[GT2000]

I must say, I love the way my computer runs right now, it's been a bitch the last couple of days, but I think I just need another defrag, some apps have been hanging for a minute or two, and firefox has been locking up while downloading 1-2 gig files with it. But it eats most anything I throw at it.

You could pretty much take $500-600 and have yourself a nice system Zach. I don't know what your price range is like, or when you'll be looking intoi it, but look at the Nvidia 6600GTs...I've seen them for around $160-180, and they handle their own pretty well.

Also, I wouldn't worry so much about a sound card, I still run the onboard sound of my Shuttle An05r, I took the Santa Cruz out of my system, I just see no difference between the two when hooked up to my 600W surround. And storage is cheap...and ram as at it's lowest in years, with DDR3 out, DDR2 is even dropping. You can find single 1 gig sticks of PC2700-3200 for $100 or less.