do you think that looks like a poor heatsink?



i've got an X-Fi on my wishlist, and i'll be buying it very soon. i'm definately an audiophile. plus, i've got really nice speakers, and from what i understand, if i want to do them justice, i really do need to get something better than onboard sound.

I have an AeroCool Xfire on my Athlon 64 X2 5200+. The only reason I did this, is that the stock HS/fan's screws that mount the fan to the HS are plastic, and eventually soften and come loose. It comes with Arctic Silver 5.

The Enzo is a very good cooler, the only drawback I see is that it's pretty loud when the fan's cranked up enough to match Ultra 120 Extreme performance. You're into audio so that might be an issue for you. OTOH, Newegg has the Tuniq currently on sale for $45.

They way I look at it even an expensive heatsink is a very small expenditure compared to the rest of a new system, so it doesn't make sense to me to spend $35 or $40 on crap when you can spend only a little more and get one of the best. Especially since unlike the cpu itself or the video card the heatsink should last through at least a couple upgrade cycles, maybe even more now that processors aren't getting significantly hotter with each generation anymore. I tend to go high-end with hardware that doesn't get rapidly obsolete, while settling for good value at a lower price point for stuff that'll be outdated soon.

Thus explaining why I've got the IFX heatsink and an MX Revolution mouse, but only a 8800GTS 320 video card. The first 2 items I expect to last for at least 3-5 years, the video will probably be replaced by this time next year.

are you familiar with magnetic barometric fans? the fan blade floats on a magnetic field, drastically reducing noise (17dBA at 1000RPM, 38dBA at 2400RPM), and supposedly doubling the life of the fan. newegg has them for only $7 each. i'm strongly considering replacing my stock case fans with these. not sure about using one as a heatsink fan - do you think the magnetic field could pose a threat to the CPU itself? i mean, any electric motor creates a magnetic field, so i don't see that it'd necessarily be any worse.

while they don't have the highest airflow available, my case is very well ventilated. no LEDs, and i'm okay with that. i think i'm going to do entirely custom case lighting, so that i can wire any lighting i have to an external rocker switch, and turn it off separately from the rest of the system.



i agree with that philosophy completely. when i bought my Dell, i purposely spent more money on the monitor and speakers than the system itself. both should last through at least another build (hopefully longer, especially for the speakers).

i really like my new case and plan to keep it for a long time. i'm also hoping my PSU will last for some time, especially considering that 700W is considerably more than i need right now (and since i don't plan on doing SLi or CrossFire, i'm hoping it'll remain above my needs for some time).

my only big regret with my last purchase is that i got XP home rather than pro. it does the trick for now, and it won't kill me to have an extra copy of windows.

next month i'm going to get a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer. the X-Fi processor is all i really care about -- i don't need or want an external controller, let alone "X-RAM" (which is used in games about about as frequently as a physics card... i.e., almost never). i might get it from Amazon, though, because i have a $75 gift certificate... still not sure. some of amazon's sellers have it for cheaper than newegg, but i'd need to evaluate shipping costs to get the lowest price. and if i get it from newegg, i'll probably spend my gift certificate on DVDs (Futurama). i also need a DVD decoder on this computer. anyone know of any that happen to be free (and worth using)?

i'll have this system paid off by march (to avoid finance charges). after that, i'm not sure if i'll put more money into new components immeidately. i'll be keeping an eye on VGAs. if i decide to get one, i'll probably be looking for PCIe 2.0 (thankfully the specs are both upward and downward compatible, but you don't get the double signal rate unless both are 2.0). so if i do go that route, i'll probably upgrade my MoBo shortly after -- that's the biggest reason i'm hesistating on getting a nice HSF; i'm not thrilled by the idea of an elaborate installation if there's a chance i'll be replacing the MB in a few months anyway. it's not a huge chance; the boards that support is are still very expensive -- but at least i could get a VGA and it'd be downward compatable.

to be sure, i'm not dissatisfied with my current MB in the least, and i'd recommend it to anyone if it's what they're looking for. but in addition to PCIe 2.0, i could also get on-board RAID support in an upgrade. i'd like to put my media files into a RAID 1 array. i'm not keen on using my external USB drive for regular backup - the connection is too slow for some of the things i do. maybe i'll look into a half TB internal drive soon (i've got about 400GB of media now).

though, i do have a general question about PCIe 2.0 that maybe someone can answer. let's say i did get a MB and a VGA that were both PCIe 2.0. if i plugged in another card that was PCIe 1.0 into the second 2.0 port, would it cause the VGA's signalling rate to drop? i'm just kind of curious.

Thanks for the link on those fans. That looks like the ticket to quiet things down. Right now, I'm using ball fans that are a bit loud. I'd lose some CFM, but I think it would be okay. I'm always looking to reduce fan noise. With so many in computers these days, they can get pretty loud. The GPU fan is always a problem.

PCIe versions are backward compatible. You can stick an older PCIe card in a slot that supports the 2.0 spec and the slot will fall back. You can stick a newer card in an older slot and the card falls back. The x16 slot is always on its own channel so it wouldn't be affected by any other PCIe slot. Your question would be irrelevant with SLI/Crossfire because the cards have to be identical anyway.

Happy new year, BTW

Hehe, ugh, alchohol and hang overs. I don't need no booze man...cuz I'm hooked on pain killers...just kidding

Ugh, Lian Li. The Alienware of cases. Overpriced horribly.

And the sound cards by Auzentech are dramatically better than any of the crap Creative tries to make you believe they offer. Cheaper, better.

I like that case. It's totally my style. I'd be willing to pay a little more for it. I use Lian-Li mobile hard drive racks. The quality is pretty good.

Hope things go well building your new system. I've been very happy with mine so far.

I use a Lian Li fulltower server case, with 15 drive bays. Other than more square holes in the motherboard mounting plane and NO labels there, it is well engineered.

Well, my final upgrade to this computer arrived: the second G.Skill 4 GB kit of 2 x 2 GB DDR2 667. Now all I have to do, is shut the system down, pull the box and swap out the Kingston for this, and I have 8 GB.

The hard part is getting to the back of the computer case to disconnect and re-connect things. The rest is easy.

First things first: a 20 fl. oz. cup of coffee!

Looks nice, GenBlood. Do let us know how that Phenom works out.

My final hardware upgrade on this one is done. I only consider mobo, cpu, and ram as upgrades. I am considering either the Q6600 or a Phenom for my next system.

I have all-in-one DVD/CD burners in both of my computers. No High Definition though. Never had good luck with DVDROM drives. Had 2, and both died an early death.