When my Dad bought me a barebones system from TigerDirect, it came with hardware that was better than the desktop I currently had, but it wasn't the best you could buy, it was just wha I could afford to ask my Dad for. The total price turned out to be around $130-$140 with shipping and handling. It came with the following:

• PC Chips VIA KT 266A/8235 K7 Motherboard
• AMD Duron @ 1.8GHz w/ MassCool heatsink
• 1x Ultra 256MB PC2100
• Off-brand black mid-tower case

A good friend of mine from IRC, Rob (aka FireCat), sent me some case fans and a off-brand NVIDIA to make a complete system. Everything was 10x faster than my previous 500Mhz P3 (Coppermine) with only 256MB of PC100 SDRAM! Blendering was faster, compiling was faster, applications opened quicker and were more responsive than I was used to, and the over system was a huge step-up for me. As with any system, they should be upgraded to their maximum potential for the best experience with it. The current motherboard supports a maximum of 2GB PC2100 (2x 1GB). Its FSB is clocked @ a 266Mhz, which isn't desirable for a gaming system much less any system that handles heavy loads on all system components. Also, the fastest the AGP slot can run at is 4x; all current AGP video cards are meant to run at 8x for optimal performance, running slower is a bottleneck for the card and limits what the card can do. The current specs for my desktop are below:

• PC Chips VIA KT 266A/8235 K7 Motherboard
• AMD Duron @ 1.8GHz w/ MassCool heatsink
• Ultra 256MB PC2100
• Kingston 512MB PC2100
• 160GB Western Digital w/ 8MB cache
• ATi 9600 XT w/ 256MB NEW
• Creative SoundBlaster Live!
• 3-port FireWire 400 PCI card

I just upgraded my video card from a 9000 Pro to a Sapphire 9600 XT w/ 256MB because the fan on the 9000 was going out and I needed to buy a new card regardless of how simple it would have been to buy a new fan for it. The only problem with the new card is its capabilities are severely limited by the system its running in. Its a true DirectX 9 card that I am very pleased to have invested in; did I mention it was on sale from directron.com at killer price of $95.99! Directron has never let me down on the quality of the service they deliver, and since Houston is 2-3 hours from where I live, my orders usually arrive the day after I order them! The memory upgrade happened about 2 months ago when I first got my Nikon D50, to help with viewing and processing my photographs and believe it or not, 768MB isn't enough for editing photographs nor is it enough for handling some of the high-quality renders I do with Blender. To really have an enjoyable experience, imho you need 1GB or more. The next upgrade I'm planning is to replace 3 main components: the motherboard, processor and power supply. Below are the parts I have my eyes on:

• Abit Socket Model: NF7-S2G $55.00
• + AMD Sempron 2500+ $78.99
• Corsair XMS 1GB (2x 512MB) TwinX $109.99
• Cooler Master Real Power 450W RS-450-ACLX $59.99

I wont be able to afford all of this for a long time so the components are going to be bought as I get the money, the power supply being the first on my priority list. If you are still reading this, congrats on staying with me this long on my rant. Hopefully everything goes as planned and I can get all of my hardware upgraded, then again, shit happens. :-)