I am looking to build a system for a good price. 
It is important to me that I spend just enough money to not have a crappy machine, I want this beast to be reliable.  Can anyone recommend a good motherboard/intel processor (~2.5 Ghz P4) combo for me at a decent price?

Also where can I get the best prices?

The prices will vary depending on the company. Compaq has some pretty good prices and pretty good products.

Im looking for components, not complete systems, and especially not compaq.

Whatever you do, make sure that you get an 800MHz FSB mobo (if you want better than 2.5GHz, that'll put you at 3.2 on (I believe) a Prescott P4), that supports dual-channel DDR.  I highly suggest getting four memory slots, too -- it's been popular to supply 3 slots (expandable to 3GB), but that's just silly.

Dual channel DDR works such that parallel memory sticks use different edges of the clock cycle.  For example, I have 1GB in 2 sticks total in my home machine.  If this is your clock cycle:

__|---|__|---|__

then the memory stick in slot 0 changes bus state on the leading edge (0->1) of the pulse, and the stick in slot 2 changes bus state on the falling edge (1->0) of the pulse.  This allows for faster data transfer (twice as much in fact) over traditional DDR memory.

However, as I said, you need to have 2 sticks of the same size in parallel slots.  So it's wise to have a multiple of 2 slots.  ;)

What's wrong with Compaq? Anyway, they do sell "components". Compaq also produces some pretty powerful server systems. Maybe not as good as a company like IBM. But they are still very good.

If you're looking for an off-the-shelf computer, go to Dell or IBM. Compaq's machines have components that are all squished together.

If you'll list what else you're looking for, suggested price range, and certain add-ons that you'd like to have, I'll find all the parts and you can make the final decision. Of course, it'll be scrutinized by the forum crew :-]

Topaz, I want a Good quality MB preferably Gigabyte, Asus, or Intel, and p4 processor - whatever the slowest Ghz is that still has HT. and a decent case/ps.  I have all the rest.

What kind of RAM do you have right now? I can't find a mobo for you until you tell me.

[quote author=jigsaw link=topic=12403.msg122847#msg122847 date=1123014709]
Topaz, I want a Good quality MB preferably Gigabyte, Asus, or Intel, and p4 processor - whatever the slowest Ghz is that still has HT. and a decent case/ps.  I have all the rest.
[/quote]

I have an MSI mobo with P4/HT at 2.4GHz....  Don't know if that helps you out or not.

[quote author=MyndFyre link=topic=12403.msg122746#msg122746 date=1122937566]
Whatever you do, make sure that you get an 800MHz FSB mobo (if you want better than 2.5GHz, that'll put you at 3.2 on (I believe) a Prescott P4), that supports dual-channel DDR.  I highly suggest getting four memory slots, too -- it's been popular to supply 3 slots (expandable to 3GB), but that's just silly.

Dual channel DDR works such that parallel memory sticks use different edges of the clock cycle.  For example, I have 1GB in 2 sticks total in my home machine.  If this is your clock cycle:

__|---|__|---|__

then the memory stick in slot 0 changes bus state on the leading edge (0->1) of the pulse, and the stick in slot 2 changes bus state on the falling edge (1->0) of the pulse.  This allows for faster data transfer (twice as much in fact) over traditional DDR memory.

However, as I said, you need to have 2 sticks of the same size in parallel slots.  So it's wise to have a multiple of 2 slots.  ;)
[/quote]

I believe you just decribed DDR compared to SDRAM.  Dual Channel DDR memory is just as it sounds.  Two ways to reach the CPU instead of one.