Upgrade decision / shameless solicitation of opinions..

[Xuttah]

Currently I have the following system:

Asus CUSL2
P3 1Ghz
512MB SDRAM
ATI Radeon 64MB
HP 8100+ Writer (CD-RW)
Kenwood True 72X (CD-ROM)
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
Maxtor 60GB 7200rpm ATA100

I originally had planned to upgrade my system to do video capture, editing, and DVD-burning. The DVD burner is taken care of. However, I have a little more money than expected, and have debated betweeen the options below (est cost is little high on purpose for some components):

System:
MB (Sis 655 or Springdale): $200 est.
CPU (P4 2.4B): $200 est
Mem (512MB, matched, DC-DDR): $175 est

Option #1:
Video (AIW 9700 Pro): $380 est

System + Option #1 Total: $955 est.
Remaining Budget: $295

Option #2:
Video (AIW 8500 64MB): $175 est

System + Option #1 Total: $750 est.
Remaining Budget: $500

With the remaining budget, I thought I'd build a FW to run Astaro. Those components would run around $200-220. I've also wanted to get a Promise SX4000 controller, one or two more hdd's, upgrade my current Linux box (K6-2), etc...

Any thoughts? I get to upgrade about every 2-3 years, so I try to get the most bang for the buck (don't we all). I'm looking for long-term improvements that won't be rendered obsolete next month (granted, the video card will likely go the way of the do-do next week).

Thanks!

 

[bgeh]

i'd recommend you to wait till March 12th
that's when ATI and Nvidia will launch their new chips
should bring down prices by quite a bit

 

[Lonyo]

Wait until "Spring" when ATi have a 15% price cut on the current Radeon 9xxx series.

 

[Xuttah]

Thanks. Yeah, I'm probably not going to buy the MB until Springdale comes out, or the video card until the R350 comes out. Hopefully ATI price cuts will affect the AIW cards.

Anyone have experience with Promise's SX4000? Is it worth it?