$300 best bang for the buck??

[collins8]

I need a little advice. I want to spend no more than $300 on Motherboard and CPU. The last system I built was a AMD XP 2500 Mobile with an Abit NF7-S board, and has performed great. Now I need to build another unit for my home and I want to try Intel with Hyperthreading. My most important requirement is stability. Also I want something that I can easily overclock for added performance. My amd setup runs at 2342 MHZ (213x11) and has not given me a problem at ALL over 6 months!!
What intel processor would you recommend(Prescott, Northwood) and Motherboard??

Rob

[batboy]

Does it have to be a mobo with an AGP slot? The way of the future is PCI-E vid cards.

Also, what type/speed of RAM you will use has a lot of bearing on which CPU you choose.

There are several paths you can take... Northwood vs. Prescott... socket 478 vs. LGA775.

Northwood would be the easiest to cool and has rock solid stability. Example: 3.0C and Abit AI7.

Socket 478 Prescott is a power hog and needs lots of cooling, but properly done with good cooling and a massive PSU, it can be a performer. Example: 3.0E (3.2E is my pick, but you'll exceed the budget) and Abit IC7-G.

LGA775 Prescott will be more future proof. Example: 3.2 LGA775 and Abit AS8 if you need AGP slot or 3.0 LGA775 and Abit AG8 if you want a PCI-E slot.

I'm biased toward Abit mobos, but Asus and DFI would be worthy choices too.