Chicken/Egg Advice

[telegramsam]

I'm shopping for parts for my first build, and I'm a little mystified by the CPU/MOBO step. Should I pick out a CPU first and then the MOBO, or the other way around? I'm sure you could answer this question either way depending on how I use this PC, so I intend to use it for mainly working at home. I'm not a gamer, so I don't need a super-intense king kong speed machine or TB's of ram or anything like that. Just need a basic machine that is fast and reliable.

Can anyone make some recommendations for me?

Thanks

[Cricket]

What's your budget?

AMD or INTEL?

Cricket

[flanzig1]

Pick the CPU that suits your needs(speed/Intel or AMD). Then look for a mother board that will support that CPU and has the features that you want or need. (SLI,ram slots,ethernet speed.on board video,etc.)

[telegramsam]

I can't really find anything better about Intel or AMD. Most of the discussions here seem to say that there are no REAL clear advantages for either. I AM re-using an HDD that was in an Intel machine. I'd like to not have to reformat it--does that make a difference?

I'm on a pretty small budget, and this machine is really a starter build that will just become a home working machine that I can attach to my office VPN. I don't need a giant amount of speed or memory--a store-bought PC would work just fine. I'm only building it because I've developed an interest in building and learning how to work with BIOS and sub OS utilities.

So I guess to sum it up, this a hobby build for my personal education, so I want to avoid complications!!

Thanks for your advice

[Puma]

Originally Posted by telegramsam I AM re-using an HDD that was in an Intel machine. I'd like to not have to reformat it--does that make a difference?

Nope. The formatting should only matter between different OS's, so as long as you're still going to use XP (or whatever), you shouldn't have any problems carrying the data over.

Glad to hear you're interested in building. Usually it's slightly cheaper than store bought and you get better quality parts when you pick them out yourself. Depending on your needs though, you might be dissapointed in the amount of BIOS work there is in setting up a new build. There's usually not much to it.

[telegramsam]

That's Ok, I just want to learn how to do it. It would also be REALLY nice to not have to spend a day removing all the factory installed garbage that comes with OEM machines. That stuff drives me CRAZY.

I will be staying with the same OS.

[glc]

For a budget office machine, I'd use a Celeron-D on a quality brand (such as Asus) motherboard with onboard video and an Intel chipset.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ice=&maxPrice=

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131008

That motherboard also has an AGP slot if you ever need to add a video card. Tried and proven 865G chipset, very upgradable. Very inexpensive for the quality.

You will probably have to do a repair reinstall of Windows to reuse the hard drive - if your Windows is a name brand preload, you will need to buy a new copy and start from scratch.