My motherboard since the other night decided to start frying what ever keyboard I put into it, so it looks like a new motherboard is now required. Now, if I'm gonna have to repalce the motherboard, I might as well upgrade, as getting my current mobo again would be awkward, being that it is a good few years old now.

I'm considering getting 64-bit, as it doesn't seem to vary much in price to the standard A Socket mobos. Why I want a 64-bit, is so that my PC will last me another good few years before another upgrade is required. (this upgrade is too early for me, but, gotta do it or no PC for me, which means no coursework to be done easily ><)

And there's these many differant bus speeds from what I can see now too, 333, 737, things like that, which am I to go for?

Theres nothing you can throw at a 3.2g P4 (32-bit) that cant hurt it. So you might as well stick to it. Supposedly MS is stopping support for 64 bit. Slap a gig and a half of ram (atleast) on it. Give it a phat power supply and some fans and she'll rip for a nice long time. Perhaps HT is the way to go?

Microsoft is having enough problems with Longhorn not getting out to do something stupid like drop support for 64 bit. That would be called *stupidity*.

Linux might have comparably small marketshare, but sometimes marketshare doesn't really mean much.. stuff can change completely without the marketshare twinging.

Anyway.. stop trying to drag him over to Intel <.<

Read up on the buyers guides on
http://www.anandtech.com
http://www.arstechnica.com

Alot of good info there, you can find complete buyers guides to build machines from. Very useful. AMD and Intel processors.

Well for one Linux is Free and open source (GNU) so really, how could they have a stock value?

However, I highly recomend it, if you are computer saavy that is. I'd completely switch to Linux if it supported my modem and had some video editing software... and a few hardware drivers, but thats really it. Sound, Video, printer, HIDs, all work fine.

Theres something about building my own kernel that makes me all warm inside. *huggles linux*

I intend to have a go at Linux in the coming weeks. But first, I need Windows sorted. (yes, system running now with new hardware and such)

If anything I'd keep windows and pick up one of those windows-ready versions of linux, just to try it out.

You can download Linux online from a number of places, buying physicaly won't make a difference except buying the box and handbook which you probably won't read.

I'm planning to run triple boot on my system, (I already am dual boot :lol: ) with Linux or install Linux on a REALLY old computer and make it a file server on my network or do what's Linux is famous for: SERVER! Well online server that is.

MS will not drop the 64-bit support, or erm drop the 64-support TO BE. It's too important. I'm still crying over the dropped WinFS project however.

I already have Mac-OSX emulated (merely for show) and Linux nearly-installed...

Microsoft has dropped the XP 64-bit project, or so I've heard, but, beyond that, they will have a 64-bit version of Longhorn.

It is also necessary to have a Shader 2.0 ready video card (Radeon 9700+) for the graphics they will have in it.