I purchased my system 5 years ago but I've kept it updated regularly..in fact the only things that are original parts of my machine are the sound card, motherboard, processor and speakers. Everything else I've updated drasticly since then, actually looking right now at buying a new motherboard and cpu to update from my 2.8 pent 4 to a 3.6 or a 3.0 dual core..

Maybe somebody can offer a suggestion on that.

I'm very, very skepticle on the dual core thing because I've heard it has some capatibility issues with certain programs, and the fact that I can't seem to find one that runs over 3.0g that won't break the bank.
I've always run on a single core processor and so far swear by them. Some unbiased input would be helpful.