Legit Reviews

Being as dad has a 1.5ghz p4 (Im an amd freak!) and his b-day is coming up I want to make sure he has a fast pc while I am away in the desert... Help me out guys, im looking at a 400$ (401 total w/ shipping)combo.. 3.0E (1mb cache) retail along with the ic7-max3. I would like to find something a lil cheaper but at the same time when it comes to dad I want him to have good stuff. He doesnt do all that much gaming... He might though Anyway, gimme some ideas if you will so I can make a purchase please!

oh yeah he likes intel but if the price is about the same for a combo with the 64bit amd's lemme know which is better... trying to keep it under 400bux for mb/cpu

i think the MAX3 will be overkill, why not go for the AI7 with uGuru, OC on the fly, and cheaper.
MAX3 is enthusiast board, so unless hes gonna OC it or needs loads of tweaking options its too much...

For the money i would get a Chaintech board, it has a ton of extras and comes with some great software. As to the CPU i would take a 2.8 E over the 3.0. I had no problem running my 2.8 at 250 FSB, 3.5 with a Zalman HS/Fan. you can pick that chip and board up at Newgg for about $325. You can even save a few extra bucks and pick up the OEM CPU. That leaves you $65-70 toward memory, a case, a video card, etc.
Check out Newegg.

Newegg has the 2.8 E at $167, which is really good. they also have the 2.4 C at $175, which is another good CPU.
The A-Bit IC7-6 Max II is $131, and the Chaintech Zenith is $159, but comes with decent sound, a card reader, great OC ability and a good software package that includes anti virus, a restore program, an image program. Depending how you go you could have $70-100 left over.
they also have the Radeon 9800 Pro Sapphire card that has the 360 cores for about $150. Right there you are looking at a real good start.