which is better to get, a ddr2 mobo or a ddr3 mobo. also, what's the 1:1 fsb ratio thing, i never overclocked before.

DDR3 MOBO, and d0ont overclock until you meet cooling requirements

Well, depends on what you consider cheap....to fill 4 slots with 4GB of memory each will cost you ~$1,000 or more.
If gaming is your thing, then you're much better off dropping your cash on the best video card you can afford.
If future-proofing is your thing, then wait 2-3 months for the Nehalem processor to come out, then you'll be king of the world and get hot chicks.

But at any rate, assuming you can afford to get 16GB RAM installed (I know I can't ) it's still not a good idea because A) It will put an insane load on your memory controller and B) you'll probably never use even a quarter of it, so you'd be wasting not just a lot of money, but also system resources (I feel sorry for your PSU!) and also C) If you ever decide to overclock with this rig, having four 4GB sticks will handicap you...

I found out that newegg.com has some 16b RAM kits for $1049 USD!!! D@mn, that's a lot of money. Gigabyte and some ECS boards support 16gb, but wasn't tested by the manufacturer themselves. I would imagine small and medium businesses would need the 16gb for their self-built servers, or someone who has several virtual machines and wants to give 2 or 3 gigs of ram to each one. Right now, i don't know of any other application that supports 16gb, so i guess it's wasted ram

Lucky for me, i'm not even considering 16gb , and even my future high end gaming rig won't have any more than 8gb.

$1049 ??jeepers.give me alot of alcohol and drug me against my will,and then give me my bank card.Thats the only way Ill buy 16gb.
I think Ill wait for the future
16gb to do what with
anyways good info.

Ive been in the trade for a long time and never bothered to overclock.wonder why, guess I just buy new cpu's and RAM on the companies expense...Im so wrong

Intel QX6850
4G Corsair DDR3 ram
Asus P5E3
Dual BFG 8800 OC with SLI
2 WD 500G 7200RPM SATA HDD
1kilowatt PSU
and enough fans to make it fly

everything upgradable to 64bit and i can go up to 8G of ram

There is your future proofing. that computer will last me till i die

well i m use 521 ram on a single motherboard
so why not u

yes ofcourse why not...u can dude

There is a BIG difference between 512Mb and 16Gigs of ram.

can any one else understand what this guy is saying?

English Man!!!! Use English!!

I run 36 gb on my system