Building a new box, ? on CPU and others
 

Well, I am about to begin building a new computer soon. This will be a desktop system with a WinXP / Linux (MDK10?) dual boot on separate SATA 74 GB 10,000RPM WD Raptors

I'm an AMD man and will be definatley with AMD 64 bit.
Now what i am pondering over is which processor to get. I am stuck on whether to go with a single Athlon 64 FX-51 or a Single Opteron 248 upgrading to dual 248's when i get some more cash.

Which would show better performance, the FX or the opteron? It seems to me that the only difference in the Opteron and the FX is the opteron is SMP able and the FX is not.

As I said earlier, this will be a desktop system mainly for normal tasks like gaming and internet, but i also plan on doing some programming work and video editing, DVD creation, etc.

Just if you're curious I plan on having the system fully water cooled including the video card with dual raptors for OS and another large IDE drive for storage. Since it will cost easily into the $2000 range maybe near $3000 i want to make sure everything is good and compatible before i start ordering.

Thanks,

Nathan