I have never used a computer with an AMD cpu in it, so I was hesitant in the decision between AMD or Intel processors. It is not hard to find a person who is fan of either company, so the decision grew even tougher. However, I know I made the right choice because a) I am posting on this website and b) my system's performance is very good. Anyway, on to the specs!

AMD 64 3200+ at 2.1 GHZ
It was either this or $120 more for 200 MHz increase (3400+), but that is
what overclocking is for. I did have a stability issue when fsb was at 220 air cooled so I turned it down to 210 and its running fine.
ABIT KV8 MAX3
It was this or the Asus k8v deluxe, however besides not having an agp/pci lock and running into stability problems this motherboard is pretty decent.
2x512MB CORSAIR XMS TWINX1024-3200LL
SAPHHIRE RADEON 9800 PRO
THERMALTAKE VENUS 12 HEATSINK/ FAN
The processor runs at around 50 Celsius even with thermal cmpd, yet it has not reached above 60.
2x WD 36.7GB RAPTORS RAID 0
Fast, however with the raid array I did not see a drastic performance increase over a single raptor.
ANTEC TRUE BLUE 480W PSU
BLACK INTERNAL SONY FLOPPY DRIVE
Required because winxp needs the sata and raid drivers to detect and run raptors in raid.
LITE ON BLACK 16X DVD AND 52X CD/RW
ANTEC SLK3700AMB
PRINCETON 17" LCD MONITOR
LOGITECH SPEAKERS

All in all I am satisfied with the build however I plan on upgrading when pci-e becomes widely available.
If you have any advice on when or what to upgrade let me know, and/or any general comments, thanks.


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AMD 64 3200 CLAWHAMMER @ 2.3GHZ
EPOX 8KDA3J
EVGA 6800 GT
CRUCIAL BALLISTIX PC4000 2.5-2-2-5
2X36.7GB RAPTOR
80GB WD IDE
CHENMING ENTRY LEVEL SERVER