mg89 said:
My did built it a while back in 2001. He's been helping me, but he's been kind of busy and just went to sleep 5 minutes ago. I did ask him about the BIOS setting to default. He did it for me but it still didn't work. I'm not messing with my computer anymore, because I want to do it under the supervision of my dad, just in case I screw anything up. Now I just want answers to some questions I have.
Here's a question- what's better AMD or Intel?
That's really not an answerable question, plus it's quite likely to start a flame war. I personally prefer AMD because I haven't liked the way Intel has tried to bully computer manufacturers to only use Intel processors. Over the last few years AMD has been better than Intel in almost every way. However, with the newest Intel processors AMD is a bit behind again. AMD has not yet released their latest stuff though, so I wouldn't jump back to Intel just yet (unless you're going to buy an Apple).
Speaking of which, I highly recommend Apple computers. Since you're into games though, they probably wouldn't be the best solution for you.
Okay, back on topic, finally. Five years old? I'd say that's time for a replacement. There's no way you should be using that motherboard for anything other than a server at this point. MSI has decent higher end motherboards now, but five years ago they weren't that great. Get yourself a nice Asus, ABit, or DFI board. I've had great results from Asus and ABit boards. I haven't actually tried DFI, but they're supposed to be really high quality. Stay away from ECS, I've had nothing but trouble from them.
When working on a computer you learn by screwing things up. Don't worry about it. It's really hard to actually damage something when you're playing around in BIOS. Really really hard. Believe me, I've tried. If you mess something up to the point that it won't boot then you just set the clear CMOS jumper on the motherboard for a few seconds, put it back, and then try and turn on the computer again.
Anyway, my recommendation would be to return the already-outdated CPU you bought and then get a socket 939 motherboard with a compatible CPU (like this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103535). That's a pretty economical route and still leaves you with a good upgrade option for the future as that socket will hold up to a Athlon 64 X2 4800+ at least, which is a nice dual core CPU. Especially since it seems you'll need to upgrade your motherboard anyway, might as well go with one that can support faster processors. You could even jump up to an AM2 socket, but then you'll be spending at least $20 more on the processor.
