Hi Everyone,

I'm new here and I hoping that some of you smart people out there would help me build a good computer. I think I'm kind of late and limited my option a bit by posting this now since black Friday is 2 days away but I will take whatever suggestions I get here.

My beget for my new computer is $1000. I watch a lots of movies on my computer so, I want this to be HD compatible and produce good quality image and sound. I'm not a serious gamer but I do play games on my computer.

I have broken down my questions according to the required parts for a computer below. I'm praying that all the questions would be answered.


Case:

What should I watch out for and that it will be able to hold all the parts without a problem.
- space wise?
- ventilation?
- appropriate holes in placed etc..
any suggestion?


Power supply:


How many volt should I get?
What determine the amount of voltage that I should get?
What is a good brand?


Motherboard:


what should I look at to determine the capability with my ram, video card etc...
is the build in audio good enough or should I get an external one?
what are the fews good one to recommend right now.


Video card:

is the term graphic card the same as video card?
how much video card ram should I need.
what are the fews good one around now.
HDCP video card a must.

Hard drive:

Are the storage space and transfer speed is all that it matter? capability with motherboard?
recommendation?


Ram:

2GB or 4GB?
If 2GB, 2 X 1GB or 1 X 2GB?
If 4GB, 2 X 2GB or 4 X 1GB?

Does getting 32bit or 64bit OS affect my ram decision?
what is the term dual channel?


Cooling:

fan vs liquid
If fan, how many do I need usually?
If liquid, how often should I change the liquid? is the liquid use normal water?


Operating System:

I want dual boot (xp and vista).
what should I need to take note of? ram? hard drive? how much space should I set aside for it? etc...
what is the different between 32bit and 64bit operating system?
does 64bit work on most applications?

Finally:

any suggestion on a decent tutorial on how to creat dual boot?
Tutorial for putting everything together?
Did I miss any other important parts?

I know I'm asking too much with hell of a questions above especially for a new member but I will take anything that I get. I REALLY REALLY appreciate anyone that will reply to this post.

Dont get 64 bit

Dont get Vista Home Basic UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE

Get 2gb RAM

Get dual core (Core2Duo or AMD X2)

Dont get liquid cooling

Graphic = Video Card

Nvidia or ATI. Get 256mb or 512mb

A HD card will need 550w+ PSU (you will never need more than 800 unless you run 2 video cards) . Dont get a cheap one as they are poor quality. Get a brand name one

You might want to check out the new Penryn intel processors. Look pretty sweet.

I've built a couple of computers here and there.
And what i find very helpfull is going to online computer part stores. Such as tigerdirect, newegg, ecost. I look for the parts that i need or/and want. I look at prices then read, read and read user opinions. Read both cons and pro's.
If you use your pc for just movie watching. Just about all pci-express video cards can help you out with that.
$1000 bucks will buy you a very good system if your carefull. Peripherals not included.

you can save on OSes and drives bty buying OEM. Just make sure to buy them at the same time as the motherboard or CPU to be legal.

Just make sure your case isn't too small or it may be difficult to add things to it. Check the number of slots (PCI) and the number of RAM slots on your system board, to make upgrading your memory easier (some motherboards only have 2 slots).

You might try Gigabit MB flavor of LGA775socket/2>1gig ddr ll chips/pci-x video card ATI or G-Force/ chipset VIA PT880-885/ CPU w/L2 2meg/FSB800/1033/1066/dual everything MB with SATA

Be aware: OEM merchandise can be cheaper, but often the warranty is less.


Robert Bruce Thompson has a book published by O'Reilly on PC building which he updates continually through an on-line forum, excellent source for information.

yeah often its no warranty and no instructions or bundled stuff

but if you know what you are doing then it can be a good saving

I use Newegg when I buy parts for computers I'm building for clients. They're usually pretty good about having a lot of specs for all the parts so you can check compatibility and theres plenty of user reviews on most of the products so you know if the product works well in practice or if it has a lot of bark and no bite...

Also I'm a pure AMD guy myself, better performance and usually for a better price, plus they're very standard with their sockets so its easier to upgrade (I dont know if Intel has started doing this yet or not, you'd have to check).

When it comes to HD you're probably looking for DVI connections on your vid card and monitor, make sure both have DVI - the above recommendations for cards are good - you probably dont need to bother with SLI

For OS you're going to want XP Pro or Media Center and Vista Home Premium or Ultimate - they're going to offer the best entertainment options.

If the mobo has high enough specs for on board audio, dont worry about having a dedicated card, a lot of mobos come with pretty decent audio support these days - plus it will save you some dough

You should be fine with 2gigs of RAM after you pick out your proc and mobo you'll know what types of RAM you can get that your mobo and proc can support - 32 bit operating systems only support up to 4gigs so if you have a mobo with 4 dimms then you'll be safe just getting 2 sticks of 1gig - also AMD chips support 64 bit so you can upgrade in the future (again Intel may have started doing this too, but I know AMD has done this for quite some time)

My opinion has always been the bigger the case the better, but I know lots of people disagree, so just make sure its big enough to fit your mobo and however many drives you're getting (dont forget optical drives, I've done that, not fun to put together a new system and then have to wait 3 days for the optical drives to show up before you can install the OS)

Usually the case will come with enough fans to keep your system cool, esp since you're not going too over the top as far as specs.

When it comes to configuring multiple OS I've only done this once and the way I set it up was I had an 80gig HDD that was partitioned into a 50/30 config- 50gigs for Vista OS and 30 gigs for XP OS and then I had another 200gig that was used for file storage - I only installed the OS HDD for the guy and he purchased the second and installed it himself so I dont know for sure if it worked out or not- I'm sure some1 else here has better experience than I do with multiple OS.

I know that was long winded, and I'm sure I probably still left something out - but I hope its enough info to get you started