Just curious, why such an aversion to AMD ?

Well, this had grown throughout the years.

Until a couple of years ago AMD really wasn't an option. Their CPU's drained power, got scorching hot (only thing worse then was Cyrix) and were lacking in performance. Granted, with the aquisition of Nexgen and the usage of Nexgen's technology which resulted in the Athlon, the performance thing has been fixed.

But, I still don't like AMD. Why? Their CPU's still consume too much power resulting in VERY hot chips that require a more efficient (read LOUDER) cooler. (not convinced? Check out this movie)

Also, I like intel chipsets. I've never had a problem with a peripheral that I wanted to install in a motherboard with an intel chipset. I can't say the same for VIA, SIS or ALI. I hate those brands even more than AMD. If the time ever comes that an AMD cpu will work on an Intel chipset, then I will consider one. (fat chance, I know )

A friend of mine has his own computer shop. I spend a lot of time there, so I know how much AMD cpu's gone bad he sees. A lot. In all the time he's had his shop he NEVER had an intel cpu gone bad on him.
Best part is, since a year or so he flat out refuses to sell AMD anymore, and he STILL gets a lot of AMD repairs in.

That's it really. Intel has NEVER let me down. That's something I can't say about many hardware manufacturers (Matrox is also one of them). So until intel tosses something on the market that is really utter crap, I'll stay loyal to the brand.
Sure they may cost somewhat more, but at least when I'm buying an Intel CPU, I know that I'm working with decent quality material.