Good question, Ive been building Amd systems for the past few years. Been out of the intel loop for awhile. All mine were built on asus boards.
Does price matter, features, etc.? Anyone else have advice?

well I stumbled upon this site.... http://www.motherboards.org/rank/Intel/ ... -rank.html

it is pretty useful except I cant seem to understand what the hell they are talking about. I don't really want an onboard audio, and am looking for 333DDR compatible slots (preferiably 3). I heard Intel is getting rid of RDRAM...

So you want DDR. you can add a sound card even with ob audio. Don't know about the rdram deal. I'll look around too eatthis:

yeah, I guess so, but there are so many mobos out there, I am just not sure which to get...... oOo: I already know I want the p4 2.4..

I think you want the Asus P4PE mobo. Go to Asus.com, click america, quicklinks, motherboards, motherboard products, intel cpu, choose motherboard.

Oddball, go for the build it yerself comp.

If you need everything, it's better off getting it all in one shop.

But if you can, check to see if there are any computer markets on.
If you live within the Brisbane area there's usually a comp market on every 2 weeks or so, check the local paper.

What part of QLD u from?

personally I'd go for AMD and an ASUS mobo

I've got an ASUS A7V8X, AMD XP2000 (2Ghz CPU). It works very well.

concerning Graphics cards: go upper middle shelf brand name. Can't really go wrong.... buying top brand will burn your pocket and make you think why you wasted so much money. (go Geforce 4 with 64 DDR RAM or plus)

here's a good shop in Brisbane, Mitchelton
http://www.punchtechnology.com/

it's run by some smart ass kid, but the prices are fairly good (but still check out those computer markets, they sell new stuff there too)

Altec Lansing are good speakers, but don't get the old ones.... go for the new ones.

Normally a built-in sound card is ok, the ASUS sound card is built-in and has 5.1 capabilities. It works very well for me.

17" monitor is just the average now, you can go bigger if you want to. I don't know which brand to recommend there, sorry.

RAM!!!!!!! you need at least 512MB RAM nowadays. DDR RAM is the way to go. ASUS mobo has 3 slots for DDR RAM.

HDD: 80Gb or more... most brands are ok, but stay clear of seagate and maxtor. (that's just me, from personal experience) go IBM, it runs hotter but is more reliable.

As for the case, get a good sized case. Something with at least 4 5.25" holes in the front. Then fill the bastard with fans so you stay cool. (Remember it's friggin summer in Aus right now so you don't wanna cook yer new PC)

Get the parts yourself dude, it's not really that hard to put together.... I've only really put 2 computers together and they both work perfectly.

so, to sum up
ASUS A7V8X (or u can pick and choose what suits you)
AMD XP2000 or better
Geforce 4 or better (at least 64Mb)
512MB DDR RAM at least
80Gb HDD (maybe IBM)
big case with lots of fans

good luck fellow Aussie bum freak:

(no edit, so if somethings wrong please correct me)

Thanks Da_Bian, really useful info there. I also live in Brisbane too so the weather could be a problem but with lots of fans I hope not.

With this new comp I'll finally be able to play some high end games like GTA3 etc etc.

Re: What do you think of these specs...
 

Excellent.

P4 3ghz = top of the line, right now.
256MB of RDRAM = excellent, 512 is good too, but 256 is fine.
80GB HD = plenty of storage space
DVD/CD-RW drives are both good
Video card might need to be swapped
Monitor is standard
Alten Lansing is one of the best DESKTOP PC speaker providers there are. For surround, Cambridge Soundworks or Kisplitch is recommended.
XP, as long as it's pro.

HOW MUCH!!!

Oddball, go to [url:5dd8b]http://www.umart.com.au[/url:5dd8b] click on the QLD store and check out the prices. They are the cheapest in Queensland for almost all their stock. I got my computer from there.

Theres also [url:5dd8b]http://www.gamedude.com.au[/url:5dd8b] and [url:5dd8b]http://www.computeralliance.com.au[/url:5dd8b]. But UMART is by far the cheapest.

Da_Bian, sorry, but the XP2000 is NOT 2Ghz, try 1.67Ghz wink:. The XP2400 is 2Ghz freak:.

Ofcourse you may have overclocked it, but that would require some amazing water cooling.....if it's even possible freak:.

pro is not that much better than HOME, and isnt worth the extra money in my opinion

[quote="Old Reliable":bbbe5]pro is not that much better than HOME, and isnt worth the extra money in my opinion[/quote:bbbe5]

ACK!!! Sweet bejesus, you should be shot!!!

If you want to setup a home/business network with XP Home, have fun doing it the hard way! XP Home is considered the HARDEST OS to configure to a network, except for Win95.

XP Pro IS worth the extra cash. That's a real bad opinion, man.

yeah thats if you want to setup a network, I like most people do not

eeeeee $hit! I had no idea! hahaha oh well, live and learn oOo:

thanks for the info BallisticWookie cool: