You will most defiantly see a speed increase from the 2500+ to the 3000+, but I would go to a 3200+ at minimum. Hell, on New Egg, you can go from a 3500+ to a 3700+ for only 40 bucks ($245), which is the route I would go as the 3200+ is $155.

The cheapest X2 I seen was like 340, so if you have the cash, screw it go X2, but if strapped for $$, then I'd day get what you can - stating with the 3200+. And even if that don't work a 3000+ is better than the XP chip.

What MB do you plan on using? How much RAM?

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The mobo is still kicking it but I've been wanting to get a mobo with pci express 16x slot to get better graphics and performance that's why I'm thinking about buying a AMD dual processor and either an ASUS or MSI motherboard.

I know AMD 64 is the future but as of right now there aren't too many 64 bit programs so I guess the advantage of getting an 64 processor is not very beneficial until they come out with the 64 bit programs... am i right on this?

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the 380 hex 2's going to come down under 300 in the next few months, it's still worth the 330 and that'd be my choice hands-down.

i've got 2 boxes in rotation right now, both 64's, the downstairs beast is a couple of italy 65's, totally overkill for what i use it for, but why not. i hate background noise when i'm working, i've got a 3000+ venice upstairs undervolted and it'll run totally passive at stock speeds and it's more than competent for anything i do with it--if you wanted to overclock it you're pretty sure to get it over 2.4-5.

WHATEVER you do, don't get another xp--for 200 bucks you can get the asrock uli board and a a64 3000+, totally different ballgame with speed and it runs much, much cooler. the architecture of the 64's(memory controller on-board, etc) is far superior to the xp's, which weren't close to being competitive with the northwood intels at the same rating.

if you're doing encoding or really plan on crunching numbers, get the 380 hex 2 or 144-8 opty 939's. the latter's going to end up faster than anything if you're playing games which are basically single-threaded.

if you don't want to spend the money for the 3800, you can get a 3000/3200 and board and drop a dual core in when they get cheap, which they will. m2's replacing 939 in the first half of next year and the x2's will come down. i'd try a 3000 at 130 and the asrock since it can do both pci-e and agp so you don't have to but a new graphics card off the bat and the uli chipset's suprisingly good. memorywise, the 1gb crucial's ideal, they'll go fast and you're not paying for a middleman to glue samsung or hynix chips onto a pcb,slap heatspreaders on and mark it up. crucial's the arm of micron where they do public sales, it's good stuff and they rate everything cas 3 but that's wildly conservative. if you get an nvidia board, you're going to want to have one of those zalman northbridge heatsinks ready or buy a board with heatpipes-not only are they loud as fuck, those tiny fans ALWAYS seem to fail on people.

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