PIII (yuck!) question

Best combo for my money .. asus cusl2-c mobo with the 800 eb chip rock soild real upgradable 4 usb ports and a lot of other features. can also oc it it like a bandit if he should change his mind
Lagger

<b><font color=blue>Never try to idiot proof anything..God will always make a better Idiot </b> </font color=blue>

Stay away from the VL6 or any other Via chipset board for an Intel.
Get the CULS2 or CUSL2-C, or the Abit SE6 if you really like Abit. The running favorite is the CUSL2.
For a processor, I suggest (in order of price) the 733, 800EB, 866, or 1GHz. The 933 is too close in price to the 1GHz to suggest it.
If you think he MIGHT be able to live with the knowlege that his sytem is overclocked, the 700 will go to 933 easily simply by changing the bus speed to 133 and increasing the core voltage by .1v.
Stay away from any E series processors faster than 700 as most faster ones will NOT reach a 133MHz bus speed for overclocking, so you loose the benifits of having a 133FSB! So if he wants 800, get the 800EB instead of the 800E as the EB is already at 133MHz FSB without overclocking!

Suicide is painless...........