Archer 007 came out of the closet to say:
I've desided to look into custom-building.
What sort of processor would you guys recommend, what vid card, and a motherboard that would be compatable with it?
Depends on what you're looking to do.
You can buy a top of the line system (minus video card and monitor) for roughly $600 - 700.
I highly recommend Asus motherboards. You wont need to worry about buying an ethernet card or a soundcard in most cases since most motherboards come with these built in.
As far as video cards go, it depends on what you're looking to do. If you're just going to play simple games like Civ III and some other random games, you have a lot of options. If you're trying to get your hands on Half Life 2 and Doom 3 or other 3D intensive games when they come out you will want to consider paying 300-400 bucks for a good card. The ATI 9800 XT is one of the best available. Some prefer the Nvidia FX 5900 or 5700. Ultimately video cards are your choice for what you're looking to do with it and how much you're willing to spend.
And regarding your AMD vs. Intel issue - everyone will tell you opposite things. Some will swear by AMD and claim they are cheaper and faster, while some will claim that Intel is more powerful and whatnot. Both have their pros and cons. AMD processors are known to heat up quite a lot. Intel are known to be expensive.
When I made the decision in December I opted for a P4 3.0 Ghz. The 64 bit processor AMD was offering doesn't offer much more performance really considering almost all applications used on an average desktop are designed (and will continue to be) for a 32 bit architecture. Windows is going to be supporting 64 bit processing, yes, but you wont see too much performance. So don't let the whole idea of having a 64 bit processor make or break your decision. The same goes for Hyperthreading that is offered with the newer P4 processors. Windows XP is compatible with HT technology, but you wont see a signifigant increase in performance either. (Although the 800 Mhz FSB is nice
)
Don't be stingy on the kind of RAM you buy - the brand and the type makes a difference. Giel and Kingston are good brands.
Same goes for a power supply unit (PSU). I recommend Antec.
