Morning Professor.
Here's my take on Things.
Processor, I just recently went for a Higher clock speed core2 Duo processor (E6850 3.00Ghz) than the Quad Core (2.4Ghz) purely because the most (if not all) applications today (other than newest games) wont use the quad processor technology. and the E6850 @ 3.00Ghz will do a better job without
breaking out into a sweat. (While there are faster processors available in both varieties, Both of these are currently good value, while Intels
p
fights off AMD
().
While I generally agree with DJ, my experience in running multiple monitors (& multiple cards), hence multiple apps under XP, has seen all all 2gb of memory exhausted where apps shut down, and a example where a 2gb ram is installed and swap file switch off, will highlight this issue (swap file is only used when real physical memory runs out.)
Some older or poorly written apps (incredible charts sorry colin) often doesn't release memory or copoperate with other apps or XP for that matter to manage memory pools well, hence another reason for more memory.
Lastly on Ram, of the 4gb of quality ram (Kingston) and which is DDR2 @1066mhz speed, I can say a large portion (1.4gb) is reservered for system resource tasks when you run
multiple video cards & general misc motherboard system requirements
It would be cheaper to get a OLDER quad processor card and the Martrox at $50 is cheap, but you get what you pay for.. and if that one card fails you loose all monitors.
Cards also have come leaps n bounds, and today you can run dual or tripe DVI card each of them having 2 heads giving you (4 or 6 monitors) if your motherboard supports it. Preference is given to PCIE cards for best throughput & latest technology overall.
Also if you choose the Nvidia cards (called SLI)you can parallel them up to
combine your video processor power which your motherboard
must support.
There are great stands that support 6 monitors with flexijoints at $600 or you can build your own if your that way inclined.
Lastely your motherboard must support all the above and more, so choose wisely or can advise further. I use a higher end Gigabyte board.
Above is a short summary on such a long story, can flesh out more
Cheers
SevenFX