the question is: what are you trying to accomplish?
if you're just learning c++, it doesn't really matter.
if you're trying to write a windows (win32/mfc) program, stick with visual studio.
if you're trying for portable gui apps, borland may be the thing for you.
if you're trying to write highly optimized code, consider
intel's x86 optimized c++ compiler.
if you're writing a unix-style app, or one that will most likely be ported *everywhere* (especially unix), you might want to try gcc (
mingw is native for windows, or the
cygwin environment uses a unix emulation layer).