I figured I would write a few things about Intel to help you decide which mainboard and cpu to get.

I would honestly go with an Intel P4 Processor. Just make sure you get the 478 pin P4 cpu that has the new Northwood design.

I now alot of people say that AMD is better than Intel and I used to think the same way. But from the reviews I've read and the benchmarks tests I've seen, (and thats alot) Intel finnaly got it right with their new Northwood design.

As far as the ram to use: If your going to use basic sdram, then don't buy a p4, go with AMD.
Your not going to be able to truly unlock the power of the P4 unless you use either RDRam (very expensive and not manufactured very much), Or use the latest DDR-333 Ram (Double Data Rate 333megahertz). These two types of ram have the bandwitdth to unlock the true power of the p4. SDram simply doesn't have what it takes. The DDR-333 Ram on a board is available with SiS's 645DX chipset. (But chipsets are another story)

Okay.. Now for the Motherboards.

As far as motherboards go I would suggest looking at ASUS boards.

http://usa.asus.com/mb/mbindex.htm

They have been around for a while and got some of the best reviews. They are especially nice if your going to use a P4 cpu. The P4's need alot more power than other chip and require a 300-watt power supply to run them. Although the Asus people got around this really nicely. They have a connection on their P4 boards that allow you to simply connect a drive power cable to it for the extra power. Therefore you don't need to buy a new power supply.

I see a tut coming... Maybe in a few weeks...

Anyway... As for the AMD side of things...

If your an avid AMD person, (of which there are so many), Then I would go with the new Atlon XP 2100+, It has an actual clock speed of about 1733 MHz, but AMD has a chip design (Palomino core) that actually can out perform a P4 2200MHz with basic tasks. But when it came to Office apps and high end game play, P4 took over. For a board of this type find one that uses the VIA KT333 chipset. This again supports the DDR-333 Ram.

Well let me know if you have anymore questions.

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