i used tu manufacture computers. msi bords are pretty easy to work with, you can defaut everything and the board works fine. i think i only had one board (out of the hundreds i installed) fail, and i think it has something to do with me dropping it. id steer clear of the gigabytes because they had a high failure rate. entire batches tended to fail.
NEVER USE INTEL BOARDS, they have a tendency for including bad drivers with their boards, aside from that they constantly fail. i even had a $300 server board fail on me once. i also had a lot of luck with my dfi board, but i havnt used a recent model.
as for chipsets, any one will do so long as it has the features you want. ive never used one, but nforce chipsets look good. frankly id rather have a chipset from a company that knows games. some of them have optical audio out if you want to jack the machine into a real stereo system. again, id stay away from intel because of the driver issues.
im not very familiar with amd systems, so i cant recamend a specific board. however i would use tha fastest memory the board supports, and i would let the board burn in for a few months before overclocking. some people make the mistake of overclocking right out of the box. remember a new board has never had current running through it, so its better to let it get used to high tepuratures for awhile, then slowly incriment the overclock to the desired level.
also be sure to protect against esd. there are
of myths about the subject. the annoying wrist strap is the best way to go, econd best is to work on a metal table that is grounded.you can plug your case in and use that while you bolt the board in place, but do not plug the power supply into the board while the power supply is plugged in. the power supply will always supply 5 volts even if the thing is off. It is a common mistake that i made a couple of times.
*edit*
i forgot to rant about cooling. i saw a case out there with a liquid cooling system. however if you go with fans, use lots of them. server fans are fast enough to hover and go flying, use those if you can find them. there is
of debate as to how to mount casefans. if you get a case that already has fans installed then leave them as is, likewise if your case features instructions on mounting fans (most dont), follow them. dont mount the fans in a manor that they work against eachother. the power supply fan blows back, so i mount all the fans so they blow twards the rear. i once took a dremel to a device bay cover to cut slits in it, then put it by the video card so it can vent heat.
