I have a AMD Athlon 1GHz system now and was thinking about upgrading. I know I’ll need new motherboard, processor and RAM, to do this. My problem is, before I spend $400 or so, I would like to know just how much bang for the buck I will see. I want to encode faster!

I’ve looked on the web for comparisons between older Athlon and new XP models. I can only find reviews of, Intel vs. AMD, and they only show the newer chips. I would love to see tests like: converting an AVI to MPEG2. If it takes 3hrs to encode now with the 1GHz Athlon, will it take 1.5hrs with a processor twice as fast?

Here is what I got now:
1GHz AMD Athlon
512MB PC133 (2 – 256MB DIMMS)
Asus A7V Motherboard
40GB Western Digital 7200RPM (Programs)
120GB Western Digital Special Edition (video)
ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon 8500DV (64MB DDR AGP)
Sound Blaster Live MP3+
Etc…

I want to:
Athlon XP 2800+ (when they ship)
Asus A7V8X Motherboard
512MB DDR400 RAM




Thanks for any info or links,

Mavrick