Right, I've been putting off getting serious about making myself a PC for college, and now I've got to hurry (or I'll have to settle for a Dell! ). I have $1500 US to spend; can go a little over to cover shipping or something small and simple.

I want a machine that is effecient, powerful, maybe not top of the line gaming monster but "pretty good." () Also interested in upgradability and reliability - a pretty tall order to get all of that with under $2k.

With that in mind, I was thinking generally something like this:

>AMD processor, perhaps dual core. I am confused by the socket types (which is best/will be useful in future) although I remember a thread on them.

>ATI graphics card, not really sure, something decent. I could go for nVidia I guess, here the important thing is bang/buck.

>Harddrive, don't really need a massive 100 TB brute, and I could always add more later, right?

>RAM - 2GB tops. 1 would suffice. Corsair is a good brand, right?

>Mobo - here I get lost. Things I need to take into consideration include processor socket type, RAM supported, expansion slots.



And I'm forgetting things like fans and power supplies (super-noisy fan isn't too sweet) and probably much more. Crap. Monitor, too.



So, suggestions? Well-deserved criticisms of my time-management skills? I'll take anything right about now!