Hello all, long-time reader, first-time poster. I like to read Sharkey's buying guides, but this month's guide isn't out yet and I'm ready to upgrade my old rig over my 2 week Christmas vacation. Oh yeah and clean the garage, yep yep My current rig is serving me well actually. But some of the newer games I've started playing are starting to push my level of tolerance below acceptable. Specifically, games like Castle Wolfenstein and Civ III just aren't fast enough. OK so 20FPS I can handle. Heck I played Quake I on a AMD 486 DX4 133 at 10FPS and it worked for me (well in single player.) But Civ III is terribly slow moving around, and I have got to upgrade this thing!

This is what I have now:

Retail PIII 450MHz @ 515 (4.5x113)
SOYO 440 BX-based board (forget the exact #)
128MB Mushkin RAM, 128MB "Value" RAM ("free" with XP purchase)
Geforce 2 MX w/ 32MB
Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer
low-end 56K modem
Netgear 10/100 NIC
30 GB IBM Deskstar 75 GXP (Hungary ver. - never any problems)
Toshiba 40X CD-ROM
WIN XP "Home" ver.
All in an Enlight midtower w/235 Watt "Powerman" PSU

Incidentally, I run my HD in the 5 1/4" drive bay cooled with a "Storm" squirrel cage. The drive runs cool, which may attribute to my 75 GXP running fine. I've heard these drives are troublesome. Anywho, after doing quite a bit of research, this is what I've come up with for an upgrade:

Aluminum case (just for grins), some 300 watt PSU
ABIT KR7A RAID
Maxtor 40GB 7200ATA 133 x 2 in a RAID 0 config. *
AMD XP1600 Retail*
DDR Memory 256/512 *

I plan on using my MX for now, upgrading later and OCing it with some active cooling. And the Live! should be fine.

*RAID: Ok now this is where I need some suggestions. I wanted to play with RAID, as I read in mode 0 it's exceptionally quick. I don't do anything super intensive, other than gaming, so this is more a "fun" thing than a necessity. Is RAID 0 really worth it? I love to see the computer boot up super fast and ditto for applications, but is it REALLY that much faster? If not then I can save some money on a non-RAID MB, and use my 30GB HD to boot. Use the extra $$ to get an XP1800.

*Retail AMD: I like quite, not "is it on?" quite but something south of "WHAT?!". The "Storm" drive bay cooler I have is extremely quite. The only real noise is from the 80MM front radial fan. I don't plan on OCIng much, if at all. So the question is, how about that retail HSF? Is it adequate for stock speeds, and quite? If it's as loud as aftermarket versions then I might as well go OEM and get a separate HSF. Then if the itch gets me I could OC it. without worry

*Memory: What's the difference between DDR 266 and DDR 2100 if anything? I read the Abit uses the 266, but I'm probably confused here. I'm fully assuming the DDR 2100 is the absolute best/fastest correct? And I'm not sure if I want 256 or 512, it depends on the prices really. 256MB now is fine it seems.

I plan on buying a lot of this, minus the memory at the Pomona computer show here in So Cal. Memory is coming from Crucial or Mushkin because of their excellent service. If I'm going to pay sales tax (NewEgg is in CA) I might as well forgo the shipping. Plus I want to get everything within my short vacation.

I should tell you what I don't do: I don't OC hardcore, play DVDs (do that on a 27"), or burn CDs. Lacking cable/DSL support in my area permits me the pleasure of D/Ling MP3s and stuff on wonderful 56K bandwidth. IE I ain't got much need to store stuff non-local. Things I do play: Civ III, Q III SoF, and other FPSs like that. Oh and obviously type a lot, browse the internet and what not.

Any suggestions or comments or whatevers would be much appreciated!

Oero