Thanx for your replies,

I think the remaining decision is whether its gonna be an Intel inside or an AMD inside .
I have read tests where the Pentium 4 scored better in the audio area, and the Athlon had the upper end in gaming.
Although when compared, the Intels cost a lot more than the AMD's, so is it worth it?

Smokey,
How much softsynths do you run at the same time, if you just use 1 or 2, my old 1 GHZ Athlon can do that too, but when running 5 or 6 and making whole sequences based on softsynths its another story.
B4 and FM7 run smoothly on my machine too, but when using synths like the Edirols and playing huge sequences with them, I hear cracking and dropouts.
And I don't think its the soundcard, I think an Audigy 2 ZS is good enough for that, but the CPU just can't take it.

Greetz ,
Marcel