Hi.
Alright.....me and my brother plan to build our own computers this summer. we want to make pretty good gaming rigs. Right off the bat, I suggested the P4 3.2 ghz, but he thinks AMD is the way to go...<<Im willing to spend a few hundred on a CPU...so should I get AMD or P4?? Also, can someone like post a easy,reliable checklist of what exactly I need (parts) to build my computer? like motherboard,video card etc etc..I have a rough guess that my budget will be about 1.5k ish. Whats my best bet for the AMD chip? oh and for a case, i want the a-top zalien,is this a good case?
that just about does it for my questions...feel free to comment on anything else i might need to know, it is my first time building a comp. thanks, jim.

Ok the AMD Athlon™ 64 FX-53 Processor with HyperTransport Technology is the way to go the HyperTransport Technology eliminates the north bridge bottle neck as well as other advantages.
Motherboard: ASUS SK8V - VIA K8T800 Motherboard

Memory: 1GB Corsair XMS DDR SDRAM PC-3200 Registered ECC - 2 x 512MB Module,

Video Card: GeForce™ FX 5950 Ultra 256MB 8x AGP w/DVI & S-Video

Hard Drive: 250GB Western Digital Caviar SE Serial ATA 7,200 RPM 8MB Cache

Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro - 7.1

OS: Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional

Has for the CD-ROM I would suggest a DVD-ROM as most new games will soon require that you have one and also a CD-RW would be good. But I would get two drives not an all-in-one. The Floppy is up to you as there all really the same. I'm not sure the cost of this setup but I would bet it's up there. I hope this help if you have anymore question let me know and I will go into deep detail with anything that you need.

Quick Check List:

CPU
Motherboard
Memory
Hard Drives
Floppy
Sound Card
Video Card
Networking Card
DVD-ROM
CD-RW


Ok I think that’s all this setup as I said should be a really good setup I'll say this I wish I could have it. But these are all the components that are on my buy list. Hope this help.

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If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.

Oh forgot the case just about any case should be fine. I would suggest that you get something with a 400W power supple and that can have plenty of fans for cooling

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If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.

cool thanks ALOT for that chunk of info...how much do you think thatll all cost? (not including my case)

I did a quick calculation on NewEgg.com and came up with approx. 2k including everything...thats good for me. thanks for the help. nowwww all i have to do is get 2k...hmmm does anyone know where i can get $2000? aw comon please? ;-) summer job here i come!

Thats nice. Get a ZX81 on ebay for under 100.. suits you....... lol