New computer build

Grimm

So i'm really out of the loop when it comes to computer hardware these days. I used to prefer Amd over Intell but last i heard, things were starting to change in Intells favor. I dont even know what the standards are anymore. What brand to use, what socket cpu to use, etc? So for a brand new built from scratch gaming / multimedia pc, what would be a good cpu to use? I also wouldn't mind suggestions on mother boards or video cards. Price range at the moment is going to be around 1200-1500$ but could be flexible.

BlochWave

Well AMD doesn't have anything to directly compete with Intel's dual and quad processors yet, that I know of at least. When looking at these things keep in mind that performance wise a 2 Ghz Core Duo(or Duo Core?)beats the snot out of a P4 running at twice the clock speed, for a variety of reasons(the most obvious being it's a dual processor but other things, it's not as simple as "it's twice as fast")

For your budget you might think about getting one of the quads. A 2 Ghz quad would beat the ass out of a duo, and the duo beats the poo out of a P4, so do the math on that one.

Nvidia's GeForces and ATI's Radeons still seem to be the most popular. Nvidia's 8800 series GeForces are frickin ridiculous and I think performance wise are the champs right now, with the most expensive ones packing like...700 something megabytes of memory and are just fast as hell. From what I hear(on this very board)they're gearing up to release their NEXT set of video cards too, so you might want to wait for that and get a cheaper 8800 or see about their new ones

Gadeus

As far as video cards go, look into the 8800GT, which is coming out fairly soon. It's better than the 8800GTS 640mb, but it's around a hundred dollars cheaper.