I think your major concern for fractal number crunching is going to be the "system" RAM and processor clock rate. I'm not sure that "video" RAM matters much unless you are also into gaming - like me b4 I rediscovered fractals! :-) Though Frederik recommends an accelerated video card, so maybe there's more to it. The SLI configuration is for using 2 video cards simultaneously to, again, enhance frame rate when playing pc games at high resolution. Sort of a RAID array-like setup, I think, like servers use. Ultrafractal can support dual-processor setups and a max of 2Gb of RAM in it's current version. Fast/high memory video cards are mainly intended for gaming to allow high screen resolutions without sacrificing frame-rate so that the movements on the screen are smooth and not jerky. Fractals involve a fairly static video display but are VERY processor intensive due to the incredible number of calculations involved in coloring each pixel and in rendering to disk of large sized files for printing. So, I think the things you want to focus on are raw processor speed like the 3.4GHz monsters and get yourself 2Gb of fast system RAM. Good luck - I'm jealous! lol Rick (moseying along at 2.53GHZ and 1GB RAM - lol)