Hey there -

I've been rocking a 1.2ghz Athlon / Radeon 8500 / 512mb PC133 Mushkin SDRAM / Abit KT7A-Raid mobo for some time now, and am due for an upgrade.

SOF2 performance is of utmost importance to me.

Right now I'm looking to upgrade to :

CPU : Intel P4B 2.4ghz
MB : Intel D845PEBT2
RAM : Samsung 1x512mb PC2700 DDR
Vid : Radeon 9700 Pro

Any comments, advice, criticism of the above configuration? Again, I want SOF2 to run like bloody ####.

I'm hesitant to go for broke and buy the fastest stuff out there right now, because Intel's Springdale chipset and 800mhz FSB p4's are right around the corner. A 2.4B P4 apparently overclocks really well and gives the most bang for the buck, and despite not being the fastest out there it's still 2x the processor I'm using now. This way I wouldn't waste too much money now when in 8-12 months it may be worth upgrading again with Doom3, Quake4 and other good upcoming games changing hardware requirements.

Money is not really an issue, but I don't like feeling as though I don't get a good value or am blowing money now on technology that will soon be surpassed. I've never really been into overclocking, the past 3 mobos I've had. I'm liking the above Intel motherboard because of the stability and no-hassle performance I'll get with it, but it doesn't overclock at all. Alternative I'm considering is the Asus P4PE, which does overclock well. Going with an overclocking friendly board would let me squeeze out some more performance over the long run, but I'm really more of a set-it-and-forget-it-type.

Any comments or suggestions appreciated on putting together a killer rig for SOF2.

depends how often u upgrade...

me personally...i would wait

Probably wait for the NForce2 mobo's and get an AMD Athlon XP 2800+ proc. <--- this will rival, even beat intels P4 3ghz chip

Nforce2 beat everything in the benchmarks.  Even KT400 chipsets.

Okay first off if your going to go with DDR memory you might as well go with AMD other wise your just wasting money on the P4.

P4's are only faster than Athlon's when they are running rambus, and are using the newer FSB.

So if you can't spring for rambus get your self the fastest Athlon you can.

Also keep in mind that ATI will be releasing thier new card in March or April...so it might be worth a little wait to ether catch the new card or the price drop on current stock.

Also there is a hack for making a 9500 128mb board into a 9700 Pro...so you may want to look into that as well.

Well best of luck.

On another note, Athlon is generally better for gaming, or so I've heard.  Also, I have heard bad things about ATI cards from most people that have used them, or the ones I have talked to at least.  May want to wait for the GeForce FX?

geeforce fx is gonna be the biggest flop of the year.  even me a nvidia buyer that has never got ati am tbinkning about getting a ati 9700 pro, cos the fx is a bloddy vacum cleaner and it gets outperformed by the 9700pro.