I would definitely go dual core for the processor. Core Duos will give you noticeably better performance, while AM2s noticeably better price. I would go for the AM2 because I'm loyal. A 4800+ has a solid clock speed, and will multitask like crazy. I doubt you'd need any higher than that. I don't know enough about Core Duos to tell you exactly what frequency does what, sorry.
I would avoid 64 bit software at this stage. You can still run 32 bit software on a 64 bit processor; this just means the processor memory space is not used to it's full potential (but you aren't going to have more than 4GB of RAM (probably), so that doesn't matter), and 64 bit support in software is decidedly average at the moment. So get a 64 bit processor or don't - it doesn't really matter right now.

Obviously, the processor choice is going to split your choice of motherboard in half. Whichever you choose, I would look for these things on a motherboard:
  • Number of RAM slots, not less than four.
  • Onboard 7.1 sound, if you don't want to buy a sound card.
  • Onboard 10/100 LAN (This is pretty much a given)
  • PCI-Express. This is probably the most important if graphics mean a lot to you.
  • Have a look at how many USB ports it has. You can never have to many.
  • You also want to make sure it's SATA-3 compatible. Make sure it has at least one IDE cable though, you never know when you'll want to use an old drive.


The case needs to be able to fit your hardware. That is graphics card, any other PCI cards, motherboard, PSU and all drives. It's good to get one with extra drive bays too. And you need to have good airflow, so look for case fans. Many cases come with PSUs, but they are usually crappy PSUs. If you need to cut costs on your computer, start with the case.

380W isn't altogether that powerful for a PSU, but it should be fine. You'll get people telling you that you need a 500W these days, but you don't; my computer runs fine on a 270W and I'm not easy on it.

I would get at least a 7 series nVidia GPU. the 7900GS is quite good, but a 7900GTX is a lot better (and a lot more expensive). The GS would be fine though, I think.

That about covers it for the parts you wanted info on. As a side note, the cache is a section of your hard drive that stores recent processor calls so that the number of reads/writes to the drive platter is reduced. It'll store the most recently used instructions called, so a small cache can be flushed quickly if the calls aren't repetitive. Therefore, the bigger the cache, the better. The fastest drives have around 8MB caches, but 2MB is easily sufficient.

EDIT: Two more things
- Get a card reader, they're fantastic.
- But not by getting that second computer; the first one's better. Card readers are about $NZ20.