Need help building an AMD desktop

[joypatra]

Experts,

I'm trying to put together an AMD desktop. I've no idea of model nos, chipsets, etc that I'd need and would be compatible together. That's big help I need from you.

This is what I know I want:
Primary needs:
- AMD 64 X2 (this is pretty much in stone)
- motherboard/ chipset (clueless)
- 1 GB RAM
- 80 GB 7200 rpm HDD
- 8x DVD writer dual layer
- Graphics card (128 MB dedicated)
- IEEE 1394 (to plug my minidv camcorder)
- Bluetooth
- Modem+LAN
- 5.1 sound card + speakers
- 17"/19" TFT

Secondary needs:
- Fast Infrared
- Wireless LAN
- TV in/out

My considerations are:
- Price as tight as sensible
- Reliability of the product + future-proof for 3 yrs
- Vendor support
- I'd handle some audio/video, some gaming, and programming stuff like databases and app servers

I'm not a hardware pro - so modding & overclocking are out of question.

Eagerly waiting for your recommendations, and would greatly appreciate.

[SamuraiCatJB]

I am at Siggraph, if you can wait until Friday I can do a better reply. Why X2? I have one, but most folks won't get much advantage.

[JackAxe]

To meet Windows Vistard's minimum requirements. :)

My last PC built was a Barton with an MSI NF2 board. I'm not that familar with the newer chipsets right now. But if I were to buy right now, I would stick with NVidia's chipsets.

http://www.nvidia.com/page/mobo.html

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[SamuraiCatJB]

I prefer NForce4 and just bought one. MSI plat. SLI has 1394 and SATA ll, I have the board but have not upgraded disks. But that design gives me good upgrade paths to SLI, SATA II, and a physics processor on either PCI-X or PCI-ex.

[Rampax]

If you are on a budget, then why AMD 64 X2? The rest of the system doesn't compliment it very well.

[SamuraiCatJB]

If you are on a budget, then why AMD 64 X2? The rest of the system doesn't compliment it very well.

That was what I was wondering.... I do have a 4600 X2, and I can defend it by the fact that I write multi-threaded apps for a career. If the developers do not have multi-core or multi-processor, how can we ever get software to users that can use multi-core? And that may be his reasoning as well.

One comment on the X2, though it is "should" be compatible with any 939 board, do double check. AMD has noticed a few companies have had power issues on the board when putting in the X2. Although the power and heat should be the same as the non-X2 chips, they are a narrower spec. So boards that were slightly out of spec and still worked on other 939 chips don't work on the X2. This accounts for less than 2% of 939 boards according to AMD, but they still recommend you check to make sure that the bios flash is available for dual core compatibility.