Time for a New system. Any pointers?

[ohboring1]

Ok gents... I've been out of custom system building for about 5 years now so I'm totally in the dark as to new technology. Here's what I have

Asus A7N8X-dlx
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton)
1 Gig Kingston Hyperx PC 3200/DDR 400 (2X512)
Radeon 9700 Pro

so.. I want to keep my video card.. but I'm not sure if there are any that are significantly better.

I want to go Dual Core. so these questions I have for you

1) AMD or Intel?
2) What Chipset?
3) what Mobo?
4) What type of Memory.. I want to go 2 gigs
5) whats SATA and is it worth it?
6) would it be worth it for a new video card
7) whats RAID and is it worth it?
8) I do lots of sound recording and MP3ing so I need a good sound card... whats best but affordable?

So of course... I'm operating on a strict budget.. but its time to upgrade
Thank you all very much for any advice you can spare me!

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Mod Edit - Yeah, here's a pointer - don't post duplicate threads on the same subject.....

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1018361

Thanks - BlindedByScience