Building a new box

[Etacovda]

What i have, and will use -

300gb seagate IDE drive
audigy sound card
DVD-R and A DVD writer
150MCE card + MCE remote
Silverstone LC17 case

So, pretty much looking at motherboard, possibly ram, graphics and cpu. I have 512 ddr400 sitting around looking for a new home, so that'd be easier than selling it and buying DDR2.

With the recent AMD price drops, its very tempting to go AM2, but I havent looked at the chipsets and boards that they use for a while.

What would you recommend? budget is tight.

[lonegeek]

Just to let you know, AMD price drops are for buying in bulk; not the retail price. Although it also depends on the vendor to.

I'm not aware of the MCE remote working with gbpvr either.

Where are you buying from? Please say newegg.com

[sub]

Those price drops do flow on to retail though. Over a period of about a week most of the AMD CPU prices dropped 50% here in New Zealand.

[mian]

the price drops will filter down soon enough

I put an ASRock Dual Sata2 in my newest machine. It's an amd 939 socket board, but there's a special ASRock expansion port that allows an upgrade to AM2. That would allow to use your old ram but still have the option of AM2 should you want it later without a whole new board.

ASRock used to be a budget division of ASUS, but now they're specializing in a niche options market--the dual sata2, for instance, is the only board with PCI-e and true AGP (some other boards have an inefficient agp compatible slot). But even with the specializations, ASRock is still inexpensive.

open box at new egg for 43, or new for about 67$.

No promises, but it does suit me well for today and my next set of upgrades.

[daphatty]

Definitely go for a socket 939 mobo. They are on the downslope in the price category as well and you'll get excellent performance from them. The AMD price drops are just icing on the cake.

[rowle1jt]

Prices on AMD CPU's dropped significantly over the last week on newegg.com as well.

I'm on the fence as far as 939 -vs- AM2. I'd likely go AM2, but at this point there are a ton more 939 boards in the retail channels than AM2. Give it a month or two and that situation will change.

If I built right now I'd go 939. If I built in Sept/Oct then there is no question, I'd go AM2. Processor prices differences aren't all that much, its board selection IMHO.

[Etacovda]

Yes, board selection is definitely the hard one on my list. The prices for which socket A gear in NZ still goes for second hand has spurred my upgrade - people are paying ridiculous prices here for the gear, so i figure i may as well upgrade.
Ideally id like to be able to play HD stuff with FFDshow filtering without any issues, and id LIKE to be able to multitask well enough (ie rip a DVD whilst watching TV without lag issues). Dual core would probably be the winner there at the end of the day, but its a significant step up in price...

I guess what im asking is, will a 3200/3500+ A64 do that without issues? the DVD ripping issue isnt really a huge one, i guess i can just tone down the priority on the DVD ripping software, but it would be nice to have no lag.