Need some advise on new PC.

[Boss]

Ok instead of buying a few cheap PCs Im just going to build one. Not top of the line right now just something I can upgrade slowly as I need like the one I have. Here are a few thing I need advise on:

Motherboard are there any brands you swear by or ones to stay away from? What are the key things to look for when shoping for one? Looking to go dual-core* (wish I could do quad now lol)

Processors is there a big dif in Athlon and Intel as far as gaming? Back in the day I thought I read taht Athlon want as good of a chip for gameing but Im seeing it in alot of nice systems. Also for like athlon chips how much of a dif would I see in say a 4200 to 4600 to 4800 since 4200 to 4800 is like only a 75$ dif on www.ibuypower.com?

Video cards going with NVIDIA just dont know if I should get a GF 8800 GTS or dual 7900GS? Was wondering if they work like I heard the duel-core works each card will handle a instance of WoW if im running two or no?

Well think thats all the stupid questions I have thanks for any help and info on all this.

[Steph]

All your questions are interesting if you want to play performance games.
WoW is no such game. WoW is made to work on as many systems as possible. True, it does look nicer on higher spec systems, but that is about it.

Only since BC am I encountering issues with an old notebook with a 32MB ATI Radeon mobility 9200, which is a joke as far as graphics go today.

For WoW you want to be sure to have 1GB RAM, a decent CPU, pretty much all you can buy today is ok, a graphics card with a chipset that is less than 2 years old. No special requirements anywhere, unless you count the memory requirement for smooth zoning and smooth playing in crowded areas.

[Torrid]

I personally am a big fan of ASUS and Gigabyte motherboards which i've used exclusively for the past 4 years or so. I'm also strictly using AMDs, primarily because they tend to be quite a bit less expensive than intel and perform just as well.

If you're wanting to save money i'd consider going a few generations back on video card and getting maybe a 7900 GT or dual them up which you can do for the same price as one 8800. I personally have been running an overclocked 7800GT with everything maxed out and have absolutely zero complaints.

Definately shop around for the best prices, but i'll go ahead and recommend newegg because I have had nothing but positive experiences with them. I do all of my computer related shopping on newegg with the exception of LCDs. Those I get from Tigerdirect because they have the best dead pixel policy around and also very competitive prices. Also if you're a little adventurous you can check out the [H]ardOCP buy/sell forums which i've also used quite a bit in the past (http://www.hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=17). On a side note, thier hardware forums are an EXCELLENT place to go for hardware related advice.