I've been having fun playing around with Civ City Rome despite a few problems -- I really just love city building games. Unfortunately I'm finding my machine doesn't quite have the horsepower it seems to need (ironic given that visually, it's no great shakes).

My current machine was a pretty nice rig when I bought it... back in 2003.  That may not be long ago in the "real world" but in gaming tech time it's practically ancient.  I've staved off the inevitable for a bit with a nice monitor upgrade and a video card upgrade a year or so ago, but it's clear to me that my core processor power is not holding up like it used to.

I think the biggest thing holding me back is only 1 Gig of RAM.  So I went to Fry's today to try and research what it would take to upgrade to 2 Gigs.  At first I think, this isn't so bad, heck, 4 Gigs of DDR is only like $400.  Then I realize my computer has RAMBUS.  Why I have this particularly abandoned variety of RAM is lost to the mists of time, but nevertheless, that's what I've got.  Turns out it is like $1200 for just 2 Gigs of RAMBUS memory.  Urk.

Well, that's a good chunk towards a new machine itself.  So I guess now I can start the research process of buying a new gaming rig that will be outdated as soon as I purchase it...