Thank you for taking the time to read my posting. I’m new round here and require some help with components for the new PC I am planning to build. I have chosen the AMD X2 3800+ chip and now need help over choosing a suitable bits and pieces for it. I have not tried Overclocking, but am interested in trying it in the future. I have a budget of around £100 ($175) to spend on a Motherboard give or take and would like at least 6 USB2 & 2 Firewire ports if possible as well as it having PCI express. For the Graphics card I have around £170 ($250) to spend. I’m quite interested in the ATI in Wonder cards as would like the option of a TV turner and recorder as well as the option of fast encoding speeds. Are the All in wonder cards any good or is it better to buy a GFX card and add a separate TV tuner instead? I don’t really do much gaming but am into graphics apps like Photoshop & Illustrator CS2 etc.... I plan to add 1 gig of DDR for now and would be willing to spend up to around £75 ($140) on this. I am going to go for a Samsung HDD as I understand these are one of the quietest on the market. I would like to add a dual layer DVD burner and want the Light Scribe feature on it, any suggestions? For this I would like to spend no more than £40 ($75). I have chosen a good case but need a PSU and again would like to spend no more than £45 ($80). I would like it to have sufficient power and to be as quite as possible for the price. Is the heat sink fan that comes with the AMD 3800 ok to stick with? I would like it to be as quiet as possible - is it worth upgrading? In total I have around £650 ($1150)to spend. Any other suggestions and additions would be greatly appreciated – thanks in advance!

First off I am a gamer and I dont know if this is good advice for someone using graphics apps mainly. Check out newegg.com. Look at their nvidia graphics cards. If you buy the 7800gt for 359$ you get a free 129$ evga motherboard. That is like paying 230$ for a really awesome graphics card. I got that combo deal and it works really well for me. The problem is that if the mobo has headers for firewire I have nound them yet =(. But I dont use firewire anything anyway. It does have 4 built in usb ports and 3 usb headers for the front of the case. You can always get a firewire expansion card for like 15 bucks. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130238 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815124002 My system: antec truepower 550watt ((19+19)A on +12V rail) (85$) evga sli board (free!) evga 7800gt (359$) amd 3700+ (233$) "Is the heat sink fan that comes with the AMD 3800 ok to stick with? I would like it to be as quiet as possible - is it worth upgrading?" I have 3700+. The standard heat sink and fan are good and I hardly hear the fan. It keeps my processor under 45 degrees celcius. Also it says in the processor instructions that if you use a different heat sink it void the 3 year manufacturer waranty (but then again how would they know if you use a different heat sink unless you told them). That being said I dont overclock and you might need something better if you want to seriously overclock - I know nothing about it.

eVGA is cheap brand junk get an ASUS A8N or a DFI Lanparty (excellent overclocker) MSI and ABit are okay brands too... older technology is the s---; keep it running