Advice on RAM and Graphic card

Setup:

Motherboard: ABIT AV8 1.5 SOCKET 939 K8 MB AMD Athlon 64 (FX)
System Board
Processor: ATHLON 64 3500 AS 512KB CACHE 939-PIN (x86 Family 15
Model 7 Stepping)
Ram (x2): ALIENWARE 512MB DDR PC3200LL
Graphics: ATI RADEON 9550SE 128MB
OS: Windows XP Professional
Power Supply: ENERMAX EG465P-VE 24P ATX 1.3 460WATT POWER SUPPLY
Display: 19" CRT

Question 1:
I want to add some ram. Looking at getting 1GB sticks, and I want to start with two. Later I'll max it out.
I have four 184-pin DDR DIMM slots for Single/Dual Channel DDR 400/300/266 memory modules. Max expansion 4GB.
Reading in the mobo user man. I believe best way to go is a double rank in DIMM1 and DIMM2 and a single rank in DIMM3 and DIMM4, because if I use double rank in all four slots ram speed drops to 333.
BUT... What does double rank and single rank mean? Whats my best mode of attack?

Question 2:
I want a really good graphics card for some of the very new games, because its starting to be nasty sluggish.
I have five PCI slots, but it does not say in the mobo manual whether they are PCI Express or not. Just says PCI slots. Assuming not. What is the best graphics card I can get? And if I get it what size power supply do you recommend.

 

If you want 2gigs go with these.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820609058 on the budget. i used super tallent ram in a few rigs and works great. no errors or anything. ran it at 440mhz with no problems.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231032 nice ram for a little bit more.



now for your memory you wanna run dual channel. just stick the sticks in the same color memory slots. Just put them in the blue slots on your mobo. Dual channlel has 2 times the bandwith as if you were to run the gam in single channel.



now graphics. sadly you got AGP. dont feel bad im still pimping agp to "woot 6800 ultra" But there are new cards out for AGP that are pretty fast. hes the top 3

X1950pro

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814241041


7950GT

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143090

7900GS

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150174

 

Buying the cheapest and shittiest memory on newegg usually isn't a good idea. There's a good chance you'll have compatibility and stability issues. I would go for Corsair, OCZ, Crucial, etc. Go with a decent name brand.

Your power supply should be fine. The GPU series he recommended above are good.

 

Ok sounds good. Only prob is 7950GT is PCI express interface, but no big deal. Believe I'll go with the X1950 PRO. I'll look at some other ram. Thanks for the advice. Helped a lot.

 

Sorry thought i posted a AGP version.


AGP 7950GT

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150223

 

WTF!!!!! i didnt know they had a 7950 AGP!!!!!!!!!!!! thats really cool, had to say something. sorry to steal ur post lol

o yea, id go with the x1950 over the 7950, its a better value