Spring RTS Engine

As many of you prolly know by now, I am a certified tech, but I'm also quite rusty being that I can never seem to find any decent IT/repair Jobs around town, other than my side business (which is actually doing quite well).

Anyway, all that to say... I'm seriously considering getting a 9600 black quad core Phenom... Here are the things i need to know.

What Ram to buy.
Decent motherboards (I love MSI and Gigabyte... Preferably a Gigabyte, and microatx is absolutely fine)

The phenom I can get for right around 200 bucks or so.

I would like to spend less than 350 or at max, 400 including the 200 for the cpu.

Halp?

BTW all my shit is IDE, so I do need 2 chains if possible, however I can survive with 1 chain if need be.


Also... COnsidering the fact that I'm using xp pro 32bit... Is there any reason for even owning a quad core? Cuase I can get a Athlon 64bit x2 6000 + board for about $220. SO whould would be the wise course of action at this very moment?

I've updated my Gentoo box with a new MB and AMD
CPU ...

I got a MSI K9A2 Platinum and a AMD Phenom 9500.
I chosen Kingston 1GB DDR2 800 (4 pcs)

I update the MB with the latest Bios .. So far, I've
not had any issues ... other then having issues
with Spring not working properly .... ( not loading jpg images)

I had a Sapphire 3850, but it had a melt down after
10 minutes ...

I got a replacement ... card .. but I'm too lazy to
install it ..

I replaced it with a Nvidia 7600 I had hanging around ..

Thinking about getting a HIS 3870 X2, but I would need
a full tower and a bigger wattage PSU ..

It was pricey for all that new hardware ... but I like new
stuff ... :)

Dont proc! Attack more!

Sorry. >_>

porc even...