I've just about settled on a Digital Storm PC. After reading up on six different boutique PC makers and visiting their web sites, I'm leaning in that direction. Here's what I priced out:

Cooler Master HAF 922 full tower case
Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz (overclocked to 3.4 by DS)
XFX X58 3X SLI INTEL X58 Chipset (supports Triple SLI or Crossfire)
3GB DDR3 1333MHz Digital Storm RAM certified by Mushkin
750 Watt Digital Storm Dual SLI Compatible PSU
1x500MB Western Digital HD w/32MB Cache, 7200rpm (SATA)
DVDR/RW/CD-R/RW DVDWriter 20X/CD-Writer 48X (Lightscribe Edition)
1 X Nvidia Geforce GTX 285 1GB (with PhysX Technology)
Razor Barracuda AC-1 Sound Card
Stage 2 Cooler Master High Performance Cooler
Blue internal chassis lighting system
Microsoft Multimedia Desktop Keyboard 3.0 with MS Optical mouse
3 Years Platinum Care Extended Parts and Labor Warranty
Lifetime U.S.-based technical support by in-house technicians
Lifetime labor free upgrades for components purchased from Digital Storm
Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit)
Free shipping
Price: $2,142

I'm no expert but the price seems fair. My question is can I get buy with this machine for games with only 3GB of RAM? What does Win 7 and most current games require? RAM comes in batches of 3GB, so 6GB is my alternative unless I plan to buy and install additional RAM on my own. 6GB would jump the price by $117. I have no idea if it's worth it. I did read an article somewhere that said there arent' any games or operating systems for games that can or will make use of 6GB. My current P4 with XP3 has only 2GB and I'm running Black Shark pretty damn good. I figure with Win 7 instead of XP, another gig should be sufficient. But I don't know. Any advice would be appreciated.

if you're getting 64bit OS then might as well get 6gigs; although you'll be lucky if most programs use 3gigs. Either way seems like a pretty sweet system for the price; and you could always get another 3GB stick later down the road. Or you can use the extra RAM to make a RAM-drive. Bottom line you probably won't notice a difference between 3 or 6 until games start better utilizing it IMO.

Okay, so you're saying I really don't need 6gig right away. Thanks for the advice.

I doubt you would ever use more than 3 anyway unless you are a huge multi-tasker or use Photoshop and do a lot of video encoding.

But I have two Gb on my rig and it idles at 30 to 40 percent RAM usage all the time with Win 7 Pro 32bit.

I like those specs. I think I would not buy a new computer with out at least a 1Tb hard drive though. Or at least a second hard drive for storage of data and music. A built in drive is ten times faster than a USB drive.

The one thing to keep in mind with Win 7 (and Vista before it), is that it will build up a 'system cache' using RAM that it uses to load various items dynamically to help improve performance.

For example, my laptop with 3GB Ram on Vista show only 17mb free due to the OS using available RAM as 'cache'.

my .02

This is becoming increasingly complicated. I think I should go for the 6gig and eat the additional $117, just so I don't have to think about it. I don't need a bigger HD because I don't really keep pics or download music. Besides, I'm keeping my trusty Pentium 4, Win XP3 for legacy games Win 7 might not run. My P4 has dual hard drives, so plenty of space all round.

Thanks to all for the advice.

Thats seems to be a bit of cash IMO. Are you against building your own system? (Its really quite easy) and will save much money. For under 2grand you could get an i7 920 system with the same case and a ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 LGA 1366 Intel X58 Motherboard, Thow in amn OEM edition of W7 Home Premium, a GOOD 850w Antec Power Supply, 6GB of Mushkin DDR3 1333 RAM, a 300GB 10kRPM Velociraptor AND a 1.5TB 7200RPM drive for storage, one of the new 5750x2 or a 5780 video card... skip the soundcard you dont need it.

I originally went the "botique PC vendor" route. Not I just throw my own kit together. Its cheaper, you get exactly what you want and you learn a thing or two in the process. Cases are built now so cable management is easy.

For a PC over 2K, you should have

more than 3GB of memory,
bigger PSU,
bigger HD,
blu-ray reader at least,
newer and faster videocard,
better sound card,
Win7Pro, etc...

I think you can to better.

Do you need 6GB of ram right now? Nope. Will you? Yep.

XFX mobo? Concerns me they mention the x58 chipset (that's good) but not the motherboard model.

The next gen NVIDIA cards will be out in a few months. Maybe several weeks depending on whose rumors are true. Don't spring for a bigtime video card right now. ATIs 5870 prices have gone up because of the demand > supply. Got a current card that would work or does DS offer a real basic card? Go that way and save the $375 USD for the next gen NVIDIA or the price drop on the 5870 (or an x2 successor).

2 things are big in my opinion... the Motherboard and the PSU. I will never skimp on teh PSU. I only use PC Power and Cooling PSU now and have not been dissapointed. Early on I would throw in cheap PSUs and they do cause issues. Never skimp on quality in that dept. Guod makes a very valid point on the motherboard. You dininately need more info on that. These vendors will throw in cheap where they can all teh while wowing you with the newest chip.

I consider chips expendable. I would never buy the abosulte fastest thing Intel has - as if you wait 6 months you'll save 70%. I feel that its importatnt to gear teh machine to teh game(s) you play and plan to play.

I am running an AMD 965 with 8gb of RAM. Sure teh top of teh line AMD dies not show the same stellar numbers as the top of teh line Intel but its also 100's of dollars cheaper and it still powers thorough everything I have without a hitch. One reason I like AMD for at moment is that you dont have to change motehrboards evertime there is a chip upgrade. That gets a bit tiring with Intel.

You can get a screaming system with an I5, low i7 or AMD 955/965 for under 1000bucks. And aside from benchmark scores you would be hard pressed to tell teh difference. They are all rockin fast.

If I HAD to spend $2000 though I woulds still build the same system and invest in a really nice big monitor or monitors.