hey guys im making a computer for my first time, and im looking at motherboards and processors. looking around newegg and tigerdirect, i see a whole bunch of motherboards but im not sure what to choose. For my processor, i know i want athlon, and atleast 2 gh. how do i know what motherboard supports whoch processor and ram? What do u suggest me buy? is it a better deal to just buy a mobo/processor combo? im making a gaming computer, not too expensice though.

Each motherboard supports a certain type of socket. Each category of processor are made to fit into a certain type of socket. For Athlon 64 X2, for example, you have sockets "AM2". So, read the reviews on various motherboards that match the socket of your processor and pick the one you like for your budget.

The specifications of your motherboard, available on Newegg or TigerDirect will say what kind of RAM it supports (must be DDR2 these days).

It's not much more complicated than that. Produce a list of all the components you'd like to buy and just have it checked by somebody to make sure everything fits.

I'd follow Hedos's advice. The key thing is have someone else who does this stuff double check.

My other advice. If it's your first time building a PC, go cheap. (Well, maybe not cheap, but the least expensive route you can go for). We all screw up one time or another, especially when learning how to build PCs, and there are few feelings worse than when you've bent a pin or two, making a $1000+ CPU worthless, and can't return it because you've voided the warrenty in one way or another.

Find a processor you like. Then go to a few review sites which have reviewed it, and see what motherboard they used. Most companies which produce RAM usually have an applet on their site which will help you find out what RAM is right for you based upon the MB and CPU.