Some Advice

What all are you buying? The works, or do you have a monitor, speakers, whatever to carry over from your old system?

The 533 P4s aren't the best deal, better to get a 1.8A and OC it to 2.4 or more. If you're not overclocking, go with an Athlon.

<font color=blue>Hi mom!</font color=blue>

I am carrying over my 21" montior keyboard, speakers and mouse from my old dell cpu. I don't really want the works, but I figure i should go High-end processor wise and get pretty decent other things. I am not however planning to overclock.

Can't you overclock the 2.4-P4 to 3.1? I think you get hit on the head for motherboard pricing though. The 845E&G and the 850E all run upwards of $160. SiS and the VIA are more affordable but harder to get ahold of. Some places won't even sell the VIA cause of the licensing issue.

Now that I think about you can get a 1.6-P4 and OC to 2.0 or higher. Athlon just instituted price drops a couple of days ago as well.

I am in the same boat as you though. It is more economical to get the 1.6 ($137 @ newegg) with a good mobo and wait till the 3G chips hit at the end of the year. Thats what I'll do if I can resist the urge to try and OC a 2.4 to 3.1.

3.1GHz is a high air overclock, no matter where you're starting from. others would know more than me about the chances.

<font color=blue>Hi mom!</font color=blue>

Slim but not impossible, not with the stock hsf though.

:wink: The Cash Left In My Pocket,The BEST Benchmark :wink:

Well do you still want an Intel CPU even if the AMD will beat it easily if you don't overclock the Intel chip? Otherwise, the AMD way would be smartest.

My firewall tastes like burning.  

With such a restricted budget, you would have to overclock to get top performance. For moderate performance, an XP1800+ would do, I recommend the MSI 745 Ultra motherboard and DDR 333. For top performance an overclocked P4 1.8A at 2.4GHz and PC1066 would cost you between $100 and $200 more.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?