First, I want to go quad core, but whether or not that's a 65nm or 45nm depends on the price of the mid-range Penryn (45nm) quad cores when they come out in the next 45 days or so. Either way, the mobo I select will support both. Asus is a leader. Gigabyte touts sturdier components for longevity. I'm not going for SLI with two gpu cards, so I settled for the 8800gt. It should still be a relevant card by the time I'm readdy to buy. Prices should be down a bit for most components by then too. Ram looks like DDR3 if the prices of that ram drop, DDR2 if not. Again, I'm not investing in a top-of-the-line system.
As for sorting out which component (cpu, mobo, ram, gpu) to buy, I visit the following sites:
www.tomshardware.com
www.firingsquad.com
www.extremetech.com
www.sharkyextreme.com
www.anandtech.com
Most of these sites test equipment and make comparisons,and recommendations. Then there are motherboard forums, but I haevn't checked out many of those lately. I once had an ABIT IS7 mobo, the ABIT's forums are a very good sourceto find out what life is like living with it's products. People there were very helpful.
One thing for sure, I hope to score a mobo that has a Windows-based bios update. ABIT had one, and it made updating the bios an absolute breeze.
Flyby out.
PS I'm leaning towards either an ASUS or a Gigabyte mobo at present, based on tech reviews.