The health and a good functioning of many other parts are "dependent" of this two units. A large and airy case and a well built "heavy + powerful" PSU are guarantors of problem-free functioning for many years. Most of the problems on mainboards + hard discs + ram modules and most of the crashes are originating from the incapacities of these two components. PSU's and Cases have also the most longevity between other elements. They are outdated at the last run.
So I recommend to every hardware fan for their future buys, a good (and pricey ;-) ) PSU, in order of preference Antec and Enermax (in Turkey, most of the Tagan's and Thermaltake's suffered breakdowns or blow-outs --maybe bad lots of import) at min. 480W of "real" power. If afforded, a 550W. Antec's have separate circuitries in 3 of these power rails, and finally, the "weight" is a really good parameter for the choice of a good PSU.
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For nVidia and ATI... I too have a Mobility Radeon X-700 on my recently bought 17" Asus W2V laptop, and of course satisfied with its performance. Although I am no shooter-kind, my other games like Sim City 4 and NFSU 2, are requiring high level of performance infrastructure. In my actual Patrician game, I have for now 12 500 ships and if a convoy for America, full of 413 000 iron goods w/ 1 652 ship + 13 200 sailors leave the port of Groningen..... on the General Map, the game is c-r-a-w-l-i-n-g as slower than molasses on a cold day.
ATI's Catalyst drivers are updated every month so more optimized for some; while nVidia's ForceWare's are less complicated and more compatible for some others. I am not an expert or specialist but my choice of nVidia label is originated from my Voodoo 2 (3dfx) days. And feeling myself more comfortable with my nVidia graphic card while tweaking/overclocking on these numerous performance settings.
PS. Acer Ferrari's are nice pieces and manufactured by Asus too, if my memory don't lead into error. For all laptop buys, a choice of a glossy screen, will not to be regretted.