as an fyi on the vid cards, i'm currently running DS on a duron 700 w/ an ATI all-in-wonder pro & 512 mb, shich seems to work just fine. i think i paid $200 cash for my vid card 3 yrs back. i just recently (as of about 3-4 mos. ago) paid the same for an ATI 8500DV. the ati 7000 and higher cards cost more but seem more geared towards the gaming end of things - if that's what your interested in. a new(er) system sounds like a better choice if you plan to do much in the way of graphics and such.