Salvage/Upgrade from Athlon 64 3500+ DDR1 era system to DDR3 system

Hello,

Last week my motherboard/cpu (I think) went bad. Essentially the motherboard 'might' power on, and I might be able to use either of my OS's (I have dual boot to either XP or Linux - Ubuntu), however, any time I use the ethernet (regardless of OS) the system becomes unstable and crashes. At other times the system might not come up at all, and all that happens from pressing the power button is the power supply will come on but nothing else. I guess 'something' on the motherboard is still working because holding the power button for 5 seconds will still power off the system.

At any rate, I was planning to replace this motherboard (ASUS A8V-e Deluxe) anyway because USB 2.0 ever worked properly with it from the beginning, and I later found out that there was a design flaw in early versions of the board (and of course Asus didn't want to have anything to do with me in terms of getting the updated revision just 4 months later when I started calling their support line).

What I'd like to replace are my motherboard, CPU, RAM (since it's DDR1 and only 1GB) and power supply (as I have a hunch it was this 'bargain' power supply that ended up fully killing the motherboard).

I'd like to get into a system that supports DDR3 RAM, and might as well get support for USB 3.0.

I was thinking of going with an I3 processor, but, if there is an AMD processor out there offering more bang for the buck, I could be easily convinced otherwise.

Obviously I have a budget as well. It's not written in stone, but, I'd like to keep this under $400.

Also, since this is my first 'rebuild' in about 5 years, I'm wondering if there is anything else I'd need to also replace? I haven't even physically 'looked' at a CPU in 5 years, so, for example, will my fairly good cpu cooler that fits on my AMD Athlon 64 3500+ also need to be replaced if I went to an Intel I3 ?

I'm not much of a gamer, the only game I've played has really been CIV4, and my existing system ran that fine, so, I doubt I need to upgrade my existing PCI-e video card which should be able to carry over.

So, in summary I'm really looking for recommendations on:
1) Motherboard that supports I3 CPU (again, make a case for AMD and I could be convinced). Also for reasons given above, if all else being equal, I'd prefer a brand other than ASUS.
2) RAM -- would like to get about 4GB or more. I'm actually more concerned about making sure I use the DDR3 RAM properly in DDR3 mode (assuming an I3 even properly uses it that way, and I'm not sure about that from my research so far).
3) Recommendation on a good reliable power supply.
4) Budget: $400-ish, cheaper is better, but, willing to go above that by quite a bit if a good case can be made for doing so.

and 5) if I can not reuse my existing CPU cooler (as I had it on an AMD Athlon 64 and I'm planning to go to an Intel I3), well, then a recommendation on what to use.

and perhaps 6) Do I maybe want to get into an I5 instead for the extra $30 it seems to cost at newegg ?

I should add that add that although I am not much of a gamer, I do use my system as a upnp media server to my xbox, and, at the same time might be browsing the internet -- so there is a fair bit of multitasking going on. That said, I'm thinking moving the upnp server to a network storage device in the not too distant future.

If anyone has any advice and/or opinions would be welcome. Essentially looking to get the most bang for the buck in this $400 ish (as in give or take even $200) upgrade.

You're not getting an i3 for $400. The CPU and board alone will cost at least $200. Also, you're likely not getting USB 3 at that price either. It's possible that you're not even going to get 4 GB of RAM, but I'll look for some deals...

Here's what I'm starting with (I'll edit for good links and what you should be getting):

CPU/Mobo: X3 440 and MSI 870A-G54 $150 after rebate
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws 2x2 GB 1600 mhz CAS Latency 7 $110
HDD: Seagate 7200.12 500 GB $55
Case: Coolermaster Elite $40 after rebate
PSU/Optical: OCZ ModXStream 500W and cheap SATA DVD burner $49 after rebate

Total: $404

Well, I don't need the HDD or the Case, I'm going to reuse what I've already got. I suppose I can get the cheap SATA DVD burner, as it seems the cost of the bundle is the same as the cost of the power supply alone.

So dropping the case and hdd free's up about $95. The question is though, is I3 worth it? or is AMD X3 at about $100 less for the CPU and motherboard a far better deal? If so, I don't mind sticking to a $309 budget instead

I'd guess that your CPU cooler isn't compatible, but that's a strict guess. It very well could be. I'd look at the Coolermaster Hyper 21 Plus on Amazon (Newegg's price for it is obscene).

Nothing runs in triple channel except the i7-9xx and the X58 boards. Even then, you don't HAVE to run it in groups of three, it'll just be slower.

I forgot that CPU's in general came with the cooling fan. I think last time I bought my processor as OEM and thus had to go and buy the fan after, still had that thought in my head and didn't want to repeat that.

At any rate, you bring up a great point about IDE connectors. My existing system is a mix of SATA and IDE. Ubuntu boots from the SATA drive, while XP boots from the IDE drive. Also my DVD and CDR burners are IDE.

So, looks like I'll have another challenge of getting my data from the IDE drive (for the most part video and pictures of my daughters). Any recommendation on a board (in the same price range) with an IDE connector? If it's too much hassle, I'll just buy some sort of enclosure, or find a friend who also has an IDE/SATA system and offload my data there.

It's got one. PATA is, for the modern builder, the same as IDE.

If it ends up not working, you can easily get a $15-20 external enclosure that does both IDE & SATA. They're pretty handy, actually.

Out of the PSU's they have, terrible selection btw, I'd go with that OCZ or this
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applica [...] CatId=4294

The RAM looks okay.

I'd pass on that mobo, if it's the same price the full ATX and whatnot newer chipset mobo is definitely preferable. Just the existence of bing cashback wouldn't be good enough to make me choose from there, they generally have a small selection in comparison. A similar price for a lesser thing does not a comparison make.

No SATA/USB 3.0 but at such a mind bogglingly low price point of $210AR

Newegg's prices and deals are extremely volatile. That's why you didn't see that price before.

And gigabytes a pretty good brand, I have their mobos in all my stuff.

Actually, it looks like this decision might be made for me, unless there is some reason I should not get the AMD Black Edition over the Gold series that someone would like to tell me about, I'm going to go for the AMD Black Edition, only because there is a combo for it coming with the power supply I was going to get with that Sony Drive, but, since I didn't need the Sony drive (was getting it only cuz it was free in the bundle) , I'll get this Memory + Power supply bundle instead:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.419699

Effectively adds $20 to the price of the RAM alone to get the power supply.

So, my total now is $200 after rebates (plus tax and shipping of course)

Ugh... so they make good power supplies, but, bad RAM...

...and I was just about to hit 'submit' on the order... back to the drawing board.

Unfortunately already took a few days more than I wanted to just trying to 'figure' out what I wanted (last time I really kept up to date on hardware was when I built 486's...) And all this for really a $200 build now. So, I'm starting to become what's known as 'penny wise, pound foolish' if we account for the time I've spent

At any rate, I am still debating to try the sticks. I spent some time speaking with a newegg agent (she gave me her name and id) and she said that if the sticks failed to work they'd exchange them. Of course how that would work out in a bundled package is unclear...

At any rate, I suppose I can hold off a few more hours before making a decision, or, I guess cough up an extra $40 for the G. Skill's or corsairs (and get a sony dvd player that I do not need, I guess).