RIP to my faithful 512MB RAM. Time for an upgrade I guess. Any recommendations?

Great thread! I went with the Athlon and haven't looked back. Great bang for the buck.

Can someone clarify The stock cooler is fine but an aftermarket one runs much quieter.?

Please don't flame me but Make sure your case has at least one intake and one exhaust fan.

I dealt with this last week. I built mine for under $500 and it runs everything I throw at it.

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Linux user #482719 | Mandrake 8.2

Great thread! Get a name brand power supply — Antec or Enermax. The cheap ones are dangerous.

I'm new to this... I had the same issue and it turned out to be a bad power supply. Try swapping it out.

Could not agree more. Make sure you have enough airflow in your case. Overheating can cause all sorts of weird problems.

Here's what worked for me: Don't mix RAM brands if you can help it. It causes weird stability issues.