Case and Power Supply. AMD recommends not
using a desktop case, but if you leave the top off a desktop case, as I
do, and use a quality CPU fan, the Athlon or Duron will be quite happy. It
would be prudent to use a quality 300 Watt supply, as we did. A larger
power supply may be warranted for fully loaded computers with more drives,
etc.
Optional Chassis Fans. One chassis fan was
sufficient. If you use the Antec case, I would suggest installing
it on the inside of the back of the computer. For fully loaded computers,
two chassis fans are recommended.
Motherboard. Abit KT7A-RAID,
KT7A, and KT7E motherboards are now available. The procedures for
a computer built with those boards are almost identical to those used for
this example computer. There other very good Socket A Athlon/Duron
motherboards made by other manufacturer's. And newer chipsets and
motherboards should be entering the market in a few months. DDR memory
and motherboards are starting to become available. Again, installation
is similar.
Heatsink-Fan. Your best bet is to purchase
a heatsink-fan (cooler) recommended by AMD. 
For
an average Athlon computer, used in an office or home environment, I like
the one to the right. It has a large spring which hooks to all six
lugs on the Socket A, can be attached without tools, is easily removed,
and is less likely come loose during shipment than those that attach to
just two lugs. This one has IBIS on it and comes from a vendor I
have doing business with for many years. Tai
Sol Electronics, Aavid (Part
# 11-K754-01; .pdf
spec), and Tiger
Electronics also make them. Get a heatsink-fan with a quality
ball bearing fan (not a sleeve bearing), one that plugs into the motherboard
(3-pin fan), and has a tachometer function for RPM monitoring by the motherboard.
Windows. The Windows Me Upgrade was installed
on the example computer. There should be no reason why any version
of Windows 9X would not work. Newer versions
of Windows 95 should work as well. Because of the size of
the hard disk, you would want to use Windows 95 version OSR2 or later with
large disk support (FAT32). If
you have an older version of Windows 95 or even Windows 3.X or Windows
for Workgroups, you should be able to install the Windows 98, 98 SE, and
Me upgrades. Windows NT and 2000 are other options which will work.
Find
the tools.