Good A64 Gaming Rig under $2K

Ok my friend needs a new computer for gaming. The obvious choice is A64. It needs to be under $2000. I'm thinking of an FX-53, a good mobo for it (don't know any?!), 1GB of ram (whatever will work, I don't think he will be OCing, but if he does some headroom in the ram speed would be nice), I'm thinking an X800 vid card, decent sound card (unless the mobo has good enough audio), power supply will prolly be a good Antec or something, I need a good case for it, preferably ones with fans, he needs a hard drive, but that will be a 74GB raptor, he has plenty of drives for storage. he needs a dvd burner but im telling him to go with a nec 3500. basicly i know im gona go with a antec 480+ psu, raptor hdd, and nec 3500. he needs a good gaming proc, 1gb of ram (at least), a good vid card (x800 probably), case, maybe some fans, preferable already in it, sound card, and whatever else i forgot. he dont need a mouse or keyboard or monitor, nothing like that. he's prolly gona use stock cooling cuz he prolly wont OC. Anything else is up for grabs. Its gota be $2000 or less though...have fun

Also he would like for it to be good with video rendering, he is into animatiopn and making his own, but i know amd64's are pretty close to P4's in that and he wont notice a big diff.

Well youve tons of headroom! Basically youve got two choices....go w/ an FX series, or the 754 series. Only reason i dont mention the 939's is because they arent proven yet, and the 754's DFI board is the best out. All depends on whether he wants to spend 2k, or less than that. I would go something like this...

AMD 64 3700+
DFI Lanparty nForce3 250gb
512x2 OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev 2
2x 74gb WD Raptor
geforce 6800ultra
xp-120 hs w/ tornado fan
PC power & cooling PSU
NEC3500 DVDRW
Sony DVDrom

i dont know why your saing s939 isn't proven, because the FX chips are proven, and stock, the 53 is the one to beat.

Well my system was $1100 altogether

When i say they arent proven, i mean that the 3000+, 3200+ etc in the 939 pin setup do not do as well at the 754's in the NC setup. Correct me if im wrong, but i know that the FX's do support dual channel memory, do the 939 NC's as well? If so, then yeah, that may be something to look into. But for the money, a 3700+ w/ a DFI is going to give you an awesome over clock and give you an extra 500$ to play w/ as opposed to get an FX.

Only the s754's do not support dual chanel memory, hence the massive number of more pins. But I wish I had even half of that to spend on a new comp.

Err... do a search on my name for posts. I did a write up very similar to this just recently. The thread was called, ROOKIE looking to build a new PC or something. Anyhow, my suggestions are.

AMD 64 s754 3200+ DTR (this way you get a 10x multiplier and something I borked on with my system)
DFI Lanparty UT nf3 250GB
One 74GB Raptor Hard drive
One 120-250GB PATA hard drive (for storage)
2x512 PQI turbo series pc3200 memory at 2-2-2-5 timings. These are TCCDs and buy the individual sticks at $125 each. this way if one is bad, cause the yeild on TCCDs was low, then you can return one stick without worrying about the other.
Any case you like.
x800 pro at the least
fortron 530w power supply
XP120 heatsink
any 120mm fan you like. I personally am using an Evercool 120mm aluminum fan but I had to epoxy to mount the fan since it doesn't work with the mounting brackets.
Artic Silver 5
Stick with the built in audio unless you MUST have something. Then pick up a Audigy 2 ZS.
Grab a 2510a NEC dual layer dvd burner.

The system should come out to around $1300. Which leaves you plenty left over for a nice monitor.

looks good, thanks for the input. I'm not worried about cooling though, because he wont be overclocking. he can just use stock. BTW, all the stuff has to be available at newegg....dont think that affects anything though.