Hey, I just put that same system together. Cool. I know that this isn't what you asked about, but you should check out the price of an X2 processor at newegg. I think that they have one there for around $320, which is expensive, but it's the cheapest that I have seen for an X2. Ultrafractal is one of the few applications that is capable of taking advantage of multi-thread processing, which is why the X2s are attractive to me. They're socket 939 so I can try one later. I picked the ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe MB because it has 4 slots for RAM. It has slots for 2 video cards which is pretty much overkill, but I'm still glad that I have it. Flames are memory hogs. I don't know how much RAM that apo can address but I do know that UF can address 2 gigs, so I figure 2 for UF and 1 for the OS and other apps for a total of 3 would be about right. I have a 512 in there now but soon it will be 2 512s, then I'll add 2 1 gig sticks. Windows XP can see 3 gigs. I have heard that it can even take advantage of 4, but it will only show 3 in the system panel. From what I have been able to gather, fractals don't depend a lot on video cards (but I don't know anything about XD). They don't render in real time like games do. I picked the cheapest PCI express card that I could find that didn't share system memory, ASUS extreme AX700 LE. I think it was around $120. There are cheaper ones for around $50 but they use system memory. The system came together without a hitch. I was expecting it to be almost instantaneously, lightning fast for fractals, but no, it still takes a few seconds ;-) It is lightning fast compared to my Athlon 1700+. Like I said, the MB is overkill with the RAID controller and the other one that I don't even remember - ATA I think, and the 2 PCI express slots, but it does have those 4 slots for RAM and I can stuff an X2 processor in there in the future. I'm happy with it. It's even quieter than my old system and the case has fans all over it. Let me know what you end up with and what you think of it. Keith