There's as broad a choice as there's ever been for those in the market for a motherboard. It's for that reason that, in this brief guide, we'll sort your processor out first to help narrow down the motherboard choices. Fortunately, in a way, the processor market offers a lesser number of options, and as usual your choice must be defined by your budget and what use the eventual PC will be put to.

If you're after a machine for basic office tasks, with little demand for any higher performance graphical work, then the budget processor line is your best bet. Here, your options are the Duron from AMD or the Celeron from Intel. Some of AMD's Athlon XP processors may also fall into this price bracket, but we're coming to them later.

Both the Duron and Celeron are, effectively, slightly stripped down versions of their manufacturers' higher end CPUs. Surprisingly, though, recent Duron chips have delivered better-than-expected performance, and with prices for them coming in under £40, they make for a sound budget investment. The Celeron doesn't compare well in terms of either performance or price to the Duron, and is best avoided unless you truly need an Intel chip.

So we move on up to the mainstream segment of the market, an area where the Athlon XP does battle with the Pentium 4. In a straight-out battle for performance, the honours are just about in Intel's favour, but you pay a hefty premium for the privilege. Athlons are far cheaper than Pentium 4s, and that's why many tinkerers opt for AMD over Intel.

Later Pentium 4 chips are worth considering for their hyperthreading technology, though, which effectively fools the PC into thinking there are two CPUs inside it. Applications that make use of this feature are limited, but if you're tackling video rendering, for instance, there can be a benefit.

One thing to note about Athlon XPs, and that's that their name doesn't relate to raw processor speed. While a Pentium 4 3200 is called so because it runs at 3,200MHz (or 3.2GHz), the Athlon XP 3200+ earns its name because of its relative performance (its actual clock speed is 2,200MHz).

There are two new developments in desktop processors to be aware of. The first is the Athlon 64, AMD's much heralded launch into 64-bit computing. The basics here are that Athlon 64 processors are more powerful than either Pentium 4 or Athlon XP chips, and if you're looking for a relatively future-proof PC, then it's pretty much the best choice out there at the moment (even if, at the time of writing, there aren't many applications that can make use of its added power - every other mainstream processor runs in 32-bit mode).

The second development is, if you like, 'deluxe' processors, that'll set you back a good chunk of cash but deliver some really strong performance. AMD's Athlon 64 FX is the best of these at the moment, and currently a better bet than Intel's expensive Pentium 4 Extreme Edition. Realistically, these high-end processors are for the hardcore gaming PC user only, as you really pay through the nose to get them.

Moving on to motherboards, your processor choice will largely determine your motherboard selection as well. That's because you need to make sure the board has the right socket to fit the processor.

If you're going down the Intel road, then you're going to need a Socket 478 motherboard. An AMD Duron or Athlon XP is likely to require a Socket A board, although these are gradually being phased out. The Athlon 64? Ah. Earlier models needed a Socket 754, while the incoming batch need the upcoming Socket 939 (as will most new AMD processors), the latter being a standard that is likely to then be around for some time.

This may all sound puzzling, but all you need be sure of is that your processor and motherboard support the same socket. If you're unsure, try to buy your board, processor and its heatsink fan from the same retailer, and check with them when ordering that everything will work together fine.

Once you've determined your socket, you can then move on to some of your other options. These include the following.

Integrated Graphics: This negates the need for a separate graphics card, but generally falls a couple of generations behind the latest graphics technology. Don't expect cutting edge games to run particularly swiftly (if at all), do expect integrated graphics to be fine for a standard workstation PC.

On-board sound: Similar to above, although on-board sound does tend to deliver good performance. Many boards now come with a built in 5.1 audio solution, and unless you're a dedicated musician or simply have to have the best, it's likely to be enough.

LAN/Modem: An increasing number of boards have these on board. Of what use they are to you only you can determine.

USB: All boards now come with USB support, but if you're buying new, then make sure that USB 2.0 is supported. Not all boards offer the same number of potential ports, so check that the specs match your requirements before you shell out your cash.

Memory: The vast majority of boards support DDR RAM now, which has become a bit of a de facto standard for PCs. But not all RAM is created equal. If you're investing in fast DDR400 memory, it'll be a waste of cash if your board doesn't support it. Memory speeds can be a bit of a bottleneck on a PC, so if you're looking to put your computer to work doing high end gaming or graphic design, then it pays to get the fastest you can.

Front Side Bus (FSB): The higher the better, basically, as this connects up the CPU to other crucial parts of the board, such as the memory. Generally, it's referred to as a number that reflects its speeds; e.g. FSB 400 = 400MHz. The FSB can be a bottleneck if you're buying a fast processor, so the minimum you should expect for a performance PC is around the 333MHz mark. Aim higher if you can. If your performance demands are more modest, then 266MHz will do.

ATX/Mini ATX/AT/micro ATX: This refers to the physical size of the board. For desktop machines, for instance, ATX is the standard. Check your PC case to see what size it supports, and make your decision based on that.

Chipset: Expect to see words such as nForce, Via KT400 and suchlike on a board box. These refer to the chipset on the board (which basically handles its core functions), and it's best to read up about these from the third parties who make them. A good rule of thumb is to try to stay up to date - the nForce, for instance, is up to version three at the time of writing.

This is a brief starter guide to buying a board and processor, and it's wise to research further once you've worked out roughly what your requirements are. While your processor choice is quite narrow, when it comes to the motherboard you can spend anything from £30 to over £200. Just make sure you're getting the features you want and need, rather than falling for fancy box copy. Happy shopping!