I am looking to build a new PC to run Suse 10.1/2 when it reaches beta...
aswell as possably reactOS and mabie windoze on multi boot,

i am currentlty looking at the
Intel Core 2 Duo E640 at 2.13GHz with a 2MB L2
and the
AMD X2 64 4600+ at 2.4GHz with 1MB L2 (socket AMD2)

though i may have to come down a bit on spechs depending on the total price when i decide on the rest of the system....

I have heard roumers taht intel have overtaken AMD on processor Bang for Bucks.
but I wasent sure what would cause the least troubel running on linux,

anyway the crux of teh matter is this,
shoudl i go for the AMD one or the Intel one?

Intel all the way.. even the lowly E6300 stomps the AMDs. At worst it beats a 4000+ easy and at best crushes the 5000+ by a good 15%. When running a raw OS like linux you will still see much better performance with t he intel, especially if you run with an SMP kernel.

Very true the latest intel if very fast (wow 15%), but since you are also looking for a good price then AMD wins.

overall price depends on teh motherboard too, which i still have to look into,
im looking at an Asus Mboard, with a Nvidia graphics card at teh moment.

using Newegg for price quotes, you can get a AM2 Athlon X2 dual core cpu for $182 or you can get a Intel E6300 for $182
then it matters on the motherboard, typically the boards with nvidia 570 or 590 for either cpu will be among the best but the Intel board with 590 are a bit tough to find and pricey right now

AMD wins on the lowest total cost. Intel wins on being the highest total cost. If using a 64-bit OS, Intel Duo gets slower while AMD processors gets significant speed boost. AMD are more energy efficient than Intel Duo processors even after overclocking AMD processors. I have not come across any benchmarks running heavy loads with several programs. AMD in the past does a lot better in heavy loads than Intel Pentium 4 and Intel Xeon because of very, very high memory bandwidth. The selection of Duo compatible motherboards are very, very low. Though very soon there will be 4x4 processors from AMD. What ever you choose is up to you.

TIP:
When using multi-processor systems, get only ECC memory. If you get non-ECC memory, the system will crash several times even though you are running Linux. ECC memory helps on single processor system too.

thanks i will bear that in mind, it seems taht teh core 2 is better on paper and mabie with 32bit OSes but as i wil be running a 64 bit Linux os then it seems that teh AMD wins, also teh prices seem a bit cheaper for motehrboads,
the processsor im looking at shoudod be about £170 - £200 inc VAT
teh Mbd about £75

I choose AMD 3500+ (singel core

But if u wan't something for dual-boot with windows then u must choose this one AMD X2 64 4600+ at 2.4GHz with 1MB L2 (socket AMD2)...

Cheers!
Bafta!

I hate to say it but this is completely and utterly wrong nowadays. I proved that a low end new generation Intel can spank a high end current generation AMD. I am not a fanboy by any means, just an educated individual. Using 64-bit OS both cpus can handle very well and the new Intel Core2Duos can handle it much faster than the AMD64s can. This is primarily due to the shared/adjustable L2 cache on the Conroe.
When comparing AMD to any Intel that is not Conroe (Core2Duo) then yes AMD is a much better choice but Intel has pulled a rabbit out of the hat and the new Core2s simply hand AMDs a** to them in a basket. Again the cheapest lowest Core2 (E6300) always beats an AMD 4000+ and in many encoding and predicatble branch processes the E6300 still spanks the AMD 5000+ by 15%. The Conroe boards are becoming much more prevalent and even some of the older low wattage P4/PD boards will still work with the new conroes (some 945s).
When using multi-core or multi-proc systems, ECC is only required by mission critical servers and high end systems, otherwise for anyone who is not their own large company, ECC is a wasted expense.

u r right but as far as price is considered if I talk of AMD 3600 they are cheap and at that price they give better performance in same price range 200$(board+processor)
can u suggest me a better config in same price range

MaxPC magazine just did some reviews on this exact subject.
The E6600 completely stomped the 5000+ X2 for the $300 cpu price range (think 5-50% advantage).
Then they have some Conroe board reviews, the Intel D975XBX ruled the roost for the higher end setup but also rings in around $275. The two cheaper boards had no clear disadvantage except for maybe no dual video card availability or no eSATA ports but the Foxconn P9657AA-8KS2H ($110) did very well for a budget board as did the Gigabyte CA-965P-DQ6 ($240). All said and done the 3 boards had pretty close to equal scores on the benchmarks (less than 5% difference between them).

you want a deal? newegg has a AMD FX-55 plus BIOSTAR GEFORCE 6100-M9 Socket 939 mobo together for $200 (combo deal, save $60).

or

Asus board + 3400 + 250GB hd for $181

or

more combos with the 3400+

or

more combo deals with the FX-55

I am the deal finder

Maybe ur right...I don't know if Conroe is much faster than an AMD because I really don't care...but if that's true then...all what I can say is...good job Intel.

I want to know if there are any issues pending while working on ASUS board that has

NB via km890 chipset
SB via vt 8237R plus
Lan Realtek 8100C

what are these chipsets are they old......
I am trying to get an AM2 board
so any place where I can look for compatible hardware or support that linux gives for AMD X2 3600+

suggest me some board of ASUS that works on AM2 socket
with AMD X2 3600 +
without any problems on FC5

im looking to spend about £250 for teh motherboard and processor tahst about $400-450 for you americans out there

AM2 is the brand new AMD socket. There are some boards that will be using the same chipsets and pieces from the socket 939/754 but since AM2 requires DDR2, most boards have been revamped with newer chipsets and such. No matter what, due to the BIOS limitations, there should still be little problems using the mainstream distros with any of these newer boards.

As long as you update to the AMD K7 SMP kernel almost immediately will you see the benefits.