Ok, I think I've got my choice of motherboard narrowed down to 3...- ASUS Maximus Formula Special Edition... Seems to be the winner on tomshardware at stock clockspeed, but clearly loses at max overclocking...- Giga-byte X38-DQ6.. Not the best at stock speeds, but clear winner at most overclocked test.. Supports DDR2 ram only..- Giga-byte X36T-DQ6.. Same as above, except with DDR3 RAM support...I'm looking to put water-cooling on it and overclocking, so I'm leaning towards the Giga-bytes (obviously), which leads me to another question....I'm not sure yet if I'm going to do 2GB or 4GB ram, but... Would it be more worthwhile for me to get the DDR3 or DDR2 ram? (which would determine which of the 2 Giga-byte motherboards to get, obviously... :()And, is Corsair still the best choice in RAM, either the DDR2 or DDR3?

Not sure about mobos...I think the X38 supports dx10.1 though, if that interests youRAM-wise..... unless you are doing 64-but vista, you wont want more than 2GB, Vista x86 (32bit) wont use more than 2, or 3.....I'd stick with DDR2 personally...

Go DDR2 for sure - essentally the same performance and a heck of a lot cheaper. DDR2 will be around for long enough that you care about should you wish to upgrade RAM later in future.Re 2 or 4GB. 2GB is plenty for XP. 4GB is good for Vista, but only if you get Vista 64, otherwise the last gig won't be seen/used. 3GB is also a possibility and you will still get full dual channel performance if you get 2x1GB and 2x512MB matched pairs. That's what I use.Gary

Speaking from experience here, and repeating what has been said, stick with DDR2.I did nothing but throw money away building my current rig with DDR3. My fault for wanting to have the latest and greatest when building a new rig. I haven't gained any performance advantage what so ever with DDR3. However, it did lighten my wallet to the sum of $1200.

Did I waste money in investing in an additional 2gig of DDR2-800 (PC2-6400) ram to my current system that came with 2 gig of the same ram? I'm running WinXP only and FSX. Will I see any improvement in FPS with the additional 2 gig of ram to my current system?jack

>Did I waste money in investing in an additional 2gig of>DDR2-800 (PC2-6400) ram to my current system that came with 2>gig of the same ram? I'm running WinXP only and FSX. Will I>see any improvement in FPS with the additional 2 gig of ram to>my current system?>>jackForgot to give system specs:6600 core duo, X1600/1650 ATI graphics card, 2 gig DDR2-800 ram

Windows XP 32 will only see 3.25GB RAM at most, so 750MB of the RAM you purchased won't be used. You need a 64 bit OS to use the full amount.Re FPS improvement in FSX, I'm afraid to say that upgrading from 2GB to 4GB will make neglible improvement in FSX performance. Certainly it will cache better in memory, so if you reload a flight or aircraft it will be a bit snappier, but your end FPS will be about the same.On my system with 3GB and Windows XP, I need to have a lot of applications open and windows running in addition FSX to push physical memory use above 2GB. But I bought the extra 1GB for when I upgrade to Vista (this week in fact), to account for the increase memory overhead that Vista has, especially in Aero mode.Gary

Ok, I think my decision is pretty much made.... The Gigabyte X38-DQ6 with DDR2 RAM...Might have to come back here when I start investigating video cards soon......Thanks all :)