Iam curious because Iam considering doing my own build ,instead of buying a brand name PC preloaded with alot of un-needed trial software etc. A couple of ?'s early in the planning ,would I be better off with a dual processor or just a P4 with H/T abiliy, also would you go with AGP Graphics or PCI Express ,Iam not a big gamer ,I mostly use my current PC for saving pictures and videos and documnets ,however since Iam possibly doing my own build I would want a powerful system that would not be limited in its abilities ! I would also want a system that I could expand as the technology progresses ! Thanks Nick

PCIe appears to be the future. P4 seems more than adequate. Hyperthreading is a given on higher end systems. You can avoid many of these Windows problems with Linux. Linspire eases the transition for new users

Best bang for your buck is an AMD socket 939 Athlon64 system, motherboard based on the nForce4 Ultra chipset, 1GB PC3200 RAM (2 x 512MB), & PCI-Express video "I would also want a system that I could expand as the technology progresses" Nothing is futureproof. ASUS A7N8X-X Athlon XP 1800+ 8.5 x 200MHz 1024MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-7 Asus A9550GE/TD 128MB WinME/WinXP Pro SP2

What jam said goes for me too. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime; Then industry pollutes the water and kills all the fish.

third what jam said ! AMD , i'm going AMD 3800+x2 as soon as possible

If you don't want a gaming machine, but do a lot of pictures, video, etc... Then I would definately go for one of the AMD Athlon dual core processors. They are the best long term investment as a lot of software (especially graphical and video editing) will eventually be taking full advantage of the extra core.