CPU comparisons

[larry]

Which processor is better or faster?

 AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ (2.6Ghz, 2000HT, 2MB L2 Cache) or the Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4Ghz, 1066FSB, 4MB L2 Cache)?

Which processor would be suitable for gaming?

And also what type of motherboard, ram and graphic card is recommended with either of these two processors?

[Jonathan]

I personally run the Core 2 Duo E6600 and it is an amazing processor.  Most CPU comparisons i've seen put the core 2 duos up above the AMD 64s.

I would recommend an Asus or an MSI motherboard running the Nvidia 650 or 680 chipsets. (I run the MSI P6N Extreme which is on the nvidia 650 chipset)

If you're going to be running any new games coming out you'll definitely want 2 gigs of ram.  Corsair or OCZ DDR2 6400 2 x 1gig sticks.

On the video card, the Geforce 8800 cards are really the fastest cards available.  You can get them anywhere from $250-600 depending on how high end you want it.  They're great cards and they are fully DX10 compatible for all the new games coming out.

[Kyleee]

If you don't planning to overclock x5200 would be a little faster in games, bu E6400 is MUCH faster if overclocked.