as for motherboard quality, its a lot like a car stereo. Each company (well, most) have low, mid, and high dollar models, with varying degrees in each (mid-high, high-budget, etc.) So you really have to compare what features you want onboard (lan, sound, video, etc.) to what chipset you want, to brand loyalty, to what they bundled with it. Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, DFI, I've heard are all good. I've heard that Soyo, and Tyan suck balls. But pretty much, you get want you pay for. $80 is a cheaper board, while 100-130 will get you something pretty nice. I spent 200, and got a great board.
1394 means IEEE1394, which is firewire. Its used for video cameras and other hardware that needs lots more bandwidth than usb offers. I personally have never used firewire.
Memory is something, i my opinion, you don't want to skimp on. Corsair is known for their quality, whereas Ultra-Fast is not. We almost are comparing APC to Mugen here, except if you go with a non name brand, it wont neccessarily break on you (liek APC stuff always will). Some people buy crap memory and never have a problem.
The amount you could save by going with cheap memory typically is not much. You really have to make sure you are comparing apples to apples here. If the Corsair you looked at was 2x more than the cheap brand, it was probably a different kind of memory (ddr2 compared to plain old ddr is a HUGE difference)
Quote:
|
could I just put 2 512's in there, to make 1gb, instead of a single 1gb, to save a little cash? Does it work that way?
|
yes. In fact, its better to do it this way. Using two 512s in Dual Channel Mode will net you more performance in most cases. and its cheaper. I would suggest buying a 1gb kit, rather than buying two 512 sticks separate. a kit makes sure that both sticks were made in the same process, same batch.
As for hard drives, you'll want to go with SATA, or Serial ATA drives. Way faster, better performance, and they cost about the same as old ATA100, PATA, or Parallel ATA. (Honestyl, I don't know want ATA stands for. I suck!)
Hard drive manufacturers are trying to phase out ATA, and also low capacity drives, just because higher capacity drives are so cheap. If you're looking to buy an non-SATA drive, look at best buy and circuit city first. They offer insane rebates most times. Make sure the drive has an 8mb chache, and not a 2mb cache, and that it is 7200rpm, and not 5400rpm or anything.
Unless you are really into audio, the on-board sound on most motherboards is more than sufficient. Some of them offer High def 7.1 audio support even. Not getting a sound card is one area where you want to cut costs, i think.
don't skimp on your power supply either. you'll want at least a 400 watt, and go with a brand like Antec or Enlight. I personally bough an Antec TRUE430 for about 75.
As for where to buy this stuff, shop around. I watch newegg.com, monarchcomputers.com (<-might not be the right url), and zipzoomfly.com <-they offer free 2day shipping)