your info is a little out of date . . . as of now, the high end p4s and high end athlon xps are head to head.

still intel triumphs (bleh, im an amd fan) over xp cpus AND if you look at prices... they are actually CHEAPER!

although im somewhat of a fareweather shopper, i've become loyal to AMD and despite these facts i still run an athlon xp.

as for firewire... dont worry if your mobo has it or not because you ought to buy yourself an audigy or audigy 2 . . . which has firewire.

as for mobo . . . whichever you choose (intel or amd) make sure the mobo is DUAL CHANNEL DDR (it's like RAID 0, for your ram!) i prefer using Abit or Asus with an nforce2 chipset w/o the built-in gpu.

gpu . . . i have a g4 ti4600 . . . i love nvidia, but if i were to get a new card RIGHT NOW, it would be the ati radeon 9700 pro.

don't worry about a media card slot . . . everything hooks up USB! and like others have said . . . make sure you have usb 2.0

i have waay more info for you considering computers are my future profession. pm me if you have more questions that are specific.

I just built my first one a few months ago. Bought all of my parts at www.newegg.com and www.googlegear.com for under $750. This included:

Antec SX635BII black mini tower
ASUS A7V8X-X/LAN KT400 mobo
Athlon XP1700+
Kingston 512MB PC2700 HyperX RAM
Lite-On DVD drive
Lite-On 52x24x52 burner
Radeon 9000 Pro 128MB
Sounblaster Live 5.1
USR V.92 modem
Black floppy and keyboard
Two extra case fans and rounded cables

If you really want bang for the buck in a processor, I would recommend the Athlon XP1700+ tbred B. Stock speed is under 1500mhz and these things are overclocking on air with ease up to 2ghz. They can be had for bwtween $50 and $70. I originally built mine using an MSI board, but after two bad boards and major compatability issues, I bought the Asus and haven't had a problem.

Personally I'd stay away from the Dells and Gateways of the world. They tend to use proprietary parts, so they are harder and alot more expensive to upgrade.

Oh and there are plenty of online building guides and you can even find building tips on www.amd.com

Finally check out these two forums and feel free to ask questions. Unlike alot of forums around, people are really friendly and willing to help whenever possible w/o getting attitude.

www.techimo.com
OC Forums

k2kyo
 

Finally!! A subject I know something about!!! hehe.

A "good" quality computer can be had for around $500.. but the more you add the more you pay :) You have to adjust to your needs but check this..

I recently built a computer for a good friend of mine..

AMD 1400 (came w/ board)
100gig HD
512 RAM
Radeon 9700 Pro graphics
Case with led's and motorized front panal :)

Good place for HD's is to check out hot-deals.org and techbargains.com and look at all the crap they find with rebates and such. At one point you could get a 120gig hd for like $50.

Everything else, pricewatch.com as many have already mentioned.

Total was just over $500.. but he already had a monitor so that'd be another $100 or so depending on how big you wanna go and such.. but I personally go for referbished which is warrented and from a reliable source.

If you run into any problems building or just want more answers feel free to PM me or drop me an email at k2kyo@hotmail.com I built computers for a living for quite a while.. know my way around heh.

Kyle

After re-reading what you posted I have a suggestion.

You said you will be doing solid modeling on this thing? Do you mean as in like 3d graphics and modeling stuff?? If so.. go for MORE RAM. Trust me on this, modeling/graphics has been what I do for the last 8 years with all of my free time (outside of messin with my car).. pack the board with as much ram as it will take. PC2100 DDR minimum. I have one packed with a gig (the limit o most cheap boards) and it still takes a bit longer than I'd like sometimes.. plan on getting the new Mac G5 with 8gigs of ram as soon as I can :)

Processor speed helps, but the ram is where it's at in this case. Trust me, you'll be much happier this way :)

Kyle

pc2100? how about some dual channel ddr400? oh yeah u like it i know. oh wait, were we trying to be frugal? so i guess i'd better not mention intel's p4 chipset with whats that? ddr500? and a 1ghz fsb?!

ARL, best place by far if you want to piece everything together is NCIX.COM Cheaper than anything else you'll find in our shitty province. They are out of BC and have been great for me. Just bought a system about 4 or 5 months ago.....
INTEL PENTIUM 4 P4 2.4GHZ B 512K 533FSB RETAIL BOX
ASUS P4S533-E S478 ATX SIS645DX DDR 533MHZ AGP 6PCI USB2.0 LAN ATA133 SOUND
2*SAMSUNG 512MB PC2700 DDR333 184PIN OEM
MAXTOR D740X-6L 80GB 7200RPM 8.5MS 2MB UDMA133 OEM
ATI RADEON 9000 128MB DDR AGP DVI/VGA W/ TV OUT OEM
MICROSOFT NATURAL KEYBOARD & OPTICAL MOUSE OEM (WITH SYSTEM ONLY)
NGEAR 0209 18IN CASE P4 350W SILVER FRONT USB & AUDIO W/ SIDE WINDOW
LITEON 48X24X48 ATAPI IDE CD-REWRITER SMART-BURN OEM W/ SOFTWARE

Thats what I got...

Thanks doc, that looks pretty good. The problem w/ newegg et all is they are american, so there would be duty and taxes and higher shipping and such. I will check and see what kind of shipping that nicx.com gives.

Hey if your lookin for some cheap prices


Check out Mwave

I've bought 2 computers their before and they came along with 2 altec lansing speaker systems! ... :D

any one got any ideas at all on my vid card?

i have enjoyed my soyo kt-333 DRAGON Ultra (Platinum Edition)
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...8/fb52436b.jpg

$$?

Re: How do I build a computer?
 

If you can afford it I would suggest you go to a full GB of RAM... I do some EM (electro magnetic) simulation (3D and planar) at work and I found that on my 2.0GHz P4 when I doubled the RAM it made a noticeable difference.

Just my 0.02