Good price for Quad Core System?

[Smiley_lauf]

Thanks, Asha'man X for the suggestion.

LCD: I am happy to stick with 22" but with a good resolution though--any suggestions here?
Processor: I am new to this field, but do you have any specific suggestions? I saw some on Dell site with upt to 12MB of cache.
RAM: DDR2 or 3? 4G is what I was thinking of as well.
Hard Drive: Raptor, is is 15K RPM? or 7.5K? Size? Are there other less-costly alternative?
OS: I will be dual booting, because my applications are not available for linux; Vista 64?? My software license for these applications is for Win 32, will they work on Vista64?

I ask because I wish to take these specs to FTM later today to see if he could rig this machine for me, around the budget I have.

 

[PostmanPot]

Thanks, Asha'man X for the suggestion.

LCD: I am happy to stick with 22" but with a good resolution though--any suggestions here?
Processor: I am new to this field, but do you have any specific suggestions? I saw some on Dell site with upt to 12MB of cache.
RAM: DDR2 or 3? 4G is what I was thinking of as well.
Hard Drive: Raptor, is is 15K RPM? or 7.5K? Size? Are there other less-costly alternative?
OS: I will be dual booting, because my applications are not available for linux; Vista 64?? My software license for these applications is for Win 32, will they work on Vista64?

I ask because I wish to take these specs to FTM later today to see if he could rig this machine for me, around the budget I have.

Common 22" LCD monitors support a resolution of 1680 x 1050.

The CPU with 12MB cache is the Q9550. Goes for around R3000. Here's a good thread on Core2 Duo vs. Core2 Quad to help you decide on which kind of CPU you need.

Go for 4GB DDR2 - the price increase of DDR3 for the minor performance increase isn't worth it.

Not too sure about a Raptor and whether you'd need it or not.

If the programs are common they should work perfectly in Vista 64-bit with your current licence? Not 100% sure if there is a legality issue here...