Reasonable upgrade path from a NForce2 and AthlonXP 1.8? (non-gamer, quiet system)

[glenn1]

Haven't really used my desktop for a while as my laptop has been getting majority of the use at home. Recently got asked to be the Treasurer for an organization I volunteer at, so I wanted to use the desktop solely for that purpose going forward (and maybe some light gaming like Civ 4). The desktop is a bit vintage at this point. Have an Asus A7N266-VM, 1.8 Athlon, 512mb DDR, and Radeon 9200SE (selected because it's fanless), and W2K for OS. Am considering upgrading to something with a bit more ooomph, as I was given a copy of Windows 7 and would like to be able to run it comfortably on the desktop.

I've been out of the building game for a while, and the current builder's guides aren't that current or helpful. Would like some suggestions for a good bang for the buck motherboard/processor combination.

 

[o1die]

MSI GF615M-P33 motherboard $62.55 shipped
AMD propus 620 retail box cpu with heatsink $99.99 shipped
Corsair xms3 1600 ddr3 2x2gb ram $92.99 shipped

Total: $255.53 shipped from newegg.com

This is an nvidia chipset motherboard, so you may be able to avoid a hardrive format by using a similar chipset to your old board. Or you can backup your old files first using a program such as norton ghost. Depends on what windows version you use now. The onboard video is adequate for any business files. I also suggest you buy a new power supply. 300-400 watts is adequate. I would use antec, seasonic, pc power and cooling, enermax, ocz, or corsair. None of these brands are cheap, but will last many years. Cheaper brands fail without warning and can take out your board or cpu. Newegg always has deals, especially rebates.

If you want to shop around, hp had a steal on their website the other day. A sempron system with 2 gigs of ddr2 and windows 7 for $164 shipped out the door with discount codes. It's gone now. Check fatwallet and slickdeals in the next 10 days for similar deals, especially from dell. January is the end of the business year for dell; they should have some deals available if you can wait for them to ship; sometimes takes 2 weeks to receive.

 

[o1die]

If you live near a frys electronics store, they have the regor 245 with msi nforce 6150se board for only $49.99 after $10 rebate. And 2 gigs of ddr2 ram is only $42.99. Total out the door before rebate would be around $100. This deal expires Thursday. I use this MSI board in my personal pc, and it works great. I have 2 of these boards; bought a sempron combo with this board last week for $29.99 after rebate. Nobody beats a frys combo deal, not even newegg. Also, for the power supply, fatwallet just posted a rocketfish 550w for $29.00 that gets decent reviews. I have the dynex 400w version, and use it in my spare pc.