Once the processor has been decided, it is necessary to choose a motherboard. Of course there are hundreds if not thousands on the market. So it is possible to get one to meet your specific needs.

For me, as I am not a gamer, the graphics capabilities were not an issue. However, as I would like to use it for music, a decent sound capability was important. I also wanted plenty of slots and sockets, so that I can plug in plenty of peripheral devices, and if necessary upgrade in the future.

I had decided that I did not want to go for Windows Vista, so I would be running XP as my OS. With this in mind I felt that I did not need more than 2Gb of RAM, however with the release of of Windows Ultimate/Windows 7 in the non too distant future, I wanted to be able to add additional RAM if I needed to.

Of course price was going to be a factor, as I did not want to spend more than I have to, however I did not want to compromise performance. After much scouring of the net, and reading reviews I opted for the Gigabyte GA-MA69VM-S2. What struck me was the audio capabilities – it has 7.1 surround sound capability, in addition it has 4 slots for DDR2 SDRAM, 4 USB ports (with the facility for many more front of case USB ports).

This motherboard also has 4 SATA connectors – allowing a faster, quieter Hard Disk to be installed. At about £35.00 it fitted nicely into my budget as well.

With the main components selected, all that remained was to select all the other bits and pieces, and a box to put them in.