Alright, so my last post I put forth a wish list on upgrades.  My research has forced me to alter it, a lot, and not necessarily in a good way.  My previous wish list read as follows:

 2 GB DDR RAM

GForce 8800

250 GB SATA Hard Drive 

Windows Vista.

 

 Unfortunately for me, some beginning research has indicated that some of those components require others, and that those other components, a really expensive.  Here's the line, with Tiger Direct linkage.

Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition NVIDIA Socket AM2 ATX Motherboard and an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ 2.40GHz OEM Processor
OCZ Dual Channel XTC 2048MB PC5400 DDR2 667MHz Gamer Memory (2 x 1024MB)
PNY GeForce 8800 GTS / 320MB GDDR3 / SLI Ready / PCI Express / DL Dual DVI / HDTV / Video Card
Sceptre X9g-NagaV / 19" / 8ms / 800:1 / SXGA 1280 x 1024 / DVI-VGA / Black / LCD Monitor
Windows Vista Business - Complete
Seagate / Barracuda 7200.10 / 250GB / 7200 / 16MB / Serial ATA-300 / OEM / Hard Drive

 Other than the hard drive, all the other items are on the "need" portion of the list.  I'm looking at getting two orders of the RAM, which would stick me at 4 GB RAM instead of 3 GB.  The cost is not particularly fun, around $2000.  Needless to say, that's not really in my pocketbook right now.

Theoretically, as a teacher I will get a partial discount on computer equipment.  Theory and practice may be some distance from one another, so I'll have to wait and find out what kind of benefits I may get.  I have a suspicion that the discounts will only apply to a new, complete machine.

 By the time that I manage to get that information, and that kind of money, I'll have to go back through the hardware lists and re-select what I will obtain.  It may not be all that different, or it may be so large a difference that I'll be looking at quad-core technology.  Maybe the new DirectX 10 Radeon cards will make GeForce look silly and I'll switch my eyes back to them.  The only way to find out, is to wait and see.  There is no quick or partial upgrade coming with my taxes.  I'm looking at building a fresh machine.  For the new video card, I need a DVI monitor, so I may as well spend the extra bit of coin, and obtain a fresh case.  Transfer over my DVD-burner and I'll survive well enough, but I need the $2k+ in the first place.

 And this, my friends, is why I'm only an occasional gamer.  The daunting task of upgrading in order to keep up to snuff in order to handle the newest games is an incredible drain on funds.  Ah well, time to push it off again a little while longer...