[Yashik]

Hi everyone!

I'm bying a new machine, and I'm pretty confused by all the specs, so if anybody can tell me:

Motherboard: I've heard that ASUS is ok, if so - which one is better? Also, I know that a7v8x uses on-board soundcard - will this perform ok for movies and music or should I bye an additional one?

Harddisk: what does cache size matter for? (8 mb or something)

Ram: Which brand do you recomend?

Video: which chip is better for graphical stuff - movies, games, etc...

I'm not looking for a "game machine" of some sort, but rather a "middle-class" one, that will do for B.Sc Computers study...

Thanks....

[Apokalipse]

the P4P800 is a really good mobo for P4's, or if you like AMD go with A7N8X-VM
when getting a hard drive get 8MB cache if you would play games with heavy hard drive usage (like HL2 or Doom 3) otherwise the 2MB would do fine. get either an 80GB or 120GB (depending on how big your pocket is) I like the Seagate drives
when getting RAM, get 1 or 2 512MB sticks (not 1GB cause theyre way too expensive) either 333MHZ or 400MHZ. Corsair Micro is a good brand
video card, get an ATI Radeon 9600 Pro - 9800 Pro is a bit too expensive
usually onboard sound cards would not be too good but the A7N8X-VM has a pretty good type: the C-Media 8738
- definately avoid using a sound card like the "AC-97"