Help my new system

[B727BFJ]

I'm in the process of building my first system and I have a few questions for this wonderful forum. First of all, what I'm currently looking at:
AMD 1.33 CPU (or 1.4 after the 1.5 comes out -- price!)
either an Asus A7M266 or EPoX EP 8K7A mobo
256 pc 2100 ram (Crucial)
either IBM or Maxtor 40 Gig HD (IDE)
Elsa Gladiac 920 GeForce 3
CD-ROM & DVD Drives ???
Plextor 16/10/40A CD-R
SB Live! Gamer
etc - I think that's the meat.

Questions: which mobo? Should I go with OEM? - I think I'll stick with a retail mobo for instructions (first time!) but what about processor, drives, etc. I was also going to go with rounded cables for cooling purposes in my case, Should i be aware of any length issues with the cables? And finally, I've read horror stories about thermaltake HSF's and AMD's, can you suggest any good ones that are safe to use with AMD's. Any help would be appreciated and comments would be great to. Thanks in advance.
J
I go by "a truly wise man always has more questions than answers." I have a lot of questions but am far from wise.

[Tron]

Hi
for info on cooling: http://www1.amd.com/products/athlon/thermals
but also use a cpuspacer!
Oem or Retail makes no difference
and i don´t like the SBLive get a Terratec.

[B727BFJ]

Thanks Tron, Anyone Else?

[Reddog]

Depending on the price (I don't check DDR), SD RAM might be a better buy (it is cheaper, and there really isn't much of a diffrence in performance).

GeForce 3 is good, but expensive...

P4, expensive but fast:
AMD, fast and inexpensive (Yay!)

I'd use 2 20g HDDs in a RAID 0 config (more efficient).

CD or DVD is trivial.

[Xeroid]

When I am building a new system and have it narrowed down to 2 motherboards (like you have), I usually go to the manufactures web site and download the manual. This has two benefits.

1) I can look at each boards features before I actually purchase the motherboard. This helps me make my decision.

2) I find that if I print the manual, it is in a larger format than the one that comes with the board. This makes it easier to read. This comes in handy when setting jumpers, identifying plugs, etc.

Here are a couple of links for you.
http://www.epox.com/html/english/support/motherboard/manuals/manuals_socketa.htm
http://www.asus.com.tw/products/motherboard/manual_socka.html

Hope this helps and good luck! http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

Mike