I will be doings some overclocking and will mostly be used for gamings and light schoolwork. Nothing intense but I would also like to leapfrog the AM2 socket by just buying need video cards every year. Thing I can do this. Thanks for the help.

Opteron 165-Will be OC'ed to at least 2.4

Mushkin extream performance 2GB DDR500 PC4000(3-4-3-8) is this good for OC

DFI Lanparty UT

Sapphire Radeon x1800xt 512MB

Aspire Super Alien Case w/500watt PSU ( I know everyone says buy a new one but the PSU on this case got good reviews so I am at least going to try it and if I have to buy a new one no big deal) 5 case fans

Xp Home

Thats all thats important. Could someone also suggest a aftermarketcooler for the x1800xt cuz I might want to buy a quieter one. I guess I should also note that I am on a strict budget. Thanks everyone

Sounds like you got a pretty good plan in place. the 165 is a good deal, the 170 & 175 do tend to overclock a little better in my experience, and the 180 seems to overclock to about the same speeds as the 175. So there's that. 1800xt with 512 will buy you a large chunk of time comparred to similiarly priced cards of the moment (this coming from a Nvidia guy), although it still seems like a chunk a change to spend to me, depending on the Res of your monitor (they make a 1600xt with 512mb too) Mushkin is a good brand and PC5000 definately helps with the overclock, but there are cheaper brands out there that are good, too. G.skill/PQI/Gigaram/Patriot. But, I think you already know what you want, so I don't want to deter you.

--Sandman, you are such an overclocking rebel!!
I'm surprised the Overclocking Police haven't nabbed you yet.

I wasn't aware you would need to overclock for light schoolwork.

LOL

Anyways... the mushkin memory at DDR500 is pretty good, I think. However, if you want to OC past DDR500, most memory rated that won't go much further, at least probably not a noticeable amount.

I said gaming.....