Newbie needs advice on first computer

I am considering building my first computer and have been reading this site for a while now, but still feel I need advice on what a good first computer should be. I plan on doing research and learning everything I can before I start to build but I need a place to start. What would be best components to begin researching?
Are there any sites geared toward first timers? Should I consider Intel or AMD for first time?

Im looking for something middle of the road that can be easily upgraded as new components become available, I don't plan on overclocking at this point, more into imaging and video editing than gaming, however don't want to rule out gaming as I plan to have my son help me on this first computer and he would love to get into gaming.

Any advice would be appreciated

 

[Snowball]

thats great that you are getting into building you own computers, its a lot of fun. I am probably biased because i really like AMD, but i would say go for a duron 800/thunderbird 800+ depending on your budget. Both chips are great, and even with a smaller cache the duron can still kick some tail. Assuming that you have chosen to go with amd, the next choice is motherboard. I have an asus a7v, that works very well for me, but does have some 'issues' that a first-timer might want to avoid. Something like the MSI k7t proII should be easier to work with.
Hope that helps some.

 

[A2KLAU]

What 'Issues' will they be? Enlighten me becasue I might be getting one soon.

SKY.

 

[MSNY]

First, don't be swayed by what people THINK you need. The first step in building your system has to do with setting a primary purpose for it. Will it be a game machine ? business machine ? multimedia machine ? What do you want to be able to do with it right away ? Consider the cost of each item and add the total up to see what different configs will cost.

After you have decided then you can consider things by catagory. Case, harddrive, video, sound, CDROM, power supply, CPU ect. As an example you don't need the best case for for any type of system above but if you want to play games primarily you will want a top rated CPU and Video Card. One big question we all struggle with is compatibilty. Find out for example if such n' such ram is supported by this or that motherboard.

Do a search here of all the posts on builing you will find a lot of info. Also check Anandtechs articles and read them all. Here are some more websites and a few of them cover system building along with specific reviews of different components. There are many more but I cut teeth on these:

FiringSquad link

Sharkey Extreme link

BX boards link

Overclockers link

Toms Hardware link

My System link