Right then.
as u are doing power computing i reccomend you get an athlon XP chip, as they have a number of improvments over the older athlon B or C.
(runs cooler, SSE enabled, hardware prefetch)
the last two may improve processing considerably.
you can choose which particular chip to get.
the XP1600+ seems the best compromise between price & performance at the moment.
CPU cooler is obviously essential... but u dont need anything fancy unless your running in extreme conditions or overclocking.
go for the stock cooler by coolermaster, or a volcano 6, or winfop32-1 or something similar.
<A HREF="http://www.dansdata.com" target="_new">http://www.dansdata.com</A> has a huge cooler roundup if you want to be picky.
P.S. if you dont know how to do anything, dont mess about. get a pro to do it, and ask to watch.
unskilled labour is the #1 reason for people frying AMD chips.
mobo choice may be a bit more complex...
at present there are 3 main chipset choices.
via kt266a, sis 735 or Nforce.
all have decent performance, but as always there is a trade off between performance & price.
sis is cheapest, but is the slowest of the bunch.
nforce is the most expensive,but has very high performance and onboard graphics and sound.
depending what u want, that can be a blessing or a curse...
question: do u need really fast 3d graphics? if not, the nforce with a geforceMX onboard may be the way to go.
last is the kt266a chipset. excellent allrounder, usually with decent overclocking capabilities. some people shy away from Via chipsets though due to past troubles.
most major manufacturers produce at least 1 board from each group.
its best to read all the reviews that TOMS has done to determine whats best for u.
cheers
The lack of thermal protection on Athlon's is cunning way to stop morons from using AMD.