Building a new computar

[Gen.Ben]

But that's the thing, unless its for a CPU heatsink, I don't see the need for such fast fan.

[Clay Pigeon]

[quote="Gen.Ben";p="74668"]But that's the thing, unless its for a CPU heatsink, I don't see the need for such fast fan.[/quote] Well it is on a thermalright cpu heatsink... Its the SI-128 Only the ultra 120 is ranked higher at overclockers.com

http://www.overclockers.com/articles373/p4sum.asp

[Gen.Ben]

Well what I meant by that is that Frag said he is getting the Zalman heatsink, which has a fan on it already.

So the only other fans could be for his case, which you don't need fast ones for.

[FragFailure]

The power supply I am not going to cheap out on. It's one of the things I am revisiting right now. I'm not 100% convinced that I am going the right route with it.

I am switching to a gigabyte board. The memory is still up in the air. If I see better reviews on the 1066 over the 800, then I will go that route when the time comes. Based on reading the other topic on 4GB memory. That's already something that's changing down to 2GB.

I don't have any current plan on doing any major overclocking. I'm looking at a 3.0 duo proc. I've been pretty good to my rigs. I still have a functioning nine year old rig and my current four year old one. The risk/reward of overclocking has to balance onto the reward side. I'm not looking at burning out the board in a year, even though it "can" happen. I'm looking at reducing the "risk" of it.

Questions to discuss:

1. Is onboard 1394 worth the extra cost? Also if so, at what cost?

2. I've seen the SLI argument already.

3. Video Card or Memory Fans or upgrades, Worth it?

4. I'm pretty sure on this one, but discuss anyways. Buying your own thermal compound rather than using any stock one.

5. Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80557E6850 - Retail

vs.

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8400 - Retail

Which is better?

[Simple]

I see crucial memory on sale all the time for 39.00 for 2GB or 4GB for around 100.00.

I myself am looking at changing out my VC fans with the Thermaltake fans. The cards seem to Idle at around 45-55C. I have read to many reviews and forums on them to find out whats best and that seems to be the norm for them. If I don't do the fans I will probably turn to the watercooling. I have the supercloak models of the 8800GT's. I hooked up my sons external HDD and loaded up wow with nothing overcloaked, but the factory cloaking on the VC's and with everything on full I'm pulling a average of 150FPS. I know I can cloak the Q6600 go to about 3.3-3.5Ghz if I want to, but there is no need for it.

I would go with the E8400 as it's the 45nm version of the E6850. They say they run cooler and use less power.

Artic Silver5 is a good compound to go with. It's not that expensive and works alot better then the crap they put on there.

As for the 1394 most boards have atleast one or atleast one on the board that will pluggin to your front inputs/top.