Planning a new system, worth it?

[Hinokagutsuchi]

Well, I'm trying to get a parts list for a new computer. I'm going to build it later this summer, so price isn't a large issue to a point because I'm going to be able to earn money over the summer.

Right now I'm running an AMD Athlon XP at 2.1ghz, with 2gb of ram. I have two graphics cards, one Radeon AIW 9800 (128mb, AGP) and a Radeon 7000 (PCI, 64mb). It's also watercooled.

Right now, it can handle anything I play, SW: Battlefront II, HL2, and Doom 3. It's a solid PC as well.

The PC I have planned, though is the following:

AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Venice Socket 939 (2.4GHZ)
ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe
OCZ Value Series 1GB 184-Pin DDR
OCZ Value Series 1GB 184-Pin DDR
Sapphire Radeon X1800XT 100154L
WD Caviar SE 320GB SATA
WD Caviar SE 320GB SATA
Rosewill RP550S-2MK 550W Modular PSU Black
(And the appropriate watercooling hardware from DangerDen.)

My question is.. well, is it worth it? It's going to run about $1500 (ack!). I'm thinking the most improvement is the PCI-E graphics card, but will it be that much of an improvement? I do like the two SATA drives running in a raid, if only for the backup/parity.

Am I just second guessing myself because this is a ton of money for a computer, or is there going to be a major improvement over my current setup?

Thanks.

 

[discochan]

Your going to see a huge improvement in your graphics with that card

I would however not get the Rosewill PSU, they really arent very good. The Fortron ones are nice and budgetminded

 

[Hinokagutsuchi]

A friend of mine has one, and has had no problems with it.

I'll look into it, though. I would seriously hate it if a bad PSU fried everything. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Least]

If you're getting it at the end of the summer, your mind may be changed, with AM2 coming and all. Not that I am endorsing DDR2, but the upgrade path for that will be a lot better than a 939 rig.

Also, get a good PSU. This is the heart of the whole system, really.