I'm having my own Computer built, Recamendations?

[CoasterCreator]

Here are my 2 cents......get a motherboard the will give you options..like serials for products like SATA HD. plenty of PCI ( I would not wait for the pci express ) it will take some time to perfect and might be too expensive.Enough USB2 and Firewire ( I personally use all my connections , I use external devices like DV, HD, DVD, Video Cards. ) know your memory and your FSB limits , before purchasing. As far as CPU get the fastest you can afford keeping in mind that a motherboard and a cpu is not a complete computer. Whatever you chose get a lot of airflow to keep your investment cool. and also consider enough power to anythings you are going to power with this computer. well I hope I made this general enough to just keep this in mind so you to decide what you want and are going to make you feel good about your puchase. . . another thing once you do decide go to their forums and look for pros/ cons and conflicts with other media .....

[dosun]

I'd go with Intel P4 if you plan to use it for video and audio editing. Intel's tend to fair better at video and audio editing because of its raw clock speed. If you go Intel go for a Northwood core, not the newer Prescott core. The newer Prescott core releases more heat and craves more power and performs worse than the Northwood core in most programs. On the upside the Prescott does have SSE3, but no relevent programs use it right now.

If you go AMD, go with a 64 bit version. It should fit your budget and considering Windows 64 should be comming out soon(2005 last time I checked, but hey its Microsoft so who know).

Also, keep in mind that AMD CPU's tend to run very hot (even at idle). The packaged fan should be upgraded at the time of installation.

Intel has taken the trophy for being king of heat with their newest flagship core, Prescott 3.2E. It idles at about 50C and can shoots to 65-70 under load. No AMD processor produces that much heat. Intels previous core, Northwood, was about 56C under load.

[rallynavvie]

May as well buy now unless you're waiting for something specific. If you want a really good multi-display card I think the Parhelia is still the best around for the cash. Otherwise you're looking at Fires and Quadros which can get pricey, especially for dual-link DVI monitors (not to be confused with dual DVI). A lot of the higher end gaming cards have single DVI still and for whatever reason aren't true dual- or triple-head cards. Apparently the Parhelia isn't so bad at gaming, but it isn't DX9 native.

[ViRaL1]

If you want a good all-around multimedia/gaming card with dual monitor support you might want to look at the ATI All-in-Wonder 9600XT.

http://www.ati.com/products/radeon9600/aiw9600xt/index.html

As low as $189 at Newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?DEPA=0&description=14-102-352&ATT=Video+...C-pr1c3grabb3r