Hi, and welcome btcnewb123 
All those questions are answered plenty of times here already, just search for them. But, in a nutshell; GPU is better than CPU by a long way, a great way to make a secure wallet is using armory: https://bitcoinarmory.com/ along with bitcoin-qt.
K.
All those questions are answered plenty of times here already, just search for them. But, in a nutshell; GPU is better than CPU by a long way, a great way to make a secure wallet is using armory: https://bitcoinarmory.com/ along with bitcoin-qt.
K.
How about this tutorial? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=17240.0
Also, what are ASICS?
That's a good tutorial, so is Bruce's (Rayen). Choose which suits your needs and paranoia levels.
K.