I want to build a quad core AMD Phenom but there are a lot of things I'm unsure about. Exact products that I can find on newegg would be SO helpful since I some times accidentally get the item with a crap cache etc. 1. CPU - AMD 9650 - I think I've narrowed my choice down to the 9650 since its 170 and seems to not have as many heating issues as the 9950. Couple answers may change my mind however. Should I get a 9950 instead? Should I wait for Phenom 2 if so which one?) Will I need water cooling? What has a better price / performance ratio. 2. Motherboard - No Idea - Anything you recommend I will probably buy. I heard ASU boards are good though. 3. Ram - 8 or 4 gigs Kingston/Crucial - Which and which? 4. Hard drive 7200 rpm WD is basically standard... probably 160 gigs. 5. Monitor - I'm thinking about dual monitoring I heard it was the best things my friends have done. Ideas? 6. Graphics Card - As with my processor I would like a good price to performance ratio. I don't want the top of the line but close. 7. Speakers - I've had logitec but they didn't work out too well for me. I'm thinking about getting wireless speaker system. Ideas? 8. Case & PS - No idea. I used to have an enermax PS but that blew on me so I was disappointing. Quieter the better is what I'm looking for since I leave my computer on at night. 9. DVD burner - Anything will do. Do I need 2 Cd drives? 10. Floppy drive - Is it needed? 11. Sound card - Anything you say I'll get. Price > performance here though since I will be using headphones mostly. 12. OS - I'm thinking about learning Linux. I heard you could load windows xp vista or 64 as well? Ideas? Worth the time and effort?

There's very little need for a quad core just yet. It would be better to hold off for the time being. Get a decent board that accepts the quad but get a dual core CPU instead. AMD just released the X2 7750 Black Edtiton (BE) which is basically a Phenom with 2 cores disabled. And being that it is a BE (meaning that the multiplier is unlocked), it's highly overclockable. The 7750 also has 2MB L3 cache (standard X2's have none) & it supports DDR2-1066 RAM (standard X2's support DDR2-800). http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ... As for the cooling, the BE doesn't come with a HSF so you'll have to purchase one. I'm not a fan of watercooling but there are plenty of decent HSF's available that are relatively cheap & cool the CPU very well. Here's just one example: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ... Here's a motherboard to consider: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ... As for the RAM, if you intend to run a 32-bit OS, it's pointless to install more than 4GB, & even then, not all 4GB will be recognized. I wrote this a while ago to help explain: http://www.computing.net/howtos/sho... HDD's are fairly cheap...why settle for just 160GB? I'd suggest 250GB as a minimum but once you start pricing them, you'll find that the 320GB & 500GB really aren't much more expensive. Seagate & Western Digital are currently the top brands. Look for 7200RPM, SATA-300 (aka SATA2 or SATA 3.0Gb/s) & either 16MB or 32MB cache. There are plenty of good gaming video cards available. It really depends on what you need & how much you're willing to spend. This article should help: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews... Speakers & the PC case are personal preference. Try looking at them locally if possible...that way you can get an idea of their construction & features, then you can shop for a better deal online. IMO, there's really no need for more than one optical drive, but they've gotten really cheap. You can get a high quality DVD burner for about $25 shipped. If you feel you need a 2nd, you can always add another one. As for the sound card, you probably don't need one. The onboard sound is really good these days. Put that money toward something else. If you're not happy with the onboard sound, you can always add a card later. A floppy drive is always a good thing to have. You may not use it often, but when the time comes, you'll be glad you have one. They come in handy for running diagnostics (memtest86 for example) & also for installing SATA drivers during the OS installation. That brings us to the OS. Most Linux distros can be run directly off a Live CD...a HDD isn't even necessary. It's a good way to get a feel for it & once you come across a distro you like, THEN you can do the HDD installation. My current favorite is Mint Linux...it's based on Ubuntu which in turn is based on Debian. Ubuntu is an improvement to Debian, Mint is an improvement to Ubuntu...lol. Mint 6 was just released within the past week or two. I've been running Mint 5 for a while now & really like it. If you're more into gaming, have a look at Ultimate Edition Linux. Here's where you'll find all sorts of Linux info: http://distrowatch.com/

As for dual monitors, unless you need the real estate space, there's really no need for them in my opinion. Just one should do for most situations. WinSimple Software