The last peecee I bought was in 1997 or so. Since then, I haven't really kept up with stuff too well. As such, I need some help deciphering all the technology so I know what I should get.

I prefer to get pieces and parts because I'm built that way and, in this case, it also facilitates me retiring my current one to my wife in a much less costly manner than would otherwise happen. (At least that's what I've convinced myself of.)

What I need to figure out is what sorts of stuff to buy. I think I'm okay with peripherals (video card, hard drives, etc.), but I'm at a loss on CPUs and motherboards.

So, I've heard that while AMD processors feel as if they're running as fast as Intel processors of the same ``number'', that if you're doing real number crunching, the Intels are faster. If that's true, then I definitely want to go with Intel. Not to mention the very bad experiences I've had with non-Intel chipsets. Feel free to tell me that my experiences are currently invalid.

Also, while researching it just now, I notice that Intel has out a 3.0GHz CPU priced much higher than their 3.06GHz CPU. The big difference I notice is that the 3.0 CPU has an 800MHz bus, whereas the 3.06'er has a 533MHz bus. What sort of real-world difference will this make (especially given that 60MHz at these speeds is bound to be irrelevant)? And what bus is being referred to? A memory bus?

Who makes good motherboards these days? I think that I can understand all the different features they provide, but I want something super stable. I am totally uninterested in overclocking. My current motherboard is a Tyan, with which I have had zero stability issues, but they do tend to be pricy. I should point out that my criteria for stability are expansive. It ranges from the general ``don't crash for no reason'' stuff to making sure that IDE devices function properly (no need to disable DMA -- a problem I've run into before), etc., etc.

And I need to have an understanding of memory types, I suppose.

Any other relevant information would be super, too. It continues to amaze me that this sort of information is so hard to find. Thanks to anyone who can summarize for me.

I'm not looking for someone to pick something out for me. I just need to be informed as to what the different options mean, plus a little advice on product quality.

Oh, and games is not really a huge concern if that makes much difference. I'll probably play some, but that's not really what I'm looking towards.