I am going to upgrade my motherboard , cpu , memoy and video card. I think I have decided on an Intel X38 motherboard , 2.66 core quad intel cpu and it has 2 gb DDR3 corsair memory. I asked for opinions in another forum and was told I would be stupid to buy DDR3 memory because of the cost . I am looking at a bundle, Intel motherboard, I ntel core duo 2.66 cpu and 2gb corsair ddr3 memory , I think is $559.00 total price . I think I will look at a ATI Visontech 3870 card ????? . What do you all think ?

Thanks for any advise ,
Roberto.

What they said about ddr3 is quite right, although that was rude. You'll be paying a preminum for being among the first to adopt a new standard. Not the best bang for the buck by a long shot. Compared to higher clocked ddr2, ddr3's performance increase is not that noticable, especially under realistic conditions in a PC. The 3870 is a mid range card, reasonable performance same as a 9600gt, and slower than a 8800gt.

Keep in mind that 2gb is not enough for newer games or multitasking. It'll start to use significant amount of page file off hdd, and your overall system performance will be lagged far below 4gb ddr2 ram.

Agree with the DDR3/DDR2 things But if you really want it and ready to pay the price, go ahead ...

About the memory, that's not quiet right. For any 32bit OS & applications (respectively), 2GB will be enough, I can testify myself, since I'm using 2GB (still) on XP32 without any problem (including playing latest games: NFS Pro Street, NWN2, CoD4). Eventually if you're using 4GB on Vista/XP32, you'll only see around 3GB. But it's true due to the cheaper memory price nowadays, getting 4GB is really recommended. Well, I'm talking about DDR2, since DDR3 prices is still really high (at least for me, lolz).

But if you're using 64bit OS, go for 4GB or even more (esp. with Vista64). In the conclusion, actually I would suggest for 4GB (DDR2) myself. It's the best bang for the back at the moment.

It depends on how heavy the game is. Crysis easily go over 2gb by itself on higher settings. Vista can approach 1GB. 2GB may still be enough for XP with lighter gaming, but it won't for long. Anyway, DDR2 ram is dirt cheap these days.

Right I'm not playing Crysis myself, hahaha. Don't have much time to play all those games today .. I was playing NWN2 for more than a year now, and still not finish yet (Lost the saved games when my mobo got burned last year, so I have to start all over again, meh, lolz ).

I agree with you eventually. I just don't want to take "2GB won't be enough" statement as a rule It will be depend on the need. However I don't think somebody who's willing to get X38 mobo will not use it for heavy gaming I will still use 2GB at least until I decide to get Vista64 later this year or maybe next year. But I could change my mind if STARCRAFT II will require more than 2GB

Blizzard is tight lipped about Starcraft II requirements. But it could be a memory hog, as there's a lot of physics elements. It's still a while until the game's released though.

Thanks for the replies,
Roberto.

Chill man. This is the 5th time I have seen you post this exact thing (Yes! I actually counted). LGA775 will not die for another 2-3 years or so.