Well I've been running a Phenom X3 8650 cpu on a Gigabyte 780G mobo with an HD3870 vid card for the last week and have to say that I'm very happy. The system is fast and totally stable with a mild OC to 2.5Ghz at default voltages. While I'm sure someone will point out how much better a C2D rig would perform, I haven't been to happy with my Intel experience over the last year or so. Too many glitches and quirks with two different mobos( a P965 and a P35) made this a pain too often. The AMD rig has an almost Mac feeling of stability and just working right so unless you are a benchmarking junkie and you've been thinking of giving AMD another shot, I suggest you go for it.