electroglyph, i 'll answer your question first. My current operating system is win 98SE, AMD 1800+, 512mb ddr ram, not sure of the motherboard, 128mb 9600 radeon video card. If i can i want to only change the motherboard and chip for now. Later on mother dear will help me upgrade other things if i need them. Operating system is next on the list followed by a harddrive. I can get an AMD 3000 chip & mobo for nearly $400 but with some shopping around and double talking a sales person i can get the Pentium 4 2.8ghz chip and mobo for $350.00. Now that i know more about the AMD chips i can work out which way to go. Bryster i'll talk to my mother for you, she'll be in your neck of the woods at christmas time. You be a good boy between now and christmas and santa might give you that ram stick ;)