Processor upgrade advice

[csean at poc.it]

Hi all,
I've been thinking of a processor upgrade for my Sawtooth G4/400 and see
that single processor upgrades have started falling in price. e.g. OWC has
1.25 Gigadesign processors at $389; I've even seen G4/800 processors below
$200. As the new dual processors have appeared, I expect these prices to
fall even more. 

I got the Sawtooth, used, at a very good price and I have upgraded most of
the innards: combo drive replaced the DVD, Radeon 8500 replaced the Rage
128, big HD, lots more RAM - all at very good prices. Let's say I've put
about $750 into it overall.

Selling it used I'd get a lot less than that, but some parts I could carry
over to any new Mac I bought. The G4/1.25 is still being sold at around
$1200 (here in Europe), which is a pretty good deal.

Another option is a used Mac. e.g. I've been in contact with a guy selling a
Dual G4/450 with 1GB RAM and a Superdrive for $600-650.
By the way, how would that Dual 450 do in Panther? I don't have a need for
blazing speed in high performance Altivec applications, but I want something
that runs OS X with at least the speed of OS 9! (My current G4/400 is a dog
in X). 

My needs: as I said, a Mac that can run Panther fast for another year or
two. No special application needs.
 
So, the options are:
1) keep Sawtooth and add G4/1000-1250 processor for price in $300-350 range.
2) used Dual G4/450 (also more upgrade options down the road): price around
$600-650 (*has Superdrive): move Radeon 8500 to Dual, resell Sawtooth for
??? 350-400? so maybe net price of around $300
3) new G4/1.25 for $1200 (*net price after selling Sawtooth + Radeon = 750?)

Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks,
Chris