Motherboards seem a hard choice. Is there no brand that clearly stands above the rest?

Keep helpin' guys! Thanks!

TheFighter

I'd have to disagree with this. I have had nothing but asus boards for the past 3 years, and have had only a positive experience. Their tech support is second to none, and they are the number one selling company for a good reason.

I am not discrediting the fact that you have had a bad experience, just questioning your suggestion of avoiding the company all together.

Asus, without a doubt, should be in your list of considerations when buying a motherboard.

Wait a minute... the guy who's going to "eventually get around to" programming doesn't know any of this for himself?

And doesn't know what a CPU's clockspeed is?

Just get a PSP and we'll all be safer.

The fact that I am a hardware n00b, means I need to learn. My experience with computers is pretty good, but, will get better. Just because you happen to be further down the line (and also, probrably older than me) does not give you the right to discourage somebody learning.

Okay, thats my rant done....

Now, ive just looked up some stuff about Processors, and I was wondering if anybody can give me a clear cut answer, as to which AMD 64's support SSE3?

My most probable tech spec is to be:

ASUS Motherboard

2 x Seagate 160GB Hard Drive

AMD Athlon 64 3800+

1GB DDR400

ATI Radeon / Nvidia (Yet to be chossen, probrably Nvidia 6600)

WinTV Go

Sony CD/RW & DVD/RW Combo Drive

Floppy Drive

Any thoughts on this anyone?

Just a note, don't forget about your PSU. Most people seem to leave it out when asking for advice, but it is probably the biggest cause of headaches if you don't get a good one (or one without enough power) and the hardest to correctly diagnose.

Same goes for your ram. Once you choose your motherboard, you can start getting advice for ram as well.

Looking like you have a pretty nice system coming together!

When picking a computer tech spec it pretty much goes in this order:

Processor
Motherboard
RAM
Graphics Card
PSU
Hard Drive
Extra Drives

OK then.....

sorry to mess up your "order" with my suggestion. Disgregard it for the trash it is. :blackeye:

lol, hell no DonNagual!!! I wasn't meaning that....I had actually forgotten the PSU up until you mentioned it!!!

[DonNagual peaks head around corner]

Ok then! Glad to hear I read you wrong! :grinthumb

[Goes back into hiding]

I think it's far cheaper to get a 300 gigs or even a 400 gigs HD than 2 x 160, actually i read seagate has launched it's newest HD with 500 gigs capacity. And from what i read, seems u like to try new things, so a big HD will be nice, as long as it fits ur budget. And from my personal experience, Seagate will be nice, and i heard they guarantee their HD for 5 years, instead of 1 year with the other brands.

About M/B, i think it's relatively the same with all the major brands: Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, ABIT, etc. If u're lucky, u'll get one which will work perfectly for years to come, but if u're not, u'll get one which will make ur days in hell. If u really want a good one, try some brands focusing in server M/B, like Tyan, because they tend to be more problem free and more stable. And be sure to look for a M/B with all the features u would like, for example extra slots for extra HD, one of my friend just realized that he needs more slots for HD, even though he already got 4 SATA + 1 IDE HD (900+ gigs).

For graphic cards, the best ones i know are nvidia 6800 or radeon X850, but they will cost an arm and a leg, so i won't recommend them. A 6600 or X800 will suffice for any games for years to come.

As for RAM, 1 gigs of RAM should be enough for any personal use i guess, and u can always add another if u want to in the future, just be sure to get a M/B with at least 4 slots for RAM, and the Corsair value select is a good (and cheap) choice.

For processors, u can buy anything u like, but i think a64 3500+ is more than enough for years to come, and a64 3800+ doesn't offer much more power, but costs a whole lot more.

U will need a good casing and PSU, nowadays computers needs more and more power, i even heard that P4 4GHz was canceled because it consumed too much power and the heat generated was too much. A Thermaltake casing and PSU should be enough, just be sure to get at least 400W PSU

For the optical drive, i agree that a DVD writer is very cheap nowadays and u can read and write CDs with it too. For the brands, i personally like the cheap and reliable Liteon, it's one of the cheapest so if something goes wrong, u won't cry too hard while dumping it into the trash can and buy a new one.

Apart from the CPU itself, i think it's much better (and much more comfortable) to buy a not too high spec CPU and invest the rest of ur money in a big, nice LCD monitor, a UPS, a nice wireless keyboard and mouse (Logitech MX 1000 is quite nice), an all in one printer, scanner, and copier, and a good set of speakers.

Keep in mind that u also have to spend some money to buy the softwares, and they can be very expensive.

Good luck with ur computer

i'd say that a 6600gt card is the least he can get. and don't forget that graphics cards become obsolete faster than any other component. i advise that you get an athlon64 that is based on a 90nm process (stay away from newcastles).