Ok, I am gunna buy new computer hardware. Of course, I want a kick a** computer. It'll be dual boot with Winblows XP and Fedora Core 3. So here are my questions:

(1): I want a AMD 64 bit processor. Is an Athlon or an Optron a better choice?
(2): I've always gone with SOYO for my motherboards, and I really like them. Is there something better?
(3): What brands of monitors are good? (CRT)
(4): I am planning on getting the Geforce 6800 GT 256MB GDDR3 video card, is this the best choice? (Raedon isn't an option)
(5): What brand of RAM is the best?
(6): Planning on a 80 GIG Maxtor harddrive. Good?
(7): I want a DVD/CD-R/CD-RW Drive. What ones are good?
(8): Any ideas for a decent sound system? (Speakers)

Any other suggestions?

Also, when looking for video cards, i've noticed that there are cards that have a 16x PCI connector. I have never seen this before. Is it better than AGP? Also, I don't think SOYO has a motherboard with a 16X PCI connector. So if it is better than AGP, what motherboards support this?

I've had three maxtor hdd fail on me. i will never buy another one. i use western digital and i have heard seagate is good also.

My 2 cents: Viewsonic monitors, nVidia graphics, Kingston RAM, Western Digital drives, Lite On CD/DVD, Antec cases and PSU's. Naturally the "best" brand of anything is a subjective call, but these have worked for me. Have fun -- J.W.

Thanks guys. I could have sworn it was the other way around, western digital sucked, and maxtor rocked, but what ever...