Help me spend 1.5K on an Upgrade...

[Railgunner]

Current Rig...

Intel Pentium 4 2.4C CPU @ 3.12GHz w/260FSB
ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe MB Rev 2.0
1 GB (2 x 512MB) Mushkin Level 2 Black PC3500 DDR SDRAM @ 416MHz w/2-2-2-6-4 timings.
ATI Radeon 9800XT AGP Video Card w/256MB DDR SDRAM
Lian-Li PC-65B USB Case w/Plexiglas Window
Zalman CNPS7000A-AlCu Aluminum/Copper CPU Cooler
Zalman ZM-MFC1 Six Channel Multi Fan Speed Controller
Enermax EG465AX-VE (W)FCA 460w PSU
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000 RPM SATA HD, 8MB Buffer

OK... I tried a 3.0C SLKWU and it was a dog. EBAY'd it. Now I'm back running my 2.4C.

I'm not interested in the Prescott chips

Now that's Intel has canceled Tejas, who knows how long it will be before they put out the sucessor to the Prescott. My guess is, nothing new out of Intel worth buying before next year, maybe next spring.

I KNOW I want one of the new ATI X800 Plat. cards soon as I can get my hands on one, but I'm kinda worried about putting that kinda bread into an AGP card. But now that Tejas has been canned, who knows what's going to happen.

I've been putting off upgrading for some time because I have not been sure what to do.

I don't mind spending the money for a killer rig but I don't want to just blow money on a deadend platform with no upgrade potential.

I had considered upgrading to a good LCD monitor but I game alot and I'm still waiting for LCD's with better response times.

I normally set aside about 1K a year for PC upgrades but so far this year I have not really felt comfortable upgrading at all, especially after Prescott.

Put it this way, say someone gave you 2K and told you that you have to spend it in the next 6 months on a new machine. Would you build now? Wait? Wait on what?

I'm not in any real hurry, I usually try and software drive my hardware and there's no games out right now that really stress
my current rig except maybe for Farcry but I'm done with it (Don't
like multiplayer).

[Kanavit]

your platform is not dead end. the P4C800 will accept P4 EE/ Prescott / Dothan/ banias cores. so don't worry. Intel will release 2 new netburst cpus this fall. the Prescott 3.73E ghz featuring 2mb L2 cache and 1066mhz fsb. the P4 3.46EE ghz (1066fsb) and 2mb L3 cache. currently the i865/i875 chipsets can support 1ghz+ front side bus speeds. so u have at least another year with the P4 netburst architecture yet. plus Intel will incorporate NX(non-execute) bit technology in Prescott EM64T cores. which should improve PC security and protection against worms and viruses from buffer overflow attacks.

I would get a P4 3.40Ghz EE 800fsb HT 2mb L3(Here (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=19-116-179&depa=0))

then wait for the ATI Radeon x800pro(R420) or Nvidia Geforce 6800 ultra(NV40).

[charlie]

I'm going to give a slightly different view than what most peeps will give. Buy OLD tech.

FX-53 refurb'ed from Newegg $650
SK8V refurb'd from Newegg $110
2 x 256mB OCZ PC3500 REG $170
Radeon X800Pro from Best Buy $400

use your Zalman cooler, run silent and fast at about 2600mHz, and run BLISTERINGLY fast at about 11.5 x 226... or 12 x 220 if your Raptor's don't like it.
This rig will STILL be in the top tier even 1 year from NOW! PLUS! there will be socket 940 NF3-250 boards and K8T800Pro boards if you desire an upgrade to the SK8V...

[pkrew]

I like your thinking charlie