=Sarc=

With a budget like that, I don't think you can include 4GB of RAM. If you need a new PSU, you're probably going over budget unless you mean $1K before tax.

Approximate prices for parts:
$120 Mobo
$300 GPU (8800 GTS 640MB range)
$100 2GB RAM (could be lower now that I see Corsair has some RAM with rebates)
$300 CPU
$120 PSU
---------
$940

It'll be over $1K by adding another 2GB of RAM and then there's tax.

RAM is cheap but I wouldn't spend money on it unless I really needed it. $100 can easily boost performance by getting a better GPU or CPU. I don't think RAM requirements for gaming will change soon. Even if it does, it's easier to upgrade RAM than to replace a video card. I agree in not buying the latest video card but it's also good to get a pretty good one to begin. There's also the gaming resolution requirement. LCD's are popular but you want to use the LCD's native resolution, which may be high if it's a large monitor. For a LAN server though, that's a different story and more RAM would make sense but you need a lot of power all around for running a server.

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Snail88

i dont want to hi-jack the thread but it's memory related and didnt want to start a whole new thread for a similar question. Anyway, i recently installed a new version of windows vista x64 with 4 gigs of ram (2x2gb). It would load, but upon getting to the welcome screen i would get a BSOD and it would freeze. I took out 1 of the 2 sticks and it boots up fine. Am i getting worse performance using only 1 2gb stick as opposed to 2 1gb sticks? Im considering getting 2 1 gb sticks if its vista's problem. It might just be a bad stick of RAM. I guess i should swap out sticks and see if it boots. Ill update when i try it.

EDIT - swapped sticks and still boots up. Maybe a bad slot? Does it make a difference if i use slots 2 and 4 rather than 1 and 3?

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=Sarc=

You're probably losing out on dual channel goodness. I don't think it has much of an impact on fps. It really depends on the CPU though. Some crave memory bandwidth and some are quite fine. Last I remember, the old P4's weren't really hungry for memory bandwidth.

Definitely try to get the other stick working and enable dual channel memory. At the very least, it'll probably help load times.

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Snail88

well, i switched to slots 2 and 4 and it booted up...guess it was a bad slot? Hopefully it stays stable. Thanx.

edit - well i was just testin out TF2 and got a BSOD about 10 minutes in. I think it has somethin to do with vista...maybe im missing an update or something...ill look around.

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=Sarc=

I haven't seen any Vista updates that fix memory problems. It's more likely to be a hardware issue. It could be the motherboard with some bad slots but it could also be bad RAM. You'll have to check each RAM stick in each slot by itself to see if there are any problems. If it's fine, I'd suspect the motherboard has issues with dual channel or the brand of memory you have.

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venman

2 gig is more than enough to run for now..l..and the future. 4 gig = waste of money atleast for the next year or 2. put the money in your cpu.

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Snail88

well i have a good cpu (duo 6850 @3.5), i just wanted to future-proof myself. 32 bit vista is proving to be the more stable though.

BAH! 4 gigs keeps crashing my system. left one stick of 2gb in slot 2 and it seems to be ok now...hopefully my performance would take too big of a hit.

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SmokingTarpan

No power supply, suppose I should have mentioned that out. I already have a good one (Antec modular 550W) that should suffice me for some time. So, for the record, I'm getting the following: CPU, GPU, mobo, RAM. :P

I also don't know where you're getting your price on CPU's, because $300 is way high. I can get an Athlon X2 6400+ for $240 (which will likely lower by the time I buy); drop that down one tier to an X2 6000+ and the price is $170.

edit: though I should say, indeed, it's easier to upgrade RAM than it is other components. Maybe I bump myself up to a bleeding edge technology to start with, and throw in more RAM in a few months.

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Acreo Aeneas

Whatever you decide, you should be set for a year to two before you'll see any recommendations on games for 2 GBs of RAM.

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=Sarc=

I was thinking of C2D's, which I think would be better in a long lasting system. AMD doesn't really have much to touch the top notch Intel CPUs. Although, AMD has good CPUs for cheap because they focus more on mid-range which is what most people can afford. It's just that my rule of thumb is to spend about roughly the same amount on the CPU and GPU. It keeps the GPU at roughly high-mid instead of the flagship products and gets you a CPU that has power to last for years. They're the pillars of a good gaming system.

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Acreo Aeneas

If you don't really care about a extra few seconds of loading time in games, go for the AMD. If you are frantic about squeezing off another few seconds, get a C2D.

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SmokingTarpan

Well, I'll be upgrading from an Athlon 3200+ and a Radeon X850 XT, so pretty much anything I get that's just under bleeding will be a spectacular upgrade for me. I've always bought AMD and ATI, though I must admit, this is the first time where I've actually been considering going over to Intel and nVidia. AMD's strategy is looking tired, and at work I have what we (Dell and I) believe is a bad batch of AMD processors. I've never had any personal problems with AMD stuff, but things are looking a little less than spectacular at the moment.

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Switch

My usual plug when people are doing stuff like this:
Toms Hardware.com

They have lots of info, and probably very recent cpu/gpu performance charts. Some with cost ratios.

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SmokingTarpan

Yea, that's where I start whenever I need to do hardware research. :P

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=Sarc=

AMD would be a good choice for the mid-range market. They still have good processors but the lack of revolution/improvement in their architecture has put them far behind Intel in the high-end market. The same goes for ATI (now AMD). They got cushy giving their competitor a chance to come out with something revolutionary.

You can gamble with a 2900XT but it's really a mid-range card that uses more wattage than a comparable 8800GTS. The benchmarks are getting closer since ATI has had time to tweak and improve their drivers for the 2900XT. However, the 8800GTS has been out longer and you get the stability of their drivers. ATI can only compete by having lower prices since they can't brag about a flagship card.

I switched to nVidia from my 3 year old 9700Pro. ATI cards were a bit more expensive so I thought it was time to move back to nVidia. Take advantage of the current situation and dump all the loyalty. I believe both companies have good driver devs so the winner will end up being the one that has the card out the longest and best value.

I was with AMD but also switched to Intel in my build last year when the C2D's came out. I was waiting to see what would happen with the AM2 but that flopped. It wasn't anything new and AMD still hasn't come out with anything new for the mainstream customer. They're still rehashing old parts while Intel has time to fill in the low-end market with their E4xxx chips. Intel has some great higher end CPUs for really cheap so it's hard to pass up.

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