[Koodari]

Originally Posted by Eugene I went with the HX520 because I wanted as little clutter as possible. I'm only using 2 SATA power cables and one PCIe cable, so it's nice not having to find a corner to stick all the extra cables (floppy power, molex, PCIe, etc.)

I think I'll just try to find that corner. Shouldn't be that difficult in a non-spherical case.

I'd probably find the Antec Tri-Cool fans acceptably quiet on the low setting. I don't have a good source for pre-built inline fan speed adapters, though I guess you could just stick a resistor on it.

I'm seeing the adapters included with some fans like the Noctua PF-12.

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.

[Eugene]

Originally Posted by Koodari I think I'll just try to find that corner. Shouldn't be that difficult in a non-spherical case. I'm seeing the adapters included with some fans like the Noctua PF-12.

Those Noctua fans really good, but twice as expensive as Scythe S-FLEX fans from Directron ($12) or their even cheaper, and almost as good Slipstreams for $8.

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.

I'd definitely get at least one fan blowing in...the default config for the P180s have none as intakes. However if you end up with one of those vertical heatpipe coolers like mine, the components around the CPU socket area might create pockets of heat without adequate exhaust. The MOSFETS under the tiny heatsink in the top left corner of my mobo have gotten up to 90C when I was testing my overclocks.

[Koodari]

Originally Posted by Eugene I'd definitely get at least one fan blowing in...the default config for the P180s have none as intakes. However if you end up with one of those vertical heatpipe coolers like mine, the components around the CPU socket area might create pockets of heat without adequate exhaust. The MOSFETS under the tiny heatsink in the top left corner of my mobo have gotten up to 90C when I was testing my overclocks.

So I'd probably be fine without an outblowing fan for now, with the retail CPU cooler and pretty flat mobo.

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.

[PB PM]

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.

[Eugene]

Originally Posted by PB PM 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.

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.

[Luca]

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.

[PB PM]

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.

[Luca]

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.

[Eugene]

Originally Posted by Luca 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.

I was more concerned with the selection of an AM2+ board in general like the Asus A3M. I have no reason to believe the K10 architecture is anything but a giant turd for AMD, and K10.5 (Shanghai) is more of the same. My assumption is that 2008 through the first half of 2009 is going to be very bleak for AMD.

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

[PB PM]

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.

[Luca]

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.

[ezkcdude]

I'm going to build a Shuttle when I can find the time.

[Wyatt]

Originally Posted by PB PM 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.

The new 8800 GT was the first PCI-E 2.0 card, so yes, it does use it.

[PB PM]

Oh, my bad. I must have been thinking of the earlier models.