Help choosing a MOBO and CPU (much thanks)

[RedHouse18]

I'm not a hardcore gamer and I don't have plans to overclock.
I'm just looking for the sweet spot in regards to MOBO and CPU.
I was thinking about an Athlon 64 3000 and I think I want SATA.

Also do you think my trusty 300W Zallman psu can handle this?
Do you think a retail cpu is obnoxiously noisy?

I just picked up 512mb of PC3200 so I hope that I can use that with the system.

I guess I should mention other components
two 120 gig hd, dvd, dvd-r
all-in-wonder 9000 pro

Thanks for your advice.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I'm not a hardcore gamer

So you do some gaming? What level of performance and what screen resolution do you want?

What other programs do you run? For office apps a 1 GHz PC is fine.

If you want "good" gaming ability then yes, an A64 28000+ and 3000+ are the price/performance leaders, and socket 754 might be the best choice (even though it's "a dead end") since you can get good s754 motherboards for $70-80.

 

[KoolDrew]

AMD Athlon 64 2800+ and Chaintech VNF-250 should be good.

 

[RedHouse18]

I haven't played a fps in about a year but it'd be nice to be able to play one if i felt like it... i just bought an all-in-wonder 9000 pro.
I use my computer 8 hours a day so its worth building a machine that doesn't make me wait. I do medium load statistical analysis, business apps, and I'm a media whore.

 

[Sonic587]

Originally posted by: KoolDrew
AMD Athlon 64 2800+ and Chaintech VNF-250 should be good.

:thumbsup:

As far as SATA goes, don't bother unless you're going with a Raptor. And even then, the whole price/performance thing makes those drives unattractive.

BTW, what is your current CPU/MB?

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: KoolDrew
AMD Athlon 64 2800+ and Chaintech VNF-250 should be good.

 

[RedHouse18]

Current mobo and cpu are probably fried. Had Leadtek K7NCR18D-Pro (N-Force2) and Athlon XP 2100