BTW: Get RAM. Get more RAM. And when you're done, get even more. These days, it is the single most important item for speed. If you go and build it yourself, look for things like RPMs, Buffer, and seek time for hard drives. CD-ROMs (better yet, CD burners or ... drool DVD burners) should have ways to prevent buffer overruns. 16x writing or better is suggested. Get a video card with a lot of on-board RAM. Personally, I didn't like the ATI cards as much. Have fun!