Need help choosing CPU/Mobo combo

[Sirakoz]

About a week ago, the CPU Fan on my old athlonxp 1800+ stopped working, and the processor got fried, ruining the motherboard with it, so I'm currently looking to buy a new CPU/mobo combo and I need some help choosing which one to buy.

This PC is used mostly for work and surfing the web. I play the occasional world of warcraft on it, but that's about it when it comes to gaming, so I'm not looking for an athlon 64 or the like, and am not willing to pay more than $200-220 CAD.

Since I live in Canada, I was looking at www.tigerdirect.ca , and there are a few bundles that interset me, including:

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/...asp?EdpNo=1460171&sku=MBM-7VT600P-3000

P4 is out due to how expensive it is.
I was thinking I could get a sempron 3000+, but is that actually better than an athlonxp 3000+?

I haven't been following what's going on with CPUs and motherboards for more than a year, and am a bit out of the loop, but if I'm not mistaken, there are socket A semprons and socket 754 semprons, and the latter is better, but I also still have the old DDR2100 ram and would like them to work w/ the new cpu/mobo and I'm not sure if a socket 754 sempron supports DDR2100.

I'm in a bit of a hurry, so my post might not be complete, and might add to it later on in another post, and I would appreciate some advice.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Sirakoz]

Anyone? :/

 

[tdrez72]

I personally would say get a 64 bit processor because once programs actually go 64 bit, you'll have to upgrade anyway.

DFI / ASUS have some middle ended mobos that seem to be relatively decent.

You seem to be rather set on a processor at this time, so just go with what you have your eyes set on.

 

[Sirakoz]

Thanks for replying.
Thing is, I already have a gaming PC, and this is just some other PC to work on, so when needed, I'll upgrade the gaming PC to something suitable for gaming.

What I would like to know though is, should I get the athlonxp 3000+ w/ the gigabyte mobo i linked in the original post, or would I be better off paying a bit more and getting a socket 754 sempron w/ some decent mobo? If the sempron is a better choice, does DDR2100 ram work on it, or will i be forced to buy new sticks?

 

[l Xes l]

venice 3000 + epox nf4 board

 

[Rike]

For what you will be using it for, I'd say the combo you already listed is fine. For a non-gaming, non-video/photo rig, paying for too much more would be a waste of money. By the time you are forced to move to a 64-bit CPU, current A64's will be dirt cheap.

 

[Ike0069]

This one's alot cheaper:
Chaintech 7NJL6 NVIDIA Socket A ATX MotherBoard and an AMD Athlon XP 3000+ 2.16GHz Processor

MB is ok as long as you don't plan to OC. Not the best board around, but for your needs it should be more than adequate.

 

[Sirakoz]

Originally posted by: Ike0069
This one's alot cheaper:
Chaintech 7NJL6 NVIDIA Socket A ATX MotherBoard and an AMD Athlon XP 3000+ 2.16GHz Processor

MB is ok as long as you don't plan to OC. Not the best board around, but for your needs it should be more than adequate.

I was searching for reviews for that motherboard, but I couldn't find anything. The only reviews come from people who bought the product from tigerdirect, and most say that they had a lot of problems with it, but I also couldn't find any reviews for other options like the MSI KM4M-V, AOpen VKM266PM, or Abit VA-20, so it looks like I might go with the Gigabyte 7VT600P-RZ Via Socket A ATX MotherBoard and an AMD Athlon XP 3000+ 2.16GHz Processor with some $25 fan, unless someone recommends otherwise.

Thanks for the help.