wow good lord the replies are rolling in quick here. First off start by getting the 1gb kit instead of the 2gb kit. That alone will save you more money than decrease performance if you look it at like cost/performance kind of ratio. The reason lazerman says the FX-53 isn't needed is because there isn't an operating system or many programs out right now that take full advantage of the 64bit processing capabilities, but you know you'll be set for atleast 2 years with this computer. Especially if you do design work and whatnot, they'll start making those programs 64bit. You can save money simply by going to zipzoomfly.com where I linked you to the FX-53 .....get to the Athlon 64 section and click DESCENDING, you'll see FX-53 at the top cause it's the priciest. Go down until you find a cheaper price but make sure you look for socket 939 specifically.