With all of the P4 hullabaloo that's been on RO for months-on-end, AMD systems have rarely been mentioned. It's late and I'm tired, but I've been wanting to post this, so I'll be brief.
The AMD XP2600 is out now. You'll be seeing it creeping out onto the shelves in the next couple of weeks. A new CPU from AMD usually means that the rest of their processors will be dropping in price.
There are a lot of new socket A mobos coming out now, with features such as serial ATA (still not ready for primetime). AGP 8X (ditto), DDR400 support (ditto again), USB 2.0, yada yada yada. A lot of the new VIA-based KT400 boards are out, but they're a major disappointment. The new SIS 746 chipset boards will be on shelves soon, which promise to be the new latest/greatest socket A mobos. ATI has just released a mobo ... but it's extremely lack-luster. The second generation of nVidia mobos are on their way. Ali-Magik boards seem to be dropping by the wayside (rightfully-so). The good news is that the slightly-older, tried and true socket A boards are falling in price.
Bottom line ... there's no earth-shattering things happening in the AMD camp, but November and December will be a good time to get a hell of a deal on a slightly older AMD system.
AMD's next step is 333 FSB.
I'm exhausted ... I'm going to bed ... sweet dreams friends...