Building a system for my parents

[Drum Thumper]

This computer will be my first documented full out mod.

I've got the case mod pretty much knocked out sketch-wise (sketches and possibly pictures up by this weekend I promise!) and am getting down to the not-so-fun stuff (to me anyway)--picking the mobo/cpu. And this is where I need the collectives help.

A few things to keep in mind:

All they will be using this system for is playing games like Windows pinball, solitare, Scrabble and a few others that don't really require major graphics.

Music could come into the picture (especially if they decide to go online), so I'm thinking either onboard audio or maybe a decent sound card.

I'm personally a fan of AMD, although their current system is a P4 1.4 ghz IIRC (my old gaming system before I built 'Blue').

I'm ballparking around $500-600 for the guts, so to speak.

Suggestions?

[Bucko]

To give you an idea of price, I bought a Foxconn motherboard, 3.0Ghz Pentium Celeron D chipset and heatsink, and 1Gb of RAM off eBay brand new for AU$400 delivered, and AU$40 got me a Soundblaster 5.1 surround sound card delvered. So for $500-$600 in US peso's, I'm sure you could get something reasonable.
As far as graphics go, I got a NVidia 7600GS card from my local computer shop for AU$200, 320Gb SATA drive for AU$140.

So the "guts" of my machine cost AU$780, which works out around US$600

[Drum Thumper]

I'm quite positive that I can build a really decent system for around $600 USD. 'Blue' as I've come to call this beast consists of the following:

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Processor

Biostar TFORCE4 U nForce4 Ultra Athlon 64(FX)/64 X2 Dual-Core Skt939 DDR ATX Motherbaord w/Audio, Gigabit LAN, RAID/Serial ATA

1 gig ECC RAM

Logisys CS888UVBL Assembled UV Blue Acrylic Case (Clear)

Chaintech SE6600-T6 GeForce 6600 PCI Express 256MB DDR Video Card w/TV-Out & DVI

Granted, it's not quite cutting edge, but it runs WoW. Quite well. And she only ran me about $750.

I should also mention that I'm planning on a mid-tower case.

[.Maleficus.]

You could build a socket 939 system for quite cheap. I'm actually helping a few friends do this right now.

[Silenced_Coyote]

You could build a socket 939 system for quite cheap. I'm actually helping a few friends do this right now.

That is a good idea. I put my vote on this one.

I'm not sure what kind of music they will be listening too and how much sound is important to your parents. But I think onboard audio is fine for them.

You won't need a graphics card for Windows Pinball.

[Drum Thumper]

I've been shopping around for some socket 939 boards and found a couple decent ones for around $60-$80. Throw in either a 3400+ chip and I think they'll be more than ready for the forseeable future.

Sound is somewhat important to them. If anything, I think mom might stream shoutcast. I might go a bit overboard also and set them up with an adapter for the turntable so they can rip all their records.

But that's a ways down the road.

One thing I do know: I won't buy them a BioStar board. This one that I have was a royal PITA to get working for me--in fact it still will sometimes completely lock up on me, but I'm thinking my PSU might be underpowered. 380W FTL.

[.Maleficus.]

I'd go with a DFI or Asus board.

Sound? For decency and cheapness, I'd go with an Audigy 2. I have one now, and it was cheap and it's great.

3400+? Sounds fine to me.

[klingelton]

i'd narrow down that list further to just asus. I build my entire system based on asus components, may have cost a little more, but it's damn stable, even when over clocked plus i like the features and little additional extras that asus give over other manufacturers.

[Airbozo]

Asus or DFI are great boards. I have one of each and neither one has disappointed me. Asus usually has a little more options in the bios for over clockers, but I think that depends on the model.

[Drum Thumper]

As you can tell by my current sig, I went with Asus. Should have the board ordered by either the end of the month or the start of next month! +rep to everyone who gave their suggestions!