Looking into building a new machine

by the time you build this pc, amd's "am2" socket will be out, which supports ddr2 with their memory controller (ddr2-800mhz). that should be a good deal; i'd check either tomshardware.com or anandtech.com for reviews on am2 when it comes out.

amd dual-core processors don't help games very much, but overall your computing experience will be smoother with a dual-core than with a single core (and i'm sure it won't be too long until games start using dual-core technology more).

take that radeon x1900xtx and change it to either a x1900xt (less expensive and it's just a little slower... overclock a little and you've got the same card!) or go for the nvidia geforce 7900gt (at 300 bucks, it's a steal).

you may want to get two of the geforce 7900s since you are getting an sli board. if you get an ati card, there's no point to getting an sli board... more money for no reason there.

really, anandtech.com is a good site for reviews in general, and it's easy to find reviews there. also try hardocp.com, but i don't like it as much. sometimes their reviews are sound, other times it seems like they do stupid things... but it's still worth a mention.

Double Post:
also, this deserves a mention. intel's "conroe" chip will be out by the end of the summer (or it should be), and, if the benchmarks are accurate, it smokes anything out by amd right now. i don't know how much this will change with the "am2" socket, but we will see.

also, conroe looks to be well-priced (the chip that beat the fx-60 in many benchmarks was a 400-500 dollar chip), so be on the lookout for that when it comes out. that will probably support ddr2 only.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

i've been using windows vista at work a bit, and aside from the new interface (which a quadro fx 500 card can't even render very well), there's not a whole lot that's new.

oh yeah, the system is a 1.8ghz p4 with 1 gig of ram, with the quadro fx 500. it runs dog-slow. things like clicking links in ie or changing display settings are painfully slow to execute. i hope they fix this before the final build, but seeing as the requirements are something like a p4 ~2.5ghz processor, i'm thinking not so much.

also, by the time vista comes out, not only will the new tech be cheaper, but newer tech will be out that makes this tech look bad, probably.

There's nowhere I can't reach.