I'm sure this question has come up before, but...

I am looking at putting together new system, with some new and some old
parts. Disk subsytem will be 160 LVD drives I already have.LAN and Modem are
already in the parts bin. I will start with G400 Matrox card, but may
upgrade to NVIDIA based card later. Most of the work is heavy spreadsheet
and database, with lots of 2D type graphics, but some 3D stuff.. Am looking
at system that will be able to handle some games and photoshop work. Here
are two systems I've priced out:

Asus A7V333 with Athlon XP 1800, 512MB PC2700; price ~$400

Asus P4T-E with P4 1800, 512 800MHz RAMBUS; price ~$500

The real question is: given my use, will spending the extra $100 actually
buy any noticable performance increase? As near as I can tell, on a per
processor basis, both systems will be nearly equal, but I get some (?)
performance gain by going with the P4 system with the RAMBUS.

I have another ASUS based system and am very pleased with the motherboard,
so I'll likely stick with them.

Suggestions?

Thanks,

db

              The NOSPIN Group is now offering Free PC Tech
                     support at our newest website:
                          http://freepctech.com