building my first pc...

[John Doe]

i dont know anything about motherboards, so when im sent to a site
where i am able to totally costumize everything about what i need
to buy, im lost. i dont know what i need.

http://tinyurl.com/3sdvj
http://tinyurl.com/3uxk9
http://tinyurl.com/6z9f6

 

[-Alby Hewlet]

I didn't read the whole thread so please excuse if this is redundent.

You can't go wrong with asus. Actually, all the major manufacturers make
good boards these days, so that's not a big issue.

Cards are better than integrated, so get a sound card.

Sweet spot is around AMD athlon 64 3000 in my book.

DDR PC3200, 512 Megs

I don't think you'd run into many games you couldn't play with the above
rig.

 

[John Doe]

[sound]Cards are better than integrated,

That really depends on what you want.

At least integrated sound doesn't slow down a system like a Windows
software-based modem.

so get a sound card.

Or get integrated hardware sound instead of software emulation.

I have not tested for high fidelity stereo sound, but noise wise the
integrated hardware sound on my mainboard is good enough for speech-
recognition which IMO means it's very good.