I used to buy all my individual components thru
PriceWatch at as few places as possible and then assemble them. I have probabaly built hundreds of PCs .
Now I just go to
FatWallet's Hot Deal Forums and look for the best Dell deal and buy it - then just move your working components over to it. I now have a
Dell PowerEdge 400SC acting as my desktop PC and it the the nicest, most reliable, and quitest system I have ever owned - and I will NEVER go back to building my own PC or anyone elses. Dell does it cheaper, faster, and better than the small guys can and thats why they are #1.
If you really want to do it yourself then go to
PriceWatch and buy a
nice cheap barebone system for $158 that includes Case, PowerSupply, Motherboard, and sometimes RAM - all assembeled , tested and with a warrenty. Then just move your working drives and cards over.
As far a just buying a MotherBoard and installing it yourself, they go in this order of quality;
1 Asus - BEST quality ,but expensive.
2 Abit
3 Tyan
4 Gigabyte
5 Soyo
6 Chaintech
7 FIC
8 Shuttle
9 ECS - CHEAPEST but still a good namebrand.
10 OTHER
And DDR RAM you should buy as large as you can afford PC3200+ with a heat spreader for best flexability in the future.
There are some nice cheap ECS motherboard & XP2500 CPU combos for $113 w/333fsb