if by 'clones', you mean computers like cyberpower (little-known companies that advertise in Computer Shopper, etc.), then most likely you're safe. AMD and Pentium are both great processors, if that's what you mean by clones (some idiots used to think that AMD was just a crappy pentium 'clone')..........my advice is, look @ stuff like RAM speed (pc100 or pc133 for SD, 2xx or 3xx for DDR), hd speed (5400, 7200, 10,000 SCSI), crud like that. Also look @ the manufacturers of the individual hardware....