well, I finally gave in. or more like, my computer caved in.
somehow (probably has nothing to do with the fact that I opened it up and started playing with it's insides) the mother board burned out, and the entire thing is usless.
after many complaints from my brother, we got a new one:

AMD 3800= 64 bit dc (S-AM2) Gigabyre m61pme-s2
amd athlon X2
neforce 430.
ddr II kingstone 800 1ghz


and so on. I'm not really hardware literate, but it came cheap (around 330 US$) and fast (five days since we made the order and it's here).

so my problem is, can someone tell of any known issues with this computer? are there any know compatbility problems. any must-have updates\drivers?
what should i get for it first, in terms of security?