Rebuilding my Athlon system

[Scuba_Dave]

Well since its hard to get a system with XP I have decided to rebuild my old Athlon system for my wife

What I have:
Athlon 2500 - I need a new motherboard, the old one was a Asus A7N8X (not working)
(2) 512m chips of PC 3500 memory DDR433
ATI AIW video card
(2) 160g SATA drives
300w Power supply
Floppy, CD/RW, DVD player

What I need:
Socket A motherboard for the Athlon chip & memory
$45 at new egg?
Probably a mini-tower case

So for a little over $100 I think I can put this system back together
She really only surfs the web & uses it for E-mail
She doesn't need a fast system, this will be a huge speed increase for her

Her current system is a PIII-700 w/512m
I want to use that for my animated Christmas show

Thoughts?
Decent motherboard to buy?
The tower case I can probably pu at CompUSA


After further review it looks like a MB/CPU combo would be a good deal:
I think this one will do it
It has everything built in, if my AGP card works - fine. If not the onboard video will be used. It has a PCIe slot for future upgrade
She's had the old PC maybe 5 years, so this will be a good upgrade
$84 shipped

PC CHIPS A31G (1.0) ( W/AMD Mobile Sempron 2800+) AMD Sempron 2800+ Mobile Socket 754 SiS 741GX Micro ATX Motherboard/CPU Set - Retail

FSB 800
PCIe
SATA & ATA

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16813185092

[theplatypus]

Do you have a Fry's electronics in your area? They have some sick combo deals.

[ReefNeck]

For what you said the wife does on a PC the semperon will be fine but I would like to steer you clear of PCchips products. Very bottom end. Had a couple boards die on me within 2 months of installing them. Look for an Asus board for the CPU you have. They are quality boards and will last her a long time.

[Scuba_Dave]

Ah yes...decided maybe to stick with Asus
PCChips didn't have that great reviews
No Fry's near me
More $$ but I've used Asus boards for years
Combo with Athlon 64 3400 2.2g 939 socket

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131069

Has SATA & PCIe
I'll stick with on board video for now
hmmmm....there is another board w/4 memory slots
That would be make it easier to upgrade to 2g of memory for Vista
$109 - so $15 more w/same CPU

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131035

We are going to stop at CompUSA & checkout cases Tues
Then decide
Thanks

[ReefNeck]

Be careful too on those "cheap" cases from CompUSA. They are very flimsy and will slice your hands open quite often. I only use Lian Li for my cases but that's a lot more money.

Get the extra ram slots for sure. I have 2X1GB in my Athlon64 3800+ X2 Dual Core. You can go to 2GB with 2 slots but doesnt 4GB sound great down the road a bit?

[Scuba_Dave]

That's what I'm thinking
The current PC is at least 5 years old, I was using it as my PC before she had it. So an upgrade to 2-3g without buying a new MB would be $$ well spent

CompUSA had one case I liked, but that was years ago
I'll have to see what they have now
There is also a Bestbuy next door to them - check that out too

[Scuba_Dave]

I'll also be able to upgrade to a PCIe video card at some point if needed

[Scuba_Dave]

Picked up a nice mini-tower at CompUSA for $60 on sale from $100

Just need to order the MB & CPU!!

[Scuba_Dave]

Her PC may be better then mine!!
I think in a year I'll add memory, Video, a new CPU & I'll give her my P4 2.8