[mlwjackson]

I have an old Gateway P4 1.2 gHz computer (1 GB rambus RAM, XP Home SP2) that is getting so slow trying handle all the antivirus, antispyware, etc that it may be time for a basic rebuild.

This computer is used for very basic surfing, word processing and email. I have built two other AMD based computers that have performed very well. I should be able to reuse the case, power supply and drives. All I need is to change the mobo, RAM and CPU. A quick look around shows that for $50 I can get an AMD Athlon 64 LE-1640 Socket AM2 Processor, 2.6 GHz, 1MB L2 Cache process that would run rings around that old P4 1.2.

What suggestions do people have for a cheap but well built mobo(ATX case)/cpu combination that would fulfill these needs for a few more years? All drives to be reused are some version of ATA.

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You'll need a new burner as well. The more modern chipsets today only have a single IDE slot.
Do you know what form factor your case supports (e.g. mATX, ATX, EATX)?
James

Edited by james_8970, 12 April 2008 - 12:47 PM.

[james_8970]

You'll need a new burner as well. The more modern chipsets today only have a single IDE slot.
Do you know what form factor your case supports (e.g. mATX, ATX, EATX)?
James

Edited by james_8970, 12 April 2008 - 12:47 PM.

[mlwjackson]

It is an ATX case but I assume that it will take a microATX board.

[Tyger]

I'm going to make two suggestions. One is get a new case, you will have trouble with connecting the front panel to the mainboard with almost any OEM case. And all the other stuff you like, new. Get the newest hardware with the DDR2 memory which right now is quite cheap. Rambus is extremely expensive unless someone just gives it to you. I compared the same size of Rambus and DDR2 and it was $133 vs $20.

The other suggestion is put Linux on the old box. It doesn't slow down, doesn't have problems with malware, you can do all you want it for without any serious problem, it will run faster than XP or Vista, the latest kernels are very solid and fast. You can put Windows on the new box but you may have trouble finding drivers for XP, and Vista will cost a bundle.