There's no denying that AMD has finally put their stamp on the industry and won over many gamers in the process. At 750MHz, there's no faster Athlon due out this year (unless you include the 800MHz Athlon recently reviewed but coming in January). Be warned at over $800 in price, this isn't a present that can be pigeon holed in the 'value' sector and if you wait till Q1 of 2000 the price will come down in reaction to the 800MHz Athlon being released. It'll give any avid PC gamer hours of pleasure though it also delivers to any PC widow even more hours spent alone.
Intel's fastest CPU to date steams in at a pacey 800MHz and via the .18micron ('Coppermine') process. As with any newly introduced CPU, it comes at a whopping price (around $880). Don't expect to pay any more for expensive RDRAM though- at $10 per megabyte, who can afford to? Pound for pound, the fastest CPU on the block but it's also the priciest. Ouch. This CPU will also be so hard to find due to being available in such limited quantities.
Microsoft's hardware division has been producing top quality peripherals for some time. One of the year's biggest hits has been Microsoft's new Intellieye infrared mouse technology. Gamers that are sick and tired of their mouse balls getting dirty, grimy and generally 'ganky' can kiss good bye to all that as this new technology renders the need for a traditional mouse ball useless. Learning to use Intellimouse Explorer is like riding a bicycle. You fall off a couple of times and get a grazed knee (or lose a frag or two in this case with bad aim) but soon get the hang of it. It's a little pricey at $89 but at least it doesn't require cleaning.