This xmas I plan on upgrading. I have already overclocked my xp2100. Would like to upgrade to xp2500 - 2800, somewhere in there. I plan on buying pc2700 and running it duel channel. I looked on Crucial's website and they have DDR 2700 unbuffered ($103) and DDR 2700 registered ($160). Whats the difference and which is better for overclocking. Also I am probably going to upgrade my 300watt power supply and my Radeon 9000pro 128mb to 9700-9800xt. How many watts should go up to? Thanks-N-Advance F.Y.I. motherboard is an Asus A7N8X-Dlx

CPU: go for a 2500+ RAM: don't go for anything less than PC3200, preferably Corsair or OCZ, don't bother going dual channel, not worth the extra cost, as for registered/un-buffered etc. etc. RAM, have a look at this little presentation. PSU: Antec TruePower 430 or 550W

It's been mentioned here before...dual channel is wasted on the socket A system...save your money. And upgrading from a 2100+ to 2500+ doesn't seem very cost effective either...you might wanna take the time to read this...from Tom's Hardware: "Buyers enticed by dual channel DRAM should note one crucial thing: in theory, a dual-channel memory link does not bring any benefits since the data rate is limited by the FSB bus's bandwidth. It's fixed at a maximum 200 MHz (Athlon XP 3200+) to give a bandwidth of 3.2 GB/s. Even using fast dual DDR400 memory with an access time of 6.4 GB/s has no effect on the Front Side Bus bottleneck of 3.2 GB/s. With that in mind, it's really not so inappropriate to question dual-channel memory technology on the Socket A platform." http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20030908/index.html http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20031107/index.html

Probably should have said go for a 2500+ and oc to a 3200+, 99.9% chance you will succeed.

Thanks for the advice, very helpful. Adam I have read the AMD cpu's are now locked and as of now you can't unlock them with any of the old tricks. But I have read that if you get one that is made before week 39 there is a good chance it will be unlocked. People have been posting that with the new locked cpu's, they can't come close to 3200+ speed with a 2500+ by just raising the fsb and a locked multiplier.

XP2500+ can be easily OC to 3200+. Just raise the FSB to 200 and there you go.

as long as you get an older 2500+....it's cost effective, in my opinion, you get double the L2 cache and faster FSB OC it to 3200+ speeds, like said above and save several hundred dollars $100 for 2500+ $400 plus for 3200+