Help building new Intel comp for parents

My dad wants to upgrade his 600Mhz gateway. He wants something he won't have to upgrade for a long time.
He doesn't do anything crazy on it, few games, but he wants something that will last him awhile. I've been out of the loop since I got my new comp.

I'm thinking:
2.6c
Corsair XMS3200
Dunno about the vid card, MB, or HD I'll get whatever is on sale. I want a very stable MB though. Doesn't have to overclock.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

You could probably build him an athlon xp system cheaper that would last a while...If there isn't going to be overclocking, I'm not sure if it will be better than Intel. I'm not going to guess either, since it will only lead to a huge debate.

Yeah, check on the athlon xp's. Newegg had 2800+'s for 140 bucks, def. nice bang for the buck. Maybe if you can find a nice barebones setup to go with it..... tigerdirect.com a few weeks ago had a cheiftec case w/clear side and soyo mobo for like 140 bucks, if you could get him a couple of deals like that, then you have more for memory and stuff. Maybe I'm biased, but if he's on a budget, I would say amd is the way to go, just my opinion though.

I think the truth is, once you get past 1.2 or 1.3 ghz, most people don't need to go faster. Most people aren't PC gamers, usually people use consoles instead. So, they don't need high performance processors or video cards, they just need enough storage for what they like to do. So, unless he is a hardcore gamer, build him a value system that has SATA. That way, in the future, you can add more drives if needed, without needing to buy legacy hardware.

If that is the case (he isn't much of a gamer, and uses the PC mostly for internet, finance, etc...) then just put something simple together. An nForce2 IGP if you go AMD, or one of those integrated Radeon boards if you go Intel. Combine that with a 2500+ or equivalent Intel processor, and 512 megs of PC2700. Then get an 80 gig hard drive and either DVD writer or CD-RW/DVD combo drive. That would be more than enough for any average PC user, or even light gamer.

If you are near a Frys electronics, keep an eye open on their sales papers for the combo deals. You can get a board and processor for the price of the processor alone. They usually have an AMD and an Intel combo deal, and while the boards aren't fancy that they come with, they sound like they would be plenty for what the parents are looking for. Of course you can always do different board if you want too.