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A lot of boards come with onboard sound and a few come with onboard video. For sure get your own video card.
I have a gateway 2000 G6-350mhz PII and it has onboard (also called integrated or fused) sound and video. The video isn't terrible though it is almost impossible to play games w/o slowdowns. The sound however is the worst thing i've ever heard. Every time a sound plays its all distorted, it comes out multiple times as well. Its like it keeps starting over and plays the very beginning of a sound like 10 times (Wel-wel-wel-wel-wel-welcome). There are other problems like the fact that it only has two ports (line out and microphone).
However I can't say they are all bad because of one case. I got a Intel D850GB for my P4 computer i'm in the process of building. It is the best board on the market right now (most stable, best processor capability) and it has onboard sound. I am hoping the onboard sound of that is good(i haven't used it yet) but if it isn't i'm gettin an Audigy. Some people think sound is the area to skimp, but I personally like sound alot and need it to be good.
Also get good speakers.
The modem thing is good, I got an internal PCI (nonwinmodem) for $10 on ebay! and it goes at 49.3kbps!! (its not broadband but its faster than my old modem (21kbps (this was 56k that just really sucked)).
Sorry for the long posts, i have a lot to say, and learn.
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