What kit?

[aidso]

Whenver i have built my own computers in the past I have always overheard people talking about parts and then gone on to review them on sites like Tom's Hardware etc. But are there any sites that list the Top 10? Like Top 10 Motherboards, CPU's, bundles etc?

[Funkstar]

Not really, because it all depends on what you are looking to do.

top performers, best value for money, are you building to a budget, any specific needs, are you building a HTPC, etc, etc, etc

[aidso]

I am just wanting a fairly fast machine running Vista (i wreckon i only need a mobo and cpu as i have a case, RAM, monitor, drives, graphics card and peripherals) which can play videos, do video conversion and some general browsing. I dont need a high-end machine as i wont be playing games on it.

[Time Bandit]

Probably the best way of narrowing things down a bit is to decide how much you want to spend. It shouldn't be too difficult then to find a cpu/mobo that will do what you want. Assuming you have DDR2 RAM you could spend as little as £100 or anything up to £300 without hitting the 'high end' market.

If you are regularly encoding video I believe quads have the edge but it unless you are likely to be watching a movie and checking your email at the same time you might find a dual core is more than adequate.

You should probably also consider how long you want the system to last. Future proofing is impossible but IMO so is chasing the technology.

If you are a car driver how long do you expect keep a car for? Do you replace it every year or run it into the ground?

Most of us are somewhere inbetween - a bit above or a bit below.