Legit Reviews

current specs:
intel pentium 4 3.0c (stock heatsink/fan)
abit ic7-g motherboard
1gb (2x512mb) pc3200 geil value ram
bfg geforce 6800gt oc
400w thermaltake power supply

future endeavors:
amd athlon64 3500+ venice core (oem)
asus a8n-sli deluxe
1gb (2x512mb) pc4000 geil ultra ram
x800xl (dunno which one, though)
coolermaster mini watercooling kit

please feel free to offer advice. this will be the first amd pc i'd have ever built. it might take a while to amass the money, but somehow i'll do it. i might even get a job if i have to. also, feel free to revise my list... offer input as far as what you think would be better for a reasonable price-range (value is key... but i dont want to spend too much). anyone know which x800xl would be better to get? i checked out newegg and, apparently, there are, like, 6 different models of the same damn card at different prices... i dunno what the story is.

honestly i dont think that an upgrade would do much good for you right now. If you were to overclock your northwood you could easily push you system in to compeating distance with the rig your looking at. you have a top notch overclocking motherboard, a really good overclocking cpu, and a solid video card. upgrading to the A64 system would only net you maybe 5% in games more if you got SLI going. but the cost difference to fully switch platforms would be just to much in my mind. I just dont think i could justify it. And since your a student and i know its hard to make that kind of $$ in any quick fasion i would have to strongly recomend that you hold off on an upgrade until both CPU's and GFX are close to twice as powerful at the same price as what you have paid for your system.

Agreed, I had pretty much the same response written out before my work PC decided to reboot itself..Silly Intel machine.;)

Pick up some good CPU cooling like a Thermalright SP94, XP120 or XP90/XP90c and overclock her to 3.2-3.4. $50-$60 is much cheaper than several hundred. :D

great to know! :-D

I just finished up an article comparing an Intel 640 (3.2GHz) with an AMD 3500+ and honestly there wasn't enough of a difference between the two to justify switching one way or the other. The AMD won most benchmarks, but the Intel CPU overclocked to levels that really balanced things out.
Hang tight and save your pennies for an FX-55-57, get a good NF4 Ultra board, and keep your current video card.