In my experience, unless you want to do something special that requires a seperate soundcard, the onboard sound on most motherboards is perfectly good.

Buuuuut it *does* sound better even with cheaper speakers...

Not worth it for the performance increase (alone), though

Quote from Leprekaun :

Cheers for all the links guys but I have my reasons for choosing AMD and nVidia. I've previously had both ATi gfx cards and Intel processors but found that with ATi, I've had the classic issue of driver instability and in terms of processors, I just prefer AMD over Intel as I personally think it performs better. I won't be getting any parts from my old pc as its far away from where I live.

I'm glad the prices aren't too bad as I was really worried of seeing big prices like £1k.

I really appreciate the advice you guys are offering but I don't know much about hardware so please, give me complete rig suggestions as I wouldn't really be able to discuss the technical side of hardware all that well. I think in terms of processor, I think I'll go for the AMD Phenom II Q4 but in graphics cards, I've noticed that there are a bunch of different manufacturers (ASUS, XFX, etc.) for the nVidia cards so can anyone suggest the best manufacturer to go for? Also, in terms of soundcards, what would be the best one to go for? As I've used Creative before and was quite happy with it, what would be a good Creative soundcard? I'm not looking for high end stuff, just some good quality sound.

For NVidia cards, you should look for XFX and EVGA products. And, even if driver disc comes with your card, install drivers from www.nvidia.com.

Tigerdirect.com is giving away a pc a day for 77 days. You must enter today to be elligible for the next day, if you miss a day it just means you are not in the contest for the next day. (hope that made sense).

http://www.tigerdirect.com/sec ... microsoft_win7_sweeps.asp

Edit: Sorry! After viewing previous winners it appears to be an American contest only

Thanks for the suggestions lads. Scan.co.uk seem to have the widest variety of stuff so I'll probably go with them.

What motherboard should I go for if I'm going for this processor and this graphics card? I know that I should look into AM2+ Socket motherboards but there are a few different ones there so which one should I go for?

I have a VIA card and the ATi . I have a spare FX5200 and RAGE .

I've been looking around for a motherboard now but I'm not sure which one to go for. I know what memory I want to get, processor and graphics card but I don't know which motherboard will work with all three so can anyone recommend one? It would have to be a good brand as I'm looking to keep my PC future-proof for a while so want it to be good quality. So these are the parts I've chosen:

Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition

Graphics Card: nVidia GTS 250 Core Edition, GTX 285 or 295 (if anyone could offer some light on which best to choose)

Memory: Kingston KVR 800Mz HyperX DDR2 4GB (2 x 2GB)

HDD: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA (WD5000AAKS)

Recently got a cheap mobo for my Phenom II X2 550. It was the Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P. Despite being cheap it has excellent reviews online even for gaming compared to boards twice the cost. Only problem is you will have to get DDR 3 RAM which is a bit more expensive but if DDR 3 is going to be the future then why not make the switch now.

Also look at the Western Digital Raptor 10,000 RPM 320GB drive for one seriously fast HDD. Costs a bit more but you have to expect that.

As for graphics cards just look at benchmarks for what you can afford and go from there. The 295 is fast but with a silly price tag. ATI 5970 is faster still and again more expensive.