What's an excellent base to start from...

[shilala]

I'm going to start another modded rig, and I'm putting together a plan.
I'd like to step through the process piece by piece, letting the folks at AT pick apart the choices. What's an excellent base to start from so far as mobo/psu are concerned?
I want to find a balance between cost effectiveness and performance.
I like AMD and Asus, just to narrow the field. The focus is on gaming and photoediting. Also, to narrow the field, let's consider stock performance rather than oc'd. Factoring the overclockability of the components would count, of course, just so some oc'ing ability is available.
Thanks!!!

 

[gobucks]

My recommendations:
A64 3000+ socket 939 - runs at 1.8GHz, can overclock to 2.6 on air.
Asus nForce4 Ultra - Asus swears they will have them available by the middle of November. Has PCI-express, SATA-II, harware firewall, all kinds of goodies.
Geforce 6600GT - $200, runs like a 9800XT, with PCIe there is plenty of upgrade potential.
1GB PQI ultra 2-2-2-5, or crucial ballistix 2-2-2-5 (listed as 2-3-2-6). Both overclock to DDR590 or so, plenty of room. both around $250

 

[mickles]

I'll prefix this by saying that it might only get to 2.4GHz; the above recommendation by gobucks is pretty good.