Hi, I've been having this issue for a few weeks, and am still not 100% sure if this error is causing the crash. I have tried fixing by looking it up, but haven't had much luck. The error is Session "Microsoft Security Client OOBE" stopped due to the following error: 0xC000000D Event ID 3 I have read that deleting the EppOobe.etl can temporarily fix this error/crash but it hasn't for me. I did a full clean reformat and am continuing to crash. I haven't completely ruled out software being the cause of the issue because I still get this same exact error right before a crash. By crash I mean everything just freezes up, sound will loop. I have to hold the power button to turn off and turn back on. Any help would be appreciated, this is driving me nuts. As of right now I'm completely uninstalling MSE to see if the error goes away and the crashes. Thanks in advance -Nick I'll also add that I have monitored all my temps and nothing is wrong with them. If this error isn't causing the crash, then the only 2 things I have left to rule out is failing memory or PSU. Using Asus Probe it shows that all my PSU voltages are normal, though, so I don't think it would be my PSU (?).

Have you run CHKDSK? How about SFC /SCANNOW? Deleting the EppOObe.etl worked for me, although I've read of other cases that it didn't. Use memtest86+ for the memory test < http://www.memtest.org/ >. Use it to create the boot CD for testing. If you've done a full format and clean installation, then I would be leaning more to the hardware side than software. SC Tom

I have done SFC /scannow. There was nothing wrong. I removed MSE and all files associated and I still crashed receiving the same error. Another error I've been receiving at the same time is Audit events have been dropped by the transport. 0 Event ID 1101 This is so danged annoying. I've read that errors associated with that have been fixed by changing network adapters... but I'm not sure how that is related to the error. I've also tried 2 different network adapters, both being from the same manufacturer though. Edimax 150mb/s nano usb b/g/n wireless adapter. I've had the adapter for a few months and have had no issues with it. These crashes just started happening about 2 weeks ago. So now I don't know which error is causing the crash. I've already reformatted and getting the same error right after reformatting which also doesn't make sense to me... So lost right now, so irritated. I will run the memory test right now.

Is there any way to run memtest without making a boot CD?

You can make a bootable USB pen drive if you don't have a CD drive or access to another PC. Pick this option from the Memtest page: "Download - Auto-installer for USB Key (Win 9x/2k/xp/7)". You can run Windows Memory Diagnostics by going to Start, type in "memory diagnostics" (without the quote marks) in the search box, and press Enter. It'll ask you if you want to restart and run it now, or run it the next time you restart, your choice. It's pretty decent, but nowhere near as thorough as Memtest; I've seen it miss errors that Memtest caught on its first pass. SC Tom

Ok thanks. I will do that soon. I'm currently using another PSU from my gf's computer. I've been on for about an hour and a half so far with no crash. I have an Asus P6T mobo and I'm using PC probe to look at voltages. This is the one thing that is suspicious although I looked it up online and it said this voltage is still fine, but, the 3.3V rail is down to 3.17. I read it can still be fine down to 3.13 but both of those seem pretty low. The other power supply all the voltages are good and the 3.3V rail is up to 3.28. 5V is 5.19, 12V is 12.31. Do you think the 3.17 could be causing a problem with power? Also I'm still getting the Event ID 3 error about the MSE OObe... I get it on start up also. Still not understanding that because the program no longer exists on my computer... but I suppose that error isn't causing the crashes then.

Just ran the memtest and completed it with no errors. So I've ruled out CPU and GPU temps, memory errors, I've fully reformatted... Gonna keep trying out this other PSU and see if it's fixed, but that seems to be the likely culprit, do you agree?

I agree. And to answer your earlier question, those voltages are pretty much in line with what you'll see. Most PSU are within ±5%. If you do buy a new one, don't cheap out. One of the users on the Answers forums, Vegan Fanatic, is very knowledgeable about these things. You might want to look up one of his posts and see if you can contact him there. (I haven't noticed him on TechNet.) SC Tom

Ok thanks for all your help. I'm still running good with other PSU, been about 2 hours total now. I know what PSU I want =P. This current one wasn't cheap, but it's about 6-7 years old now. It's an Antec 650W Tri-rail. It's the only thing I didn't upgrade on my last build haha. I'll post back if I crash again...

Ooooooooooooooooooooooook. As soon as I posted that, I froze. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Back to the drawing board........ Ok. Here's some more details... I seem to only freeze when playing a video game. The only one I have installed at the moment is World of Warcraft, but that's when it crashes. And again, sound loops as well when it freezes. Even if my CPU and GPU temps are fine, I know there could still possibly be a problem with either one. Also can a hard drive cause this type of freeze up? I was getting these crashes with a radeon hd 5850 installed, and I recently upgraded to a radeon hd 7850 about a week ago and still getting crashes, so it's pretty unlikely that is what's causing the problem. The memory is fine according to the memtest, but can there still be an issue with hit? I can use my gf's ram which is identical if there can be other problems not detected by memtest. The PSU has now been ruled out because I've use 2 different ones with same crash. Now, I'm thinking it is the CPU, but my gf's CPU is not the same as mine... Here are my technical specs now that I'm back to step 1. Asus P6T LGA 1366 Mobo 6 GB DDR3 RAM 1333 OC @approx 1700 i7 920 2.66GHz OC @ 4GHz Radeon HD 7850 My CPU/RAM have been overclocked since the day I built the PC which is right when the i7's came out, so it's a bit old and has had a fairly high OC on it... I can downclock and see if that fixes anything. Maybe my CPU is toast now (?)...

I wouldn't think the CPU is toast (or even lost a core) or you'd see worse problems than you're already having. What is the power rating of the power supply? AMD recommends a minimum 500w for the 7850 card (plus the 75w 6-pin plug). http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/7000/7850/Pages/radeon-7850.aspx#/2 Of course, that's assuming a pretty minimum system, like one HDD, one optical drive, etc. And if you've OC'd both the RAM and CPU, you're drawing more power. Did you raise the voltage on the RAM and CPU? You may have to go a little bit higher. For testing purposes, I'd either drop your OC down to maybe 3.0 to 3.4 and see what happens, or just bring everything (FSB and voltages) back to stock and see if it's more stable. Here's a decent calculator for your system: http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine Enter all of your current hardware, and OC and voltage settings to see what it recommends for a PSU. Here's Vegan Fanatic's site, and some useful recommendations for PSU's: http://www.hardcore-games.tk/store/psu.php Plus you have to remember when looking at Asus Probe; just because the voltages are true, doesn't mean the amperage is there. Even a dead battery will show close to 1.5 volts :-) -- SC Tom

I've been overclocked with it for years stable at 4 GHz. I've done that PSU calculation on that site before and it recommends a minimum 434watt PSU (lol) with all my hardware including overclock (just have 1 hdd and 1 dvd drive). So I was just thinking that if something has suddenly gone wrong with my CPU, maybe a lower clock will make it stable again... but I'd be unhappy with that and have to find a new processor =(. I have an Antec Trio 650W with all the necessary plugs. I've just learned though and I don't know how long it has been like this, but the fan is dead on the PSU (unrelated from the crashes because I swapped PSU's and still got the same crashes) so I guess I'll have to replace the fan on it but still have not found the root cause of the freeze ups. My question for PSU fan: It's a 120mm fan size, does that mean if I purchase a normal 120mm fan, it should fit in the power supply? I've just gone back to stock clocks and will play for a bit to see if I crash... I'm actually an IT professional and came asking for help when I couldn't solve this Event ID 3 and now everything seems to be getting worse and worse trying to find the cause of the issue (banging head against desk).

Nevermind about the PSU fan, looked it up and it is a normal 120x120x25 fan. I haven't froze up yet at stock speeds and have done the normal things that have been causing the freeze up... still can't say whether that is the issue or not because it's lasted a few hours without crashing before... The last thing I can really do is transfer all of my hardware (minus the CPU and motherboard) to my gf's computer and see if I crash with any of my hardware... then it's for sure the CPU but dang that is a lot of work =(.

I've thought the hardware transfer but I don't think it will be very beneficial... I guess all I can really transfer over is my GPU and memory which both are fine... I don't think it's a hard drive failure because I think I'd be gettin blue screens from that... I don't know if my motherboard could be causing a crash. All I have left to change out is my CPU and again, I have a 1366 and my gf's is 1155. I'm debating on how to fix this issue because if it's my CPU, it's more expensive to purchase a new 1366 worse CPU than to buy a brand new 1155 motherboard with a brand new ivy bridge quad core... (1366 cpu is about $315 and 1155 h67 mobo and ivy bridge is about $290...). This is boggling my mind.

Yeah, I thought you might see the error of that way before attempting it :-) One thing you can try is disable all but one core on your CPU (it's a 4-core, correct?). Run it for a while and see if you get the error again. If not, add a core, test for a while, add another core, etc. If you get an error with more than one core, disable one and add another. If the i7 is anything like my Phenom, there will be one core you can't disable, but if it's bad, you'll see problems with it by itself. I know it's time consuming testing this way, but your only other option for the CPU would be to a) buy a new one (which would be cost-prohibitive, especially if that's not the problem), or b) take the CPU to a local shop for testing, if anyone in your area has the equipment to do so (which also may be cost prohibitive). You could download and run a burn-in or stress-test style diagnostics and see what trips out. I haven't used any in so long, I couldn't begin to suggest one any more, but I'm sure you could find one on line. SC Tom

Yeah it's a 4 core and I do believe I can disable some of the cores. And I really do not and will not throw out money to Geek Squad lol. One of my thoughts which is sort of not-so-nice is buying a LGA 1366 CPU from Best Buy and testing it... if I don't crash, I know that's the issue, and I'll return the 1366 CPU and go from there... I read their return policy and it looks like I could do that but I'd feel sort of wrong doing that... I'm downclocked right now to 3.6GHz, going to try playing for awhile tonight and see if I crash.

Ok I already crashed. I keep getting this error: The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly. Event ID 41 Task Category 63 I've researched this several times and the answers are very very vast... Is this just an error telling me I have a problem but does not give me any information about it... I've seen fixes ranging to programs causing the problem to power supplies to graphics cards...

I found this forum thread with no solution but same CPU as mine... http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/79016-kernel-power-event-id-41-task-category-63-bsods.html

Same issue with a solution. http://allthingsvu.com/2010/04/12/fixed-microsoft-windows-7-random-shutdown-event-id-41-task-category-63/ But his issue was his CPU was overheating... my cpu temps are good (around 65C under full load).

What are you using to monitor your CPU temps, and what do you get under load? According to here: http://ark.intel.com/products/37147/Intel-Core-i7-920-Processor-(8M-Cache-2_66-GHz-4_80-GTs-Intel-QPI) Tcase is 67.9°C, but I can't imagine you getting that warm without other symptoms. I don't know what else to suggest, other than making sure all your fans run well, and that the heatsinks and case interior are clean. Maybe it's just one of those things that the only solution is a new set-up. If you come up with something, post here and I'll be sure to read it. If I think of anything else, I'll post here, too. SC Tom

"Ngwylie" wrote in message news:30c1e46e-fdbd-402e-ad04-6d563a96b85e@communitybridge.codeplex.com... Same issue with a solution. http://allthingsvu.com/2010/04/12/fixed-microsoft-windows-7-random-shutdown-event-id-41-task-category-63/ But his issue was his CPU was overheating... my cpu temps are good (around 65C under full load). If you're getting temps that high (even under full load), you're only 3°C from max temp. For a brand-new, non-overclocked CPU, you might get away with it, but I'm thinking as long as you've had this one OC'd, that may be the problem. Back in the day, I tried my my hand at overclocking a 486DX50, and it worked like a champ for quite some time, but the older it got, the less stable it became. It finally got to the point that even bringing it back to spec didn't help much. You may have hit it on the head thinking it's the CPU. Man, Intel is proud of their CPU's, aren't they? Pretty pricey for an old CPU! SC Tom

Hey Tom, That's some good info about the CPU temps... I hadn't even thought to look that up. Ok, what I did last night is I dissasembled my entire computer... it was pretty gnarly inside, my CPU heatsink (Zalman 9500) had dust clogged all throughout the fins. I took the heatsink off, cleaned off all the thermal paste (which was also in pretty poor flaky condition) and reapplied some new paste... I also found a few bent pins on the motherboard CPU socket, not sure if I had just done that by accident, or when I initially built it a few years ago... but I rebent the pins and but everything back together and here I am up and running (Thank God). Right now I'm back to 100% stock clocks... my CPU is extremelyyyy cool right now, idling at 34. I'm using the PC Probe to monitor my CPU temps... and, I actually was not 65C under full load, I was up to 81C! Thay may have been the issue................ I hope it was the issue, hoping so so so much. I think I was normally at around 65C full load when I first built the computer... I only recently reinstalled PC Probe. Guess that is myyyy bad. I am going to play for awhile at stock speeds. If all is well I'm gonna bump up the clocks again. I hope this is the solution, I feel like a complete dummy letting my CPU get that hot and not cleaning out the heat sink regularily. I post back here in awhile to say if I'm all good now.

I have just looked up and read though that the i7 920 can go up to around 85C according to overclockers.com... but again after 4 years of use, maybe it can't handle it anymore! My PC Probe was giving my alerts at 81C. I also read that the CPU shuts off if it hits 85C from a website techpowerup.com. Either way, I do believe you are right to think that after so many years, my CPU can't handle the high temps anymore... I think I'll shoot around 65-70C tops.

Cool! (no pun intended. . . well, maybe a little :-) ) I hope that's all it is; would be nice to have a cheap solution, wouldn't it? Keep us posted! SC Tom

Been on for about 25 min, no crash while playing... still not long enough to make sure it's fixed. Will keeeeeep goin... My temp is between 40-48C while playing... Dang.

Ok I think it's safe to say my issue is fixed. I've been on since my last post with no crash, I've even set my overclock back up to 3.7GHz... My full load temp while playing is still about 48C tops. I feel very foolish for thinking that 80C was my normal lol. Thank you for all your help, I guess I was reading into this error event too much. I've even had this crashing issue in the past and my CPU temp was the same cause for the issue heh. I am so happy it's fixed... I was going crazy over it.

Great! I'm glad that's all it took was a good cleaning. Certainly cheaper and easier than a new CPU and/or MB. Happy computing :-) SC Tom

Ok I'm posting back here... Issue is not fixed. I crashed about 5 minutes ago again. It lasted all throughout the day until now. Event viewer shows right before crashing (None of these are new, I was getting these before): Event ID 6008 The previous system shutdown at 9:05:37 PM on 7/16/2012 was unexpected. Event ID 41 The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly. Event ID 3 Session "Microsoft Security Client OOBE" stopped due to the following error: 0xC000000D Event ID 1101 Audit events have been dropped by the transport. 0 After booting I had (This is new and I looked it up online and read it can be ignored): Event ID 10 Event filter with query "SELECT * FROM __InstanceModificationEvent WITHIN 60 WHERE TargetInstance ISA "Win32_Processor" AND TargetInstance.LoadPercentage > 99" could not be reactivated in namespace "//./root/CIMV2" because of error 0x80041003. Events cannot be delivered through this filter until the problem is corrected.

I am a complete loss now... I have no idea what to do next. I don't know what else can be eliminated as a cause. I do not want this to result in a brand new PC... CPU temps are still fine 35C idle, around 50C under full load. GPU is 34C idle, 45C load.

This is the fix I used for the Event ID 3; delete this file and reboot (C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Microsoft Security Client\Support\EppOobe.etl). 6008 and 41 are to be expected after a crash and shut down. I used this to fix my Event ID 10: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-US;2545227 Most likely none of those are causing your crashes. I haven't run into 1101 before, but this post and numerous others seem to attribute it to overclocking: http://windows7forums.com/blue-screen-death-bsod/76417-new-system-bsods-freezes-random-please-help.html I know you're used to the speed you have, but I'd throttle back on the GHz and see if that fixes it. After getting your CPU temps down to an acceptable level, you seemed to run longer without crashes. Just an idea. . . SC Tom

Ok. I'll ignore those other errors... I had my CPU back up to 3.8GHz. I've just now put it down to 3.2GHz and I'll see how that behaves later on today. Still not happy if I can't have the same performance I used to =( but better then spending money I don't have on a new computer.

May be a bit off topic from this whole thread, but do you really see a big increase in performance, or is it just a perceived increase because it should be faster? IOW, do you have benchmarks from before and after to show that there are now yy calcs/sec as opposed to xx calcs/sec before? I can't believe HDD access is any faster since that's pretty much set in stone (silicon?). Don't get me wrong, I'm not against trying just about anything, but if I can't physically see or feel a difference, I don't see a need for it. I recently went from a 2.8GHz AMD dual core to a 3.2GHz AMD 4-core, and to be perfectly honest, the only difference I could see was an increase in the overall smoothness of operations, but not any real speed increase other than maybe in the loading of some heavy-duty 3D games (Call of Duty, Crysis, etc.). But that may just be the 4-core vs. 2-core. I guess I could disable a couple of cores in BIOS and see how it feels, but that seems like a lot of extra work for probably nothing perceivable :-) SC Tom

Yeah when I originally set up this PC 4 years ago I did comparison tests between 2.66GHz and 4.4GHz through 3Dmark and PCmark and the differences were by a reasonable margin (couple thousand score difference). I'd have to do tests again to get exact numbers... but going from 4GHz down to 3.2GHz I suppose won't be too much of a difference... I used to be at 4.4GHz a few years ago but it seemed unstable. The biggest hardware increase WOULD be to get a faster HDD. I have a normal SataII 7500rpm 16mb cache. I wish I could go to a SataIII HDD (just got one for my gf and man you can see the huge difference) but the Asus P6T is SataII only and I've read that raid controllers for SataIII don't work well. While we're talking about hard drives, do you think this could be related to a hard drive issue? I'm not sure if hard drives would cause random freeze ups. I'd figure a hard drive crash would result in a BSOD. I can actually format a different hard drive and test that for a few days... But again don't know if that can be a cause here. And I would honestly say half the reason of overclocking is saying "Yeah I started at 2.6 and got all the way up to 4.4!! I'm better than you!!" lol. At this point I'll be happy enough to say guess what, I had my computer overclocked for over 4 years, and I'm still running stable.

Oh, I get your point :-) I guess if I could boost my 3.2GHz to 5.1GHz and have it stable, I just might try it. I wouldn't want to have to buy a liquid nitrogen cooling system for it though LOL!! It could be the HDD, but not too likely. Did you ever run CHKDSK /R? That'll check the blank sectors also. Or download and run the diagnostics from the HDD manufacturer. My board doesn't support SATA-3 either, or I'd already have one, too. I could dig 6GB/s over 3GB/s any time :-) SC Tom

Haha. I ran the chckdsk right after I read your post.. didn't realize it'd take so long. No problems though. No issues with SFC either. I've set my CPU clock to 3.0GHz... If I crash tonight then I don't know any other solution other than building a new computer. Again, my computer freezes only while playing... never crashed at desktop before. I don't know if there can be an issue with my CPU still even if it isn't overheating. Maybe they are just random freezes because of some malfunction? I'm actually going to download Prime95 and run stress tests... I'd think I should crash there too if I'm having a CPU issue.

Been running Prime95 custom stress test length 8 x 8 (Primarily just for CPU) for about an hour and a half. Prime95 will do much more extreme things to the CPU especially compared to World of Warcraft... so far no crash. CPU temp is topping out at 65C and clock is at 3GHz... I don't know what the issue can be other than my CPU is worn out? Or if I crash in World of Warcraft only, it's a World of Warcraft-only related issue... even though I've already reformatted... I don't know. I'm clueless. Going to keep running Prime95 for awhile longer.

You wouldn't by chance have another video card you could install, do you? If it's not the CPU, it could be the video card itself, since it seems to be crashing in WoW (pretty heavy graphics, isn't it? I don't play myself, so I'm not sure how video-intensive it is). I've only had one in twenty years that died, but I guess it does happen. SC Tom

Yeah I already tried a different video card, wasn't the issue =(. I was having this issue with my Radeon HD 5850 installed, and upgraded to a 7850 and still crashing. My 5850 is also in my GF's computer and she does not have any issues. WoW actually uses a lot of CPU power along with video card for their graphics, which is why I may be seeing issues with crashing related to CPU... but after about 2 1/2 hours on Prime95... that should have crashed it there. Like I said I'm down to 3GHz... maybe I just can't handle the high clock anymore. I'll post again if I crash in WoW, I've been playing for about the last 2 hours with no issues.

Ok... so far so good. I'll review everything I did here for the "Answer" so if someone else encounters random issues this may help... Symptoms: Crashing while playing a video game (World of Warcraft) Solutions tried: 1. Memory test (good) 2. SFC scan, disk check (all good) 2. Power supply swap (good) 3. Reviewed temps of CPU and GPU (CPU high, GPU good) 4. CPU was high in temp, took apart entire computer, cleaned everything, CPU heatsink & reapplied thermal paste - CPU temp back to normal 5. Crashing still occured but less frequently at 3.6GHz, downclocked my overclock (i7 920 2.66GHz @ 4.0GHz down to 3.0GHz). 6. Ran Prime95 8 x 8 CPU stress test for a few hours, no issues. No crash so far. Hope this helps anyone in the future with a very irritating problem. The solution seems to have been that my CPU can no longer hold a high overclock (almost 5 years old now and it's always been from 2.66 to 4.0). Unfortunate, but better than having to build a new computer when you're limited on funds.

Ok................ Disregard that last post. It. Is. Still. Crashing. Seriously. What can be wrong. Every single piece of hardware has been tested. The computer has been reformatted. Why would there be crashes??? Can anyone else help me out on this. There doesn't seem to be any solution. Did not get any errors before crash. It just crashed. This does not make ANY sense. I have never encountered this issue before. There is nothing else to test. I've swapped power supplies, tested memory, ram, cpu, gpu, hard drive check, sfc. What ELSE can there be???!

Ok................ Disregard that last post. It. Is. Still. Crashing. Seriously. What can be wrong. Every single piece of hardware has been tested. The computer has been reformatted. Why would there be crashes??? Can anyone else help me out on this. There doesn't seem to be any solution. Did not get any errors before crash. It just crashed. This does not make ANY sense. I have never encountered this issue before. There is nothing else to test. I've swapped power supplies, tested memory, ram, cpu, gpu, hard drive check, sfc. What ELSE can there be???!

OK since nobody has anymore ideas, and I do not... I've concluded with buying a new motherboard/cpu/ram and hard drive. Get rid of everything that could be causing it since PSU and GPU had been swapped and did not fix problem. Really didn't want this to be the fix... but here comes Ivy Bridge.

Bummer! I really thought that un-overclocking it would fix it :-( I read on one of the newsgroups that the bent pins on certain Asus MB was a somewhat common occurrence, and quite often they broke when straightened. No chance of that happening on yours, is there? I think you mentioned early on that a couple of them were bent? SC Tom

Yeah there were 3 bent. Not sure if it was from primarily installation or when I took it off... but I bent them back succesfully using tweezers. I ordered a new set up to eliminate all the possibilites of freezing... It's a 1155 Z77 mobo, i5 3450 Ivy Bridge CPU, DDR3 1600 RAM, SataIII w/ 64MB cache. Will be using my same aftermarket Zalman cooler... I've read you can pump those puppies up over 5GHz pretty easily. I am picking the "locked" version. I'm not going to pay a premium just to have an unlocked multiplier, I'm used to the "old school" way any way, upping the blck! That's why I picked 1600 RAM, will prob bump it up to around 1900. Can't wait! Haha.

Oh and if you're interested about price, it wasn't that bad. Spent a long time comparing between Amazon, Newegg, Frys, Best Buy, Tiger direct. I ended up just going with Newegg. Everything was free shipping, and I don't have to pay taxes because I'm in Nevada, not CA. Also had 2 promo codes for 15$ off. Total was $399.56! The unfortunate thing is, if you live somewhere near a Micro Center, they sell the Ivy Bridges for $50 cheaper than anyone else! None here in NV though =(. They apparently have a contract with Intel, allowing them to sell for wayyy cheap. Normal price for 3450 is $200. They have it at Micro for $150!!

I had two bad experiences with Tiger Direct years ago, on of them costing me ~$350, so are off my shopping list forever plus one day. Sounds like a decent setup for the price. Too bad about Micro Center; 50 bucks is 50 bucks. I don't know what the tax base is in CA, but it's got to be 12% by now, isn't it? If so, that would eat into the $50 some (but not enough to not make it worthwhile). Don't know anyone in CA who could send you one? Ever thought of going with AMD CPU's? Other than my Gateway laptop, I haven't owned anything but AMD since around the time the old Slot1 Pentium was released, and I can't complain about any of them. They are a bit less expensive than Intel. Enjoy playing with your new setup; I know I would :-) SC Tom

Honestly I haven't kept up on AMD CPU's and chipsets for years now. I was a fan back when the 939 pins were out vs any intel. As soon as Intel created the Core 2 Duo, they've been ahead AMD for the last decade maybe? or more? I do know that AMD sells their CPUs much cheaper, but there's a reason for that =P. I mean, you can get a 6-core pretty cheap from AMD, but it doesn't even compare to an intel Quad core, even back to Bloomfield (the first quad core i7's). And the intel dual cores out perform AMD quad cores. I won't be going back to AMD anytime soon. I've heard some news of the upcoming "Bulldozer" from AMD, but have also read that the Ivy Bridge again blows it out of the water. It's unfortunate =( I did used to love AMD.

Also you can look at tomshardware right now, and on their single core comparisons, even the old old old Wolfdale Core 2 Duo beats the AMD 6-core.