My Brother needs an UPG!

For some reason his motherboard finnally craped on his Socket 478 P4 2.8ghz system. he could get a new motherboard but theres only one choice on newegg and i told him hed wanna upg. so i chose some parts for an AMD and Intel based system. He'd rather go with an Intel but the AMD is about 100$ cheaper. Also would rather stay with ATI then Nvidia as he has had nothing but good experiences with ATI. Would appreciate comments on what PC would be better (please dont say C2D omg omg c2d rules, i know that but for price > performance wise) he only wants a PC for cs1.6, wc3, and web surfing. BUT have it somewhat "future" proof to the point where he can play newer games if he wants to. Thanks in advance for comments, advice on different products is welcomed.

HIS CURRENT PC:

Socket 478 P4 2.8ghz
Abit Mobo IS7E
2gb DDR400 (has kingston and patriot in there 4X512mb)
ATI x850xt
ASPIRE 550watt PSU


INTEL BASED PC:

BIOSTAR 945P-A7A (8.0) LGA 775 Intel 945P ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Cust [...] 6813138034
$78

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115005
$187

OCZ S.O.E 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820227118
199$ (169$ 30$ mail in rebate)

GECUBE HV195PG3-D3(RoHS) Radeon X1950PRO 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814241038
$204 (164$ 40$ mail in rebate)

Total: 598$


AMD BASED PC:

ASUS A8V-E SE Socket 939 VIA K8T890 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131033
$59

AMD Opteron 175 Denmark 2.2GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939 Dual Core Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Cust [...] 6819103584
$225

GECUBE HV195PG3-D3(RoHS) Radeon X1950PRO 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814241038
$204 (164$ 40$ mail in rebate)

total: 448$

Thanks for the response.

He hasnt set a budget, but cheapish. He doesnt o/c and just wants something that will perform.
I picked the S939 because the processors are still decent and sexy(hehe, i have a lovely FX60, never been happier with a processor before.) and hed be able to keep his DDR memory.

My main concern the DDR2 memory and the biostar mobo. i always end up havin problems with memory

the asrock doesnt have "c2d" listed as supported cpu. also wouldnt a c2d need ddr2 memory for it to work?

i thought it was in the conroes core that it could only use ddr2 memory not revert to the slower ddr modules. sorry for my bad word choice, i cant think at the moment. the way i understood it as c2d is for the ddr2 memory and the p4's are for the ddr memory... im an intel noob.

I'd stay away from those DDR/DDR2 low-quality kludge boards like the Asrock.
Intel CPUs have their memory controller(s) on the chipset, not on the CPU like the socket 939 & AM2 AMD x64s, so they can run whatever the chipset supports. There's not much point in running DDR with C2Ds though, since the fastest widely available speed, DDR400, isn't fast enough to fully saturate the standard C2D FSB even in dual channel mode.

For the Intel vs AMD builds, remember that he can sell his 4x512MB DDR on ebay and probably get around $100, so the price differential drops a lot. Also, I'd get rid of the Aspire PS; especialy with the x1950, you'll need a decent quality PS with a fair amount of power. This Antec TruePower Trio 550w is reasonably priced at $60 AR, free shipping: http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4991681

AnandTech has a review of this board it just might supprise you as to the abilities of ddr400 with core 2 processor. http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2810

later dude

thanks everyone, appreciate all the comments. just have to wait and see what he wants to do now.