First build in 5 years, how'd I do?

Wow that does look pretty good. Is it the G92 version of the 8800gts?

Yeah, I went for the G92 version. Figured get as much as I can afford now. I wanted to be able to go all out when playing Conan when it comes out.

That is roughly the same specs I have, I bought mine in December 06. Amazing how little the industry has changed in the last year and a half. Heck even the price changed very little.

That's what happens when you have little competition. Amd has been mia with both processors and graphics it seems.

I remember when there were vicious new products being released every six months.

Let's hope Amd can bring some good competition now to both Intel and Nvidia. Otherwise, we may be looking at the same products for years before refreshes. Not to mention little changes in price. Guess we got too used to the price and performance crown. Now that it no longer exists and nvidia and Intel rule it all for the most part, this is proof positive what competition does for the industry.

Amd was over a year late to market with their new processors, and they gave up on performance crown with graphics. As a result, Intel or Nvidia has had little reason to rush ot market new products or heck even lower prices. The new products that are out now are not even that big of an improvement. On paper the new nvidia cards look exactly the old ones, just a model number refresh.

I guess I have one question regarding my RAM choice. If I'm going to be running XP Pro to begin with, can I even put both 2gb sticks in? Will it be read by the system?

Also, Cranbers, I agree with your assessment that the computing world has become a one (two?) horse with regards to the Intel/Nvidia vs. AMD/ATi competition. Around the time of my last build the playing field was a lot more level. You just had so many more choices. Now it seems like the only choice you have to make is which Intel Chip and which Nvidia card your going to buy.

Windows xp will not acknowledge 4gb of ram. In system properties it will say something like 3.2gb or something. The motherboard however will recognize it and it wont hurt anything.

As for it being used, im actually really not sure. I know the system is capable at 32bit to acknolwedge its existance, as for it actually using it im not sure. I haven't really put 4gb in a system and registered performance.

But bottom line is, it wont hurt anything. It wont make your system slower or unstable.

But yeah, good system. As you can see my system is almost identical. Good stuff.

WRONG. Windows XP x86 or Vista x86 will NOT be able to use all 4GB. (Vista x86 after SP1 will "see" all 4GB but won't be able to use all 4GB). XP x64 and Vista x64 will be able to use all 4GB.

What is your point. The tone of your response was extremely unnecessary. Will it actually register all 4gb of ram and through bits at every mb? Probably not, I think his question was more, will it HURT my system as in should I just leave it out.

You really jumped quick on that acting like im a fool or something. Point is YES you can put all 4gb of ram in. Will it use it all? Probably not, as I said.

@OP:

Checkout:GUIDE: Overclocking On P35-DS3L v1.1]http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/forum2.php?config=tomshardwareus.inc&cat=29&post=245679&page=1&p=1&sondage=0&owntopic=3&trash=0&trash_post=0&print=0&numreponse=0"e_only=0&new=0&nojs=0]GUIDE: Overclocking On P35-DS3L v1.1 for more info regarding overclocking, RAM voltages (**you will need to increase voltages for that RAM),etc.

Sorry. But I have seen this misconception so many times its not even funny now. Sorry if I sounded too harsh. Vista/XP x64 will use all 4GB RAM (depending on what you do) BUT Vista/XP x86 will NOT be able to use 4GB completely.

Very good, isn't that what I said? 4gb of ram shows up in xp as 3.2 gb. How was that WRONG?

Anyway, like I said before.

The point I was trying to make was that XP has two/three versions. There is XP Home/Pro x86, which is not able to see all 4GB RAM, BUT XP Pro x64 can see all 4GB RAM.

What you said was which is false since XP x64 can use all 4GB. Hope that make sense  . Same goes to Vista. In these days and times some people (like me and a lot of CAD users) are quickly transferring to x64 OSes, meaning that not every one uses x86 OSes.

Settle down, settle down   Basically, I was asking the question more from the "will it hurt my system angle." But it was also good to find out more about Vista. Eventually, once sp1 comes out, I may upgrade.

You guys have definitely been more than helpful.