If you are only going to run 4G ram then you don't need vista. I have a motherboard with 512K ready boost on it:

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?threadid=240224 which may or may not help asus M2N32-SLI premium vista edition. Its a nice board cause its also silent and will take am2plus.

Anyway I see 3.66 gig in the task manager, which is great cause I use Win2K. So I can use a non memory hog OS (dont use norton eaither), and have 3.6g ram available.



vista and the rest with 700ishMB? Hrm, I don't think so
Which is why I use win2K.

Just got a 9600 nvidia on my main computer (again no fans), and the 9550 quad core phemon (by far the best price per perfomance ratio). Again the X600 (6600, 7600, 8600, 9600 is the price perfomance area of the nvidia line). So although others do have better systems, I thinks bang for the buck my system is the best.

http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/index.ht...ost&langx=en&a=

anyway point being dont get 64 bit vista unless you going to 6-8 GiG. I have EQ / Wow on a 80G or so raptor.

And if you want to drool a bit, I have FOUR 1920 X 1200 HP 2335 monitors (which have the EXACT SAME PANEL as the 23 apple monitor), and two Dells 20 inch which also have the same panel as the 20 inch apples. http://www.apple.com/displays/specs.html

The poster above me does have a much better system, as compared to anyone of my computers but I think my six will overall do better. Of couse Ill only be running one instance on my main computers and 5X on the other 5, so Ill have the benifit of very high effects on the main with very high fps (running one instance doh).



To get back on track the OP advise I think should be that you should get the best your budget allows, and then just get more computers of the same if you budget is bigger, and set up your total system to take advantage of a larger number of best for the buck computers vs. same money on single or two better computers. So, quad core AMD with whichever nvida X600 you can afford (and 4 gig ram, and a raptor or raid). Then just more of the same if yur rich. Or upgrade to 64bit os and 8 gig ram (but no 64bit os with under 8 gig ram). XP is fine, Im using 2K cause Im still using the same registry I had 7 years ago - can you belive it? I just keep moving the same OS/Registry to my new computers lol ...