as far as dual CPUs or a single CPU goes, i would stick with a single CPU. you won't get much bang for your buck, if any at all, if you build a dual CPU system. i was under the impression that dual CPUs was targeted at the server market. i think the computing power of a dual CPU setup really shines when put to work doing multitasking and other server-type work loads. but i dont think you'll see that kind of performance increase over a single CPU setup while gaming. it will probably be hardly worth the money spent for the performance increase you'll see in the end. so i would stick to a single CPU for a gaming system.
for individual parts, i know nothing about AMD, but i can give you some Intel based opinions...i am also building a gaming system right now, but money is somewhat of an issue, so i'm saving a few $ here and there by doing a few things in particular...going with such things as DDR SDRAM over RDRAM, plus the mobos for such a platform are cheaper.
MEMORY: i'm going with Samsung PC2700, mainly for the quality. its right up there with Corsair, Micron, and Mushkin, and the price is not quite as high, even though i'm only saving a few bucks. you really can't get cheap RAM or you run a high risk of being sorry for it in the end, so get a quality brand who uses quality chips, like all the ones i mentioned above.
MOBO: i'm looking at the SiS 648 chipset, but i'm waiting for a decent board maker to put one out that has an AGP/PCI bus lock b/c i plan to OC my CPU. by the way, i think ASUS is the best board maker out there when it comes to combining stability, reliability, and OCability.
CPU: i purchased a P4 1.6A and plan on OCing it. as far as i know, i got the right pack date and version #, so if i'm lucky i'll be able to push the fsb to 166MHz (2.656GHz CPU). if you have the money you may just want to get the P4 2.53GHz, but i figure, why get the when you can get the 1.6A for less than half as much, and OC it to levels almost even with the 2.53GHz CPU.
well i'll be in touch...eric
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