Originally posted by: Zap
I'm gonna reply to this because I don't see the OP's question being answered properly per his requests.
It will be pretty much used by my wife for browsing, some word processing and things like that. Nothing heavy duty (no video editing or gaming), bottom end of current chips is fine. She's a light sleeper and can hear things inaudable to most humans
Sempron for socket 754 should be just fine. Even the slowest (2500+) should run circles around that Tbird 900. Get one with 256k cache if you want to cut your percieved performance losses. Perhaps look for the newer Sempron 64 chips. One suggestion for
quietness would be to use a Sempron rated 3000+ or higher, since I've heard that those support "Cool and Quiet" technology, exactly what you are looking for.
mATX socket 754 motherboard with onboard video. I don't think any of these have a fan on the Northbridge. Get one based on the ATI chipset if you "think" you'll do anything beyond what you listed. Otherwise, get one based on the SiS 760GX chipset, or even the VIA K8M800 chipset if you are feeding on ramen by the end of the month. Don't listen to the fanatics, it
will work fine for your listed uses. Note that all of these can at minimum be upgraded to better video/CPU, but based on what you currently use and your listed expected uses, the onboard stuff will suit you/your wife just fine. Note that all of these have onboard USB 2.0, video, 10/100 network, sound. Most brands work just fine.
When using socket 754, for best performance use only one stick of RAM. For instance, if you want 1GB RAM, get a 1GB module instead of using two 512MB modules. Not that it won't work either way, but it just works a hair better with a single module, so you may as well plan for it from the beginning with whatever amount of RAM you think you need.
Ditch your PCI NIC and sound, use onboard for simplicity.
Keep your CDROM if it works. It'll only make noise if there's a disc inserted and you are accessing it.
Ditch your HDD. Older HDDs (ie, one that shipped with a P2 system) use ball bearing motors and are considered fairly noisy. You may not notice the HDD whine until the rest of the system gets quieter than the HDD, and after that it's all that you notice - meaning you notice it all the time. Also, HDD performance has increased much since the P2 days. These days you can find deals on HDDs all the time, depending on how willing you are to play the rebate game. Check the Hot Deals forum - someone there posts a weekly recap of current HDD deals. There are deals as low as $20 after rebate for a new 100GB HDD, $40 AR for 160GB, $50 AR for 200GB... if you don't like rebates, Fry's has a 200GB for $70 with no rebates.
Case... almost
any with 120mm exhaust fans will work. The Antec 2650 isn't a bad case, but it's probably the most flimsy out of all Antec "SLK" series cases (meaning they are still better than any "cheap" case, but not up to the standards of other Antec cases). For the same $96 I'd go with the Antec SLK3000B (around $46 shipped from Amazon) and a Fortron AX400 power supply (around $46 shipped from Newegg). The case and power supply both use 120mm fans for low noise with adequate cooling.
CPU fan/heatsink, for budget get an Arctic Cooling unit as they are designed for low noise with reasonable performance at budget prices. They are quieter than stock heatsink.
If using Windows XP and a CPU that supports Cool and Quiet, use the driver from AMD for Cool and Quiet or use third party utilities to dynamically alter CPU speed based on CPU usage. I don't know if such tools were available for Linux, but wouldn't be suprised if there were.
Total cost (rough estimate from memory):
CPU $90
motherboard $50
512MB RAM $45
HSF $20
HDD $70
PSU $46
case $46
=$367
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