If you have some experience building and configuring systems, I would get the 1.4 athlon (either oem or boxed version) with one of the new kt266a motherboards. I was just at Fry's electronics today, and they had the 1.4 athlon boxed version with the ECS KTS5A motherboard for only $179. What a deal. The ECS KtS5A uses the sis 735 chipset, and some people prefer this just to avoid possible conflicts with via chipsets. I just ordered the new shuttle ak31 version 3, and will soon know if the new kt266a chipset is any good. I use onboard sound to help reduce problems with the via chipset.