Legit Reviews

I'm going to build my Mom a new PC to replace her old Dell P3 @ 1ghz (LR1000). I would like to use socket LG775 along with a Core 2 Duo CPU. Since she only uses it for office tasks (word, excel etc..) internet and email, I would also like it to have on board video and audio. Reliability is a must as I don't want to be having to go over and work on it all the time.

I have looked at G35, P965 (didn't like the 1.8v limit on RAM) and 945 chipsets and the G35 looked like it had better CPU options based on price along with 1333 fsb.

Any recommendations?

Well first you should avoid Q chipset series (Q965, Q963, G33,G31) since their onboard graphics are worse than the G35/G965 ones (Q-G33/31 ones are more expensive cause they have Vpro, they are office network oriented i believe).

When it comes to budget systems AMD has very good offerings! So if you don't have the processor you should think about it! The prices on mobos with good onboard chipsets differ alot, with amd690G being much cheaper than even g965.

I doubt 945 chipset will be compatible with 1333fsb. G965 is not restricted to 1.8v, at least to my knowledge and mobo (Asus P5B-VM, up to 1.95V). Besides though it is not going to be a premium pc, i believe you will be using moderate memories like 800cl5 right?
Now Asus P5B-VM (g965) is good, it has all the extras you may need (lots usb,firewire but it may need some cooling on the northbridge, its running a bit hot when on 3d mode). As far as i know the gigabyte counterpart (GA-965GM-DS/S2) is a good option too.

As i told you though, i believe that the intel "budget" mobos are not that budget after all. At the price of the amd690g ones you can only get a tweaked 945G or a Via PM8/9xx. So if you still dont have a processor you should seriously think about it to save a buck. Intel's cpus should be faster at the same price and less hot, but it all depends on the $$. (besides 5200/5600+ have very decent performance for their price)

Thanks dkarko for the suggestions. The info on the 1.8v RAM for Intel G965 chipsets came from various forums as well as newegg.com technical info on the Asus board in particular:
"Notice: Only DDR2-800 memory supporting JEDEC approved 1.8V operation with timings of 5-5-5 or 6-6-6 is supported on Intel Desktop Boards based on Intel 965 Express Chipsets."

I've only built one AMD based system (MSI mobo w/AMD 4800X2) so I'm not as familiar with them as I am with the Intel chipsets. Again, reliability being the key for a simple system for my Mom, I may post the same inquiry on AMD mobo forums and see what I get.