I noticed that the Ottawa Public Library has a bunch of these available for people to borrow. There's probably others doing that as well.

That's one way to keep the impact low!

I'm aiming for an all purpose system that is quieter than average but not neccesarily silent. I'll see how it sounds with the stock coolers before looking at spending more on quieter solutions. CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Dual Core Processor AM2 2.7GHZ 2X512KB 65W 65NM Retail Box $107.99 MB: ASUS M2...

So to update my question: I believe with an AMD 5200+ I'd want PC2-6400 RAM, is that correct? Or do I want the PC2-5300 stuff? Assuming I don't intend to overclock, undervolt, etc., does it really matter what RAM I buy? Like, on the website I'm looking at, I see: G.Skill Extreme F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ 4G...

Is there a difference from a power consumption and/or cooling perspective whether RAM is in the form of 2x2GB or 4x1GB?

Which would you go with?

Edit: Sorry about the book. I've extracted my most pressing questions to the top if you don't feel like reading the whole thing. Motherboard: Are there any pros and cons I should be aware of for ATX vs. mATX other than the obvious increased expandability of ATX and option for smaller cases with mATX...