JB if I were you I would keep an ear perked for other people looking to upgrade. When I want to upgrade it normally takes me a month or so to find a shmuc.. I mean customer for my old system. Have you asked around work? Also, you may want to try putting a little 'for sale' sign around your apartment building saying something like (for sale= blah blah blah, will install and setup for you on your current system if possible, call for details"
I could never convinve my wife to let me put out 400 dollars for a new system, but with 300 from my old I can justify putting in 150 of my own money.
I also plan on going to an amd64 for my next chip. I have also had bad aopen and asus experiences, but I have found mother boards are a crap shoot. I have stuck with msi for my mb and video card for a few years though, been very satisfied.
My opinion on amd/intel, is get whatever is fastest for the cheapest price. I have a p4 2.8 overclocked to a 3.2 at home, and a 2500+ amd overclocked to 2.2ghz at work running my linux machine, and to tell you the truth, they have both been great computers.
