mATX upgrade advice 939 vs AM2 (HTPC)

[mrzed]

Note - Poster lives in CANADA - no Newegg here (sadly) Prices mentioned are Canadian

I have a socket A (barton) mATX system now. Will be buying a 32-37" LCD after christmas, and looking to play Oblivion at 1366*768. Started scouting for AGP cards, and quickly realised any deals are strictly PCI-e now.

Current setup: Mobile 2500+ Barton, 9600XT, 2*512Mb PC3200

Total budget (not including video) $200-300 Canadian

Proposition 1:

- Keep RAM, get 939 board ~$100 for good overclocking mATX, ~$85 single core 3200+
- Upgrade to dual core later (will this be harder to find/ more expensive as s939 phased out?

Proposition 2:

- Same as above but start with 3800+ dual core ~$180

Proposition 3:

- Overclocking AM2 board ~$100, Single core 3200+ ~$85, 1*1Gb DDR2 ~$100

Proposition 2 and 3 cost close to the same (though selling my current RAM will make some difference). Only advantage I can see to AM2 is future processor upgrades, but I don't upgrade often, and I expect a dual core @ 2.4Ghz would last me a long while. So I am leaning towards option 1 or 2.

Not too interested in Conroe - mATX overclocking boards are almost non-existent, and the base cost would add nearly another $100 for the board alone.

Thoughts?

 

[GuitarDaddy]

I just had the same decision upgrading an matx system for my wife, I went with option 1(s939) and it's great, the only reason to go AM2 IMO is the possibility to upgrade to quad core which didn't intrest me.

I went with the Biostar Tforce 6100 939 which is an overclocking beast and sells for US$69 at newegg, I got lucky and scored a sealed retail x2 3800+ off ebay for US$140.
It overclocked to 2.55ghz effortlessly and just flies Best $200 I ever spent

 

[mrzed]

Good to hear the comment about the Biostar. Goes for a little more here in Canada, but still a nice price, and it was at the top end of the shortlist for me, that or the DFI ATI board (prefer the lower power consumption af the ATI chipset, but the price is a bit high)