It's time....

[Hi Ho]

My parents have a PC that I built for them five years ago. It has gone through a few upgrades through the years and it has served them well. The power supply died back in January and I ended up repairing it by replacing a couple caps and a resistor. Today it blew up again. This time I think it's done for good. Sparks aren't good....

The current specs are as follows:

Asus A7V333 Motherboard
AMD AthlonXP 1800+ CPU
1GB PC333 DDR SDRAM
250 GB WD IDE HDD
Geforce 6600GT AGP GPU (128MB)
Pioneer DVD-RW IDE
Enlight 360W PSU (now deceased)

So I have two options for them. One is to get a new power supply and keep using the PC. Two is to rebuild the PC reusing whatever parts possible and keeping the price as low as possible.

I am recommending option two. I came up with the following components:

ASUS P5Q SE/R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail - $94.99

Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail - $72.99

CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail - $44.99

MSI R4350-D256H Radeon HD 4350 256MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card - Retail - $34.99

FSP Group FSP400-60THN-R 400W ATX 2.0 Power Supply - Retail - $44.99

Case - Reused
Optical Drive - Reused
HDD - Reused? See below
Sound Card - My old X-Fi... should work for them
OS - Win7 Beta (will buy release version when available)

Total W/Shipping and after mail in rebates: $256.39

First of all. If anyone has any suggestions for better bang for the buck components please speak up. The PC will be used for multimedia, web surfing, some audio editing, and Dreamweaver.

Second... There is already a 250 GB IDE hard drive in the PC which would be nice to reuse. However, the motherboard only has one IDE slot. The hard drive and DVD drive would need to be on the same IDE cable. Will this have any detrimental effect on performance? Would it make more sense to invest in a SATA hard drive?

[wylackii]

If you are building for those tasks then anything you put into it will be fine. I run 3DS Max sometimes on a Pentium 3 machine with little problems. Intel is the way to go for performance. You can get a Core i7 mobo for under $170, a Corei7 processor for under $290, and 3GB tri channel memory for around $35. A core i7 base system for under $500 but you will need to reuse all of your equipment.
However, my beta windows 7 install runs pretty fast on a e7400 wolfdale C2D based system. If you are not a serious gamer, multimedia creator, or heavy multitask er then you will be fine.

[shadowpr]

Could save some money by getting a Asus P5KPL-CM board. It has onboard video too, if you want to try that out first.

I personally would get at least a sata dvd drive. They're only about $25 for a retail burner. A sata hard drive would be nice, but you can still use the ide. I would let the budget determine that.

If you do get a sata hard drive, use the ide drive in an external enclosure.

[Hi Ho]

The main problem with that board and most with onboard video is that it is a Micro-ATX board. I prefer a full ATX board with more expansion slots.

Is there a major performance hit when running a hard drive and optical drive on one IDE cable? If there is then I will definitely throw in a Seagate 500 GB SATA drive as it is only around $50.

[jdeb]

I think the option 2 looks good, I think it makes total sense. your choices are great...

I prefer Foxconn motherboards for what it's worth

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813186148

[not important]

The Asus P5KPL-CM has 2 PCI slots. How many do you need?. It has very good onboard sound.
Seagate HDD's are experiencing some problems so WD is being suggested.

[glc]

I would not use any IDE devices at all on a P35/P45 board. It's a 3rd party controller and can be a PITA.

Go with the P5KPL-CM, what do you need slots for? It has room for the X-Fi. It has a total of 4 slots - one PCI-Ex16, one PCI-Ex1, and 2 legacy PCI. It has onboard GigE, video, and audio, and is Vista-certified. The G31 uses a ICH7 native IDE controller. Reuse the HD and optical.

[Hi Ho]

They can live with two PCI slots. The only problem I see with that onboard video is that it only has VGA output. That's not a huge problem but I would prefer to use DVI. Their monitor does not do all that great with a VGA input (cheap Westinghouse like mine).

What about the P5QL-CM? It's $63 open box and has DVI as well as four USB ports built in which is nice.

[not important]

You could use the graphics card you have listed in your first post. That would solve the VGA issue and give you better graphics.

[glc]

ICH10 southbridge - 3rd party IDE. Note that the heatsink on that 4350 will block one of the PCI slots on the P5KPL-CM. This might be a better bet:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121259