When do you think P4 Northwood be totally dead?
 

I'd say another 10 years ..... here is why.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01...m_death_delay/

Last warnng: You have until March 31, 2005 to place order for your favorite Pentium II 100, 133 Mhz chips.:)

I'll be recommending 2nd hand P4's for quite a while still, over AXP systems

You could get really nice Northwood from eBay. Any P4 HT 800 Mhz would go over 3 GHz or 250 FSB; any quality memory would go 1:1 rato; all NW is lower in heat output.

Only drawback would be without 64-bit, but no one benefits from it yet. And, even 64-bit OS comes about, it will be another year or two or three before supporting softwares to catch up.

Building a P4 800mhz system -
A Good to excellent motherboard ~$80
A healthy CPU <3 Ghz ~ $120
Excellent pair of memory sticks ~$125
Single SATA 80 G HDD ~$50
6600GT AGP ~$200

Total ~$575 - you are likely running 3.5 Ghz with simple air cooling <48 dBA system
You are not at any backseat at all.:)