Building a PC - Need Some Advice

[RVFmal]

Due to the fairly high cost of buying an already built PC here in the good old South Africa, I did some research and found that it would be approximately 30% cheaper to build my own by buying the components and building it myself.

However there are so many different types of MB's, Memory modules, graphics cards etc, that I have no idea of where to begin.

What I am looking at is a fairly high end machine as I will be doing a lot of graphic work as well as word processing, site design etc.

I am currently looking at going the route of a P4 3.2 to 3.5 Ghz, but there are so many types of chips (prescott etc 478 and LGA 775). What I would like to know is which is the better chip to go for. If I understand it correctly the LGA 775 is the more recent of the chips and is therefore in all probability the better option.What is the FSB, 90nm, 1024k etc that forms part of the chips specs?

For the MB, is it better to go for an add-on Graphics Card or is on-board just as good? I would prefer to add my own graphics and sound card, but if there is an MB with decent specs on-board could also be an option. I am also looking for something that will be able to take up to 2GB memory (I know some boards take up to 4GB, but I doubt I will need that much). Also it should have preferably 4 or 5 x PCI, approximaely 6 x USB 2 ports etc.

What is the difference between SATA and ATA100/133? Should I choose a board with both?

Also what is the difference between a "Discrete"and ïntegrated MB?

I also want to run 2 moniters at the same time. How does one set this up?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[TibsBeatAll]

wHAT IS your price range in american dollars.

And is there a specific reason your going the P4 route?

 

[zero4zero]

Well the backbone of you system is the mobo. Make sur to buy one that do not have sound, video and lan as you will probably buy these components. Also since you want a high end look for a mobo that takes 533 Mhz memory chips. I would look for the make ASUS and suggest you this one:
http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=0&model=371&modelmenu=1
(I know you AMD fans have other suggestions, it's OK)
With this motherboard, you can attach a 1 Gig of 533 Mhz RAM (get the lowest cas latency type for better speed). If you want speed from you hard disks get 10,000 rpm SATA hard disks (Western Digital makes some) and configure them in RAID 0 [[SATA hard disks can deliver up to 150 Gb/s of transfer, while ATA 133/100 ; the number indicates their Gb transfer rate (max). In RAID 0 two WD SATA 10k rpm deliver sky rocket speed in RAID 0 configuration.
Most new motherboards have SATA and IDE connections and sometimes by default in the mobo BIOS, SATA is not enabled.
Concerning the video card, get what is best for your money. Look for 8x AGP high memory brand name cards, and check the company website for support! prior to buying to check there on-line service.
For the sound card, if you know what games you are going to play check what minimum requirement they have for the sound card. A cheaper sound card won't generate certain sounds!

 

[jack22]

He wanted 5-6 PCI, not pci-e. I don't think he needs ddr2, it isnt that much faster.