<p>ah
the joy of saying "***?"</p>
<p>do some research as i said anandtech.com is great. Then take a look at their forums and search around. I usually would know, but right now i am doing the opposite of you right now. I am buying a labtop, selling my desktop. So i havent really followed as i want something just to play cs on and do my school work. I would rather buy a desktop later, more as an entertainment center than gaming system, that is what my future xbox 360 will be for and my homemade lcd projector that will give me a 1080 hdtv picture nearly 10ft wide.</p>
<p>but the whole ddr3?
how come i havent even heard about it?
is it really fast? lol is it even for RAM like i think it is?</p>
<p>yes it is ram and it will be fast. imagine memory speeds on the low end at over 1 ghz. But like ddr2, this ram will need a new motherboard to run</p>
<p>Take pride in your system. Let's see your specs, people.</p>
<p>sony Vaio VGN FJ-170
....
piece of crap</p>
<p>I'd say consider going onto sites like TomsHardware.com and looking at benchmarks. Then, run over to pricewatch.com and see what fits into your price range.</p>
<p>If you buy pre-built (I'm assuming you are) from Alienware, then you shouldn't worry too much. Remember, however, not to skimp on the HD. People often load up their computers with screaming fast video cards and processors, then put in slow hard drives. Or slow RAM. Anything you put into your systems can be a bottleneck if you're not smart. </p>
<p>So be smart.</p>
<p>As far as the AMD vs. Intel debate goes, I think that right now Intel's got the upper hand in the super-high end market, but that you can find through benchmarks all over the internet that they're roughly comparable in most ranges.</p>
<p>Happy gaming!</p>
<p>hard drives are hardly a bottleneck for anything but gaming and servers</p>
<p>And since Hansen is interested in gaming...</p>
<p>Zing...!!!!</p>
<p>:)
gateway seems to have a really good deal right now
i think around 2.5k they have a real top of the line desktop with an HD LCD 24 inch!</p>