Need advice: bang for the buck upgrade mobo & cpu?

[Wiz]

I need to upgrade my wife's PC, it's currently been offline for at least a month.

I have a gig of DDR2 memory and 2 gigs DDR3 so I'd like to use that (preferably the DDR3).

A mobo with decent integrated graphics would be nice so I don't have to spend extra $ on a vid card.

I have a decent SATA HDD so I'm just looking for mobo & cpu w/hsf.

I'd like this to kick out some seti work units for the Team Anandtech international race but mainly it needs to be a nice upgrade for the wife.

Suggestions? The budget is pretty tight so I need to get the best bang for the buck here.

Thanks!

 

[o1die]

I'm going to recommend the asrock M3A785GMH for $84.99 w/free shipping. Asrock isn't the friendliest overclocking board, but I've had pretty good luck with 3 of them. This is an am3 board only; when you use ddr3, you can only use am3 cpus. Jetway has one board with 2 ddr2 and 2 ddr3 memory slots, but I'm sure the chipset is a little funky, and Jetway support is questionable at best. For the cpu, the athlon x4 620 propus is a quad core for $99.00 with free shipping and heatsink. Your wife can run this for years at the stock setting. I'm waiting for the 605e, but in Japan, it's going for about $180, so I may have to pass on it. It uses 45 watts, which is excellent for a quad core. All prices newegg.com.

 

[Wiz]

Thank you, yes that system would rock! I'll see what I can put together at Newegg.

 

[Ashen Shugar]

You may also want to take a look at this combo on Newegg - its the Athlon X4 620 with an ECS Black Edition 785G Chipset AM3 Motherboard for $155.99 after rebate and free shipping. ECS may not be the best brand, but this particular motherboard seems to have decent reviews and feeback.

 

[o1die]

I recommend shugar's combo deal also. I have used ecs Fry's combo specials. Ecs is the second largest maker of boards in the world; not much for overclocking, but your wife probably doesn't need it.

 

[Wiz]

Nice - Thanks for that!!

 

[Wiz]

I just pulled the trigger on the Athlon X4 620 with an ECS Black Edition 785G combo that Shugar suggested.
I think my wife will like this machine.
Thanks Again!