I am getting ready to a build a mach 3 only computer.  i will be running windows xp pro as i have that available.  my machine is built and running but my current computer keeps hanging up, so i want something new that i can start fresh with.   pretty much all the mother boards now have on board video, is it necessary to still run a seperate video card?  right now i'm thinking that i want an intel chip.  is there any benefit to running a dual core?  also with ram being so cheap now and most boards capable of running 8 gigs of ram is there a reason to run so much?  running the parallel port is a really basic function that can be handled in dos, so it really looks like there doesn't need to be a bunch of ram needed.  i was planning on running two gigs as i think thats the smallest i can get right now.  again looking for ideas here and am looking forward to seeing the responses.

XP has a 4Gig memory limit so no point in using more and 2Gig will be more than enough..
Onboard video tends not to be such a problem in the latest systems but still preferable to have separate.

Hood