Adventures in Computing - Part 2

I decided to upgrade my desktop.  Originally I had thought I'd just dual boot it, keeping Windows 7 on it as is and just adding Ubuntu 10.10.  The thought also crossed my mind to dual boot Linux with Windows Server 2008 R2, but then quickly realized this required a 64bit machine which I unfortunately did not have.  So back to plan A of Windows 7 and Linux.  During the installation process of Ubuntu, however, I realized just how bad my video card was.  I had known it was on its last leg, but I didn't realize that it was basically dead and just on life support.  This realization came to me when I noticed that I was unable to read the installation instructions for Linux.  So... onward and upward!

New plan.

Now I knew I needed to buy a new video card.  If I was going to do that, I might as well upgrade my machine a bit more to also support Windows Server 2008 R2 like I had wanted.  Okay... next hurdle is to figure out what hardware is needed.  I'm no hardware person by any means.  All I know is that I need a motherboard and processor to support 64bit, new RAM, and a video card that actually works.  Thankfully I have amazing friends who do know lots about hardware.  I get some great advice and help picking out the following components from NewEgg.com:

• MSI 870-G45 AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard
• AMD Sempron 140 Sargas 2.7GHz Socket AM3 45W Single-Core Processor SDX140HBGQBOX
• Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT25664BA1067
• GIGABYTE GV-R435OC-512I Radeon HD 4350 512MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Low Profile Ready

With overnight shipping (cause I needed it snappy to get the ball rolling on my project), it came to about $200.  Not bad at all!  And I get to keep my desktop alive!