The dating back 30 years comment is scary when it comes to technology ;)
That said, I'm haven't a guess as to how efficiently the NC Mill software
utilizes multi-cores, do you? Do you plan to upgrade anytime in a
foreseeable future or is this a 1 time shot? Last question, when you said
PCI slots, you ment PCI right? Not PCI express x1 or 2.0 x16?

Vlad



On Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 5:21 PM, Rotary Engine <rotaryeng@earthlink.netwrote:

 Anybody building their own PC?
 I am a little rusty on the latest tech.

 What is a good mother board around $100?
 What is a good processor around $100?

 I need 3 PCI slots and preferably DDR3 memory.
 I plan on using external video.

 These are some of the requirements.


http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.distributions.emc.user/11971/focus=11974
 Some of the recommendations seem out of date.

 Low heat on the processor would be a plus.

 Paul Lamar

What's the computer for? What's the overall budget? When is the next time
you plan to upgrade? Are you comfortable overclocking or would you prefer
to
leave it factory specs? Do you already have a good psu, fans?

Vlad

My NC Mill. http://www.rotaryeng.net/Nc-Mill-How-To.html
No over clocking. As little money as possible. I have lots of
computer parts already. Some dating back 30 years.

Paul Lamar

Ok, so here is my very humble recommendation:

CPU:
Intel Pentium E6300 Wolfdale, AMD Anthlon II X2 250 Regor, or AMD Phenom II
X2 545 Callisto.
If you plan to upgrade either the CPU or mobo, but not both, anytime in the
future, I'd recommend AMD as their CPU's are backwards compatible with
AM2/AM2+/AM3 mobo's whereas Intel will stop making P43/45/55 type CPUs once
their X58 i7 (maybe i5?) takes full reign. All of the CPU's are dual core,
but the 545 has 6mb of L3 and 1mb L2 cache while the E6300 and 250 only have
2mb of L2. The 545 needs 80w while the other two live on 65w. This may be
important depending on how good your PSU is and other things like how many
fans you run, or if you need to power an external graphics card. Since your
using this computer just for the NC Mill, the difference in your electrical
bill shouldn't be noticible between the 80w and 65w.

Motherboard:
Look for whatever combo deals Newegg may have with the CPU. Stick with
quality manufacturers like MSI, Asus, Gigabyte, and Foxconn. IF it is PCI
you need (not express,) that basically eliminates all the micro atx boards
and a few of the HDMI ones. If you look for AMD boards, make sure it can use
AM3 CPUs. So any AM2/AM2+/AM3, AM2+/AM3 or AM3 board will suffice. With the
Intel boards, P31/35 mobo's are almost non existant so don't bother. In
regards to P43 vs P45, get whatever is cheaper. P45 is better, but the
difference only shows itself on OCing.

Memory:
I don't know if you already have memory stick or where plannning on getting
some but here is my view on the matter. DDR3 is only worth the extra cost of
you really up the speed (1600+) as most tests show DDR2 1066 performaing
almost exactly to DDR3 1333.

Here are some good deals (IMO):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.237631
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.241238

I couldn't find any combos with the E6300 that had a good quality mobo that
wasn't micro ATX.

This is just my opinoin. Since James seems more qualified to answer then
myself, I would follow his word.

Vlad