Thanks Shadow_29

Sorry for the delay. Lost in work the past few long days and nights.

Seems great video card with cheap edit type card is the best compromise.

Appreciate your candid and non-biased overview. I had the same overall impression regarding the two platforms from reading the various forums. I am really undecided at this point: mainstream intel or progressive forward thinking AMD (ie: 64 bit)..................

talk more later..........

Hey All, Happy New Year,
I recently had the unfortunate bad luck of totalling my car. It was nothing great, insurance gave me 2500 dollars to replace. Well, I had a spare, somewhat ugly vehicle, but it ran good. So, of coarse, I did the smart thing and decided to go all out on a new pc. As far as video, I honestly could not tell you anything about ati's line of cards, as I have never purchased one. I can , however, tell you that I am extremely happy with the 6800 i purchased. I got the bfg tech 6800oc 128, and paid 300. Although it is the basic version of the 6800 family, I'm am still pleased with its performance, as i am running half life 2 on best graphics and 8x antailiasing, or however it is spelled. I am not noticing any low fps or any skipping or freezing. Of coarse my amd 64 3000+ and ocz pc3200 400mhz 1 gig of ram help too. Overall I spent about 1200 on my pc, in oct. Unfortunately, I believe in order to get optimal graphics and performance, you have too shell out the doe. So save up, or reck your car, and hopefully you might get it.
Safe new year to you all.