I just bought a K8N (not the E-Deluxe model) at Newegg for $89. That leaves
you $211 for the CPU. I got an Athlon 64 3000+ for $169, but the 3200+ is
only $204 (both are retail). Shipping was only $5 if you use the cheapest
option, and you come in under $300 still.
The K8N has the Nforce 3 250 chipset, onboard Realtek ALC850 audio,
integrated 10/100 Ethernet, AGP 8x, 5 PCI slots, 3 DDR400 memory slots, up
to 8 USB ports, 2 ATA133 connectors and 2 SATA connectors. The SATA
supports RAID 0,1, 0+1, and JBOD. The ATA133 does not support RAID.
Seems like a good board. I didn't have any problems installing it or
running Windows XP on on it. It has been 100% stable from the word go.
Also supports AMD Cool n' Quiet technology. It's a nice board for the
money.
The only caveat is that if you have an ATI Radeon 9500 or 9700 series video
cards, you need to have one of the later revisions to avoid compatibilty
problems (you can download the ASUS manual for the specific part numbers).
I have a 9700 Pro and didn't have any problems.
