I may have mentioned this last summer, but I'm finally getting a job (I find out this week, data entry, egh).

I want to build a computer, primarily for multimedia applications; I want to go for more of a basic system immediately, with upgrades (such as a good sound card, video card) to follow; monitor, I'll probably have to get what I'm going to stick with immediately; would anyone have any idea on where I can look for more general outlines on what to look into for a complete system? I'm not too hardware-savvy, and I don't want to just go buying what I think I like (though I know enough to check compatibility in, say motherboard+CPU, I want a system that will compliment itself).

Any help is much appreciated.

Well... Heres a good basic example of the system layout i would reccomend

CPU Athlon 1.3 GHZ

Video Card : Geforce 2, Geforce 3, Geforce 4

Motherboard : One that is Athlon compliant preferably one that supports DDR ram.

Sound Card : Sound Blaster Audigy

256 Megs of DDR RAM

400 WATT power supply

And of course and ATX tower to house your computers hardware in.

That should be able to handle just about anything you would want to do in terms of multimedia.

You might also want to get a decent DVD drive for it and a decent burner.

yeah that sounds like a reasonable system

question is.....what are you going to do with it
if it is simply going to be a multimedia pc...for downloading files...making pictures..and general stuff the above is good, i do recoomend a lot of storage space though...can never have enough of that when you start downloading.

other thing is...how much are you willing to spend...i built my system for about 900$ and it's an athlon 1800, 512 mb ram, 80 gig hd space, soundblaster live, and a g-force 4...and a very good mobo...

so it kinda depends....but as said before..for general use...the above is pretty nice

Initially? About $1000 max; eventually (in the next year or so), I'd be willing to fork over as much as $2-3k.

Multimedia for watching/making. Digital camcorder and some music studio stuff I'll be looking at eventually also. Monitor will probably be high-end.

I do like the idea of starting low on the processor; Duron 1.3 GHz is $29 last check at pricewatch; I could go bigger and better when I have more finances in the future (I'm looking at pulling in only about $1200 a month (not bad for entry level, but still not a lot); luckily, nothing's coming out of that (live at my parents' right now), but I'm saving up for college in the fall also.

Thanks.

This is what I'd recommend...

Athlon XP 2100/2300+
ECS K7S6A mainboard
512MB DDR 2100/2700 RAM
ATI Radeon 9500/9700 based vidcard
350W ATX PSU is sufficient
Soundblaster Audigy or 5.1 retail/OEM
40GB harddrive
CDRW (at least 12/6/24)
USB mouse, PS/2 keyboard, good 17" CRT monitor yabba yabba printer scanner ect.