Veteran Member
Join Date: Jun 2004
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I was thinking of using the included case fan to blow inwards from the front, so it would put a little pressure in the case helping keep dust out, and would be located as deep in the case as possible for noise considerations. Do you know if that's a good idea or does the CPU really need a case fan next to it? The GPU cooler is dual slot, so it shouldn't put much additional heat on the CPU. |
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careful with axes
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Hillsborough, CA
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Veteran Member
Join Date: Jun 2004
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edit: doh. I misunderstood somehow and thought the case only comes with one Tricool, when it actually comes with three. I'm wondering if the speed adjustment on the bottom compartment fan is fixed so that the fan can easily be moved up front and still speed adjusted. Last edited by Koodari : 2008-01-28 at 11:35. |
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Sneaky Punk
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Just put together my Windows box yesterday.
Case: Antec Sonata III (500W Antec Earthwatts PSU). Very quiet, case, although it is a little tight inside. CPU: AMD Athlon X2 4800+ (65nm Brisbane version, Socket AM2) Motherboard: ASUS AM3. No, SLI or Crossfire support, but I got a Socket AM2+ board, since I might want upgrade to a Phenom CPU someday. Another reason was that it has a PCI-E 2.0 Slot, for when I can afford a better GPU. 2GB RAM (1GB x 2, for dual channel speed advantage) 320GB Western Digital SE16 7200rpm SATA2 (16MB cache) Nvidia (EVGA) 8600GT Superclocked 256MB VRAM Total cost, $634, with rebates for the RAM ($20) and GPU ($40) on the way. Overall very nice. Even though the 8600GT isn't super fast, its good enough for the games I like to play. Last edited by PB PM : 2008-02-14 at 17:02. |
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careful with axes
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Hillsborough, CA
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In general I advise against this. The chipmakers, boardmakers, etc. always change their roadmaps and by the time you usually get around to upgrading almost everything is antiquated.
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ಠ_ರೃ
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
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Same here. You're not losing anything by using PCIe 1.0. Even today's highest end cards really don't benefit from PCIe 2.0. By the time you get around to buying a video card that actually will make full use of your shiny PCIe 2.0 slot, the rest of your system will be old and decrepit.
Same goes for buying an SLI motherboard with one graphics card with the intention of upgrading later. Two GPUs are almost never faster than a single GPU that costs twice as much. By the time you get around to upgrading, you may as well just get a new GPU. Although the upgradability of a homebrew PC is nice, you do have to replace nearly every component every few years. Even components that are supposedly more future proof, like power supplies, eventually don't have the right connectors for modern components. |
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Sneaky Punk
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I am aware of that, guys its not like I don't know the sockets change just about every year or so. In any case, the board was on sale for $90, and it had everything I wanted, so I got it. Sure I could have got a crappy AM2E-VM, which had fewer USB ports for $65, but I didn't want to get a crappy board. Lets put it this way, the GPU was the most expensive part of this build. Thankfully, I didn't waste money on a board with SLI or cross fire, those boards start at over $150 and would have put me over budget.
As for PCI-E 2.0, that wasn't a real sale point to me, just a bonus. I want to upgrade to either a HD3870 or a 8800GT by the end of summer and I know neither uses PCI-E 2.0, well the HD3870 does, but doesn't take advantage of the bandwidth. Since PCI-E 3.0 isn't due till 2010-2011, I'm not worried about it going out of date just yet. Last edited by PB PM : 2008-02-15 at 02:40. |
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ಠ_ರೃ
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
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Oh, okay. The way you said it implied that PCIe 2.0 was a big selling point for you, and both Eugene and I assumed you had perhaps spent a lot extra just for that feature.
It doesn't hurt to have it, and actually, it's probably harder to find a board without it these days than with it. |
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careful with axes
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Hillsborough, CA
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However I will admit the difference between AMD and Intel in budget oriented systems is mostly in overclocking potential. The X2 4800+ (2.5 GHz) will outperform the similarly priced E2180 (2 GHz) at stock speeds for nearly everything by a decent margin. For overclockers like me, the E2180 is perfectly capable of being OC'd to 3.4+ GHz while the X2 4800+ would struggle to reach 3 GHz. Summary: Non-OCer budget build --> AMD All other build categories --> Intel |
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Sneaky Punk
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I wasn't going out of my way to get a AM2+ board, so I understand. I don't see much coming from the K10 either, but there are enough performance improvements to make it worth while when prices come down after the next generation is released.
Not big on OCing, I just want a nice stable system the does what I need, mainly for playing some games, and surfing the web. |
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ಠ_ರೃ
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
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I'm in the same situation as PB PM. In fact, when I built my PC recently, I got the exact same processor you mentioned, Eugene - the X2 4800+. For $85, it's a great deal. By the time I feel like upgrading, I'll just see how the world of desktop processors has changed.
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Veteran Member
Join Date: Jan 2005
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I'm going to build a Shuttle when I can find the time.
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Veteran Member
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Near Indianapolis
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Sneaky Punk
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Oh, my bad. I must have been thinking of the earlier models.
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