Another "What Motherboard Should I Buy" question

Greetings.

I'm looking for advice/recommendations on a new mobo and other parts. My current desktop is an Intel WN845D, 2.6 GHz P4, 1 GB of RAM, AGP4 slot. I'm running Mandriva 2007 and I just don't have enough horsepower to run the Beryl desktop.

As is when I open a new Firefox window, the CPU load jumps to 100% and cruises there for several seconds while the window opens. If I've got two or three torrents downloading and some other process running in the background, I may wait 20 or 30 seconds for the window to open. I initially thought this might be because my ATI Radeon 9250 was bogging down, but that wouldn't account for the high CPU load.

At any rate, time to upgrade. I am shooting for something like this:

Intel Core 2 Duo at about 2.3 GHz
2 GB RAM
Nvidia PCI express graphics
Gigabyte ethernet
Two SATA hard drives
A DVD writer (SATA?)
The usual handful of USB, serial, parallel ports,
Firewire ports for my video camera (PCI card is okay here)
And a powersupply that will put up a reliable, honest 500 Watts.
Oh and a snazzy black, half-tower case that isn't made of some exotic material like aluminum and doesn't have windows and lights in it.

I think that's about it. Proposed budget is around $700, but I am somewhat flexible.

I know I want the Core 2 Duo, but I have no idea what mobo to build this around. Anybody have any suggestions about any of this?

Thanks.

--
Mark E. Adams, 2004 -- drop the "dot" to email me.
http://adamslan.shyper.com -*- Mandriva User# 263042

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