Hello all, Just found this quote from Accessmicro.com on a CPU/Motherboard/DDR Memory bundle:Athlon XP 1800+MSI KT3 Ultra-ARU MS-6380E-020 VIA KT333 Socket A mobo w/ RAID, 1xCNR, 5xPCI, 3xDDR, USB 2.0256 MB Kingston DDR2100 memoryThermaltake A1124 Volcano 7 CPU Fan Socket A copper fan$316.00Includes 2 year warranty, 12 mo. new swapStandard 24 hour burn-inI'd use Kingston DDR2100 for a year or so then purchase 512 MB Crucial or Mushkin DDR2700. In about 6 Months I'd get a GF4 Video card and new modem. I'll probably never use RAID, but it's cool knowing it's there and the price was just too tempting. I guess my question is - is this a good deal or could I do better in terms of price on a similar or a better combo. This is an upgrade from my 2 1/2 year old Celeron 500 w/ DFI mobo and 192 PC100 memory.

Just today, I bought the following items from Fry's. Very similar to your quote, but without the RAID (which I don't need or want).Athlon XP 1800+MSI K7T266 Pro 2-A256 MB Corsair DDR2100 memoryThermaltake A1124 Volcano 7 CPU Fan Socket A copper fanThe motherboard and chip combo were $139. The memory was $79. The Fan was $24. The total bill was about $242 before taxes. I was very suprised to get such a good deal without ordering mail order (and from Fry's no less).As you know, cooling is a problem with the higher speed Athlons. The Volcano 7 fan will work adequately, but I have a few gripes about it.The fan is self pacing. The speed of the fan ranges from 2900 RPM's to 5000 RPM's depending on the CPU temperature. As the speed goes up, the RPM's go up, and the noise goes WAY up. You can pretty much count on the fan staying at 5000 RPM's (and noisy).I will probably return the fan. There are others that I would prefer, but they will be harder to obtain.I normally avoid AMD chips because of the extra cooling (and extra noise). But, this deal was too good to pass up. And, it runs most flight sims almost twice as fast as my Celeron 1.1mhz.Cheers,Allen