TP3-550

[Silk_the_Absent1]

I have a TP3-550 that Antec sent me after the second TPII-480 (first replacement) died that I'd had sitting, for use as a spare. As most of you know, I lost pretty much everything to a lightning strike hitting my house (for those who don't go to the general area, the dead list is here (http://jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4919)), so I'm having to rebuild. I'm currently looking at a Phenom X3 8750 Black Edition, and haven't decided on a motherboard, memory, a hard drive, or a video card yet (but I am somewhat considering a 4850 or something else in that price range). If anyone has any suggestions on what I should look at, component-wise, please let me know. I haven't really kept up with newer hardware, so I'm a bit overwhelmed here.

Now then, is the TP3-550 going to be good enough for a mid-range system? I mean in terms of stable output and reliability. I loved my Corsair, but I can't afford to replace it now, as a lot of the money I will be getting from homeowners insurance will have to go into car repairs, and not into my computer.

-Adam

[Oklahoma Wolf]

It should be enough. Not my favorite PSU out there, but it should do.

[Silk_the_Absent1]

Thanks Wolf. Hopefully it won't blow, but with my luck, it probably will.



I'm kind of at the point of wondering why I buy quality parts anymore, when everything I touch turns to shit. I mean, I buy an Antec because everyone told me (and everything I read in my own research agreed at the time) that Antec meant quality. That unit was a TPII-480, which of course died. The replacement TPII-480 Blue died as well. They sent me this TP3-550, but by then I had bought the Corsair, in the hopes of having a quality unit so my system would be fine. Then my house gets hit by lightning.

Lightning? What are the friggen odds of a direct friggen strike? I swear, I must have been goddamn Rasputin in a previous life, as bad as my luck is. It really does feel like punishment.

Ugh.



-Adam

[Silk_the_Absent1]

I feel like I should apologize for that post. I'm really frustrated and not dealing with it well. I've got literally 5 mouth ulcers from all of the stress throwing my thyroid off (yet another of my health issues), which is making me somewhat short-tempered. It was wrong for me to vent it to you guys. Please accept my apology, particularly OKW.

-Adam

[Oklahoma Wolf]

Heh - I imagine if lightning blasted my house, I'd be using up my extensive lexicon of cuss words myself ;)

[Silk_the_Absent1]

Thanks Wolf. After all the excitement recently, my nerves are shot. It's no excuse for my behavior in a public board, but maybe some explanation.

That said, I was just browsing on Newegg, and saw this Biostar (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138128) listed. It looks good, spec-wise, and I was looking at the combo deals and saw it bundled with a Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition for $250. That comes out to $16 more than the same board with the Phenom X3 8750 Black Edition, so I am thinking that comes out to a better deal. I am worried that the Antec won't be up to the power increase though, so any guidance would be appreciated.

Also, is there a noticeable performance difference between DDR2 800 and DDR2 1066? With the price difference as big as it is, and my need to keep this rebuild/build as reasonable as I can, I don't want to spend more for something I won't see.

-Adam

[spursindonesia]

..............

Also, is there a noticeable performance difference between DDR2 800 and DDR2 1066? With the price difference as big as it is, and my need to keep this rebuild/build as reasonable as I can, I don't want to spend more for something I won't see.

-Adam

Not much of performance difference in default condition, especially in AMD K8 and up platform, unless you do OCing. If you go AMD's way, i suggest buying the cheapest dualcore you can get for the time being, because Deneb is on the horizon -as long as your planned MoBo supports it. I've heard good news about this new AMD baby recently, better IPC and clockability.

[Silk_the_Absent1]

Hmm, well it's $157 with a 5400+ Black Edition, so I may go with that.

-Adam

[Silk_the_Absent1]

Regarding a hard drive, I am not sure which I want to get. I am torn between a Seagate 7200.11 and a WD Caviar Black edition. Looking in the 750GB range. I've been looking for some direct comparisons, but they seem to be lacking. Anyone have any suggestions?

-Adam

[jonnyGURU]

Heh - I imagine if lightning blasted my house, I'd be using up my extensive lexicon of cuss words myself ;)

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDArticles&op=Story&ndar_id=6 ;)

[Silk_the_Absent1]

In my case, everything was on surge protectors, including the phone lines (after they entered the house) and modem. The problem was with the house's grounding. When Amrep (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,913701,00.html) founded Rio Rancho, the largest inhabited place in the county had maybe a few hundred people, and Amrep was able to write their own building codes (and they even skimped on those...). And, since they were both the land-sellers and the home-builders, they could get away with whatever they wanted. Back then, houses were supposed to have a ground to the plumbing *or* driven (a pair of copper ground rods driven 8 feet down into the ground), Amrep did neither. So, when the house was hit, it went through everything, instead of grounding out.

When the electrician was here, we had them put in both of the above mentioned grounds, which is code for new construction.

Actually, if you want to see something a lot of us call Rio Rancho: The Movie, check out Glengarry Glen Ross.

-Adam

[rip97000]

I spend very little time outside and certainly NOT in the big two story shed with the metal roof.

so your new shed will be 2 stories also?:D

[Oklahoma Wolf]

Actually, if you want to see something a lot of us call Rio Rancho: The Movie, check out Glengarry Glen Ross.

That movie made me depressed the first time I saw it, because I was an insurance salesman at the time. Now, it's an awesome movie because I got out of that business before I went crazy. Or... did I? :D

[Silk_the_Absent1]

Eh, there are certain fields one *has* to be crazy to work in. I work with people with developmental disabilities for one job, and with children with behavioral disorders for my second job. Doing these, I've been bodily thrown across rooms, had human bites (which absolutely suck, by the way), had hair pulled out (really sucks when you have a sensitive scar from cancer surgery going nearly halfway around the back of your head), etc. I've been doing this since 2001. Still though, it's a good feeling when you work with someone toward a goal and they achieve it.

Ahh well, anyone have any input on the hard drives I mentioned?

-Adam

[Oklahoma Wolf]

My 500GB is a 7200.11 - I like it. Especially after I upgraded the firmware to enable the whole 32MB cache ;)

[Silk_the_Absent1]

Yeah, I think I'll go with the 7200.11 (unless there is a server version of it, I'd pay a little extra for peace of mind), it'll save me $30 on the hard drive vs. the WD Caviar Black. Thinking I'll go with DDR2 1066, in case I go with a Deneb when they come out. I can't really see Biostar not putting out a new bios for that board, they are usually pretty good on bios releases.

Anyone know who's good on warranties for ATI?

-Adam

[Silk_the_Absent1]

So here's what I am looking at so far:

CPU: X2 5400+ Black Edition (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103289)

Mobo: BIOSTAR TFORCE TA790GX A2+ (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138128)

Memory: 2*2GB DDR2 1066 (undecided)

Video card: 4850 (undecided)

Hard drive: 750GB Barracuda 7200.11 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148298)

Any suggestions on the two undecided parts?

Oh, can a mod rename this to Silk's rebuild, or something, since that's the route it's taken.

-Adam

[dangman4ever]

I'm not 100% sure whether or not AMD CPUs benefit from faster DDR2 1066 RAM over DDR2 800 RAM outside of overclocking. However, since you're getting that Black Edition CPU (Doesn't come with a HSF just in case you didn't know), I'm going to assume that you're overclocking. I recommend this RAM set:
G.Skill F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ 2 x 2GB DDR2 1000 RAM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231145) - $68

Only 66Mhz slower than DDR2 1066 RAM but pretty damn cheap.

As for which ATI video card manufacturer to go with, Visiontek offers a lifetime warranty on their cards. They're usually the first ATI manufacturer to be recommended over at hardforum.com

Also, if you need a HSF, I recommend this HSF:
Xigmatek HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle HSF (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003) - $37

[burebista]

Memory, whatever cheap 4GB. Doesn't matter.
GPU. Gainward GS (http://www.gainward.net/product/product_detail.php?products_id=178), HIS IceQ4 (http://www.hisdigital.com/html/product_ov.php?id=398&view=yes), Palit Sonic (http://www.palit.biz/main/vgapro.php?id=755).

[Silk_the_Absent1]

I just talked to a friend, and I'm getting a used Brisbane 3600+ and 2GB of G.Skill DDR2 800, so now I just need to find a motherboard that will support Deneb. Anybody have any info on boards that should support it?

If Visiontek has a lifetime warranty, that's who I'm getting. My luck is that messed up. I may be able to swing for a 4870, with the savings I am getting on the processor and memory. I may pick up a second set of 2*1GB DDR2 800 as well, to bump it to 4GB.

As far as a heatsink goes, I'm going to try to reuse my current heatsink. I picked up an FX-60 stock heatsink (http://www.madshrimps.be/printart.php?articID=399) a while back, and it works great. As far as I know, AM2 can use 939 heatsinks, so I should be okay there.

-Adam

[Silk_the_Absent1]

Okay, I just got a reply from Biostar support. They have no information as to whether they will have a Deneb bios for that board. It's funny, AsRock is advertising several as being "AM3 ready," but nobody else. I'd rather avoid AsRock, as I want something that will last me a few years. Anybody know of any AM2 boards that will support AM3 processors? If it's an AMD chipset, I'd really prefer it to have SB750, as SATA performance on older ones is pretty abysmal.

-Adam

[Travis]

Top brands such as ASUS/GIGABYTE/MSI will most likely be AM3 ready. Because ASUS will, ASRock always will. How Foxconn and ECS will do depends on their attitude toward retail business. Biostar? Maybe only a few models.

[Silk_the_Absent1]

Yeah, I guess that is true. I am trying to avoid Asus in general, as while they are great for Intel, their AMD offerings tend to not be as hot. I have had issues with MSI, but in all fairness, they seem to have really improved, so I am open to them. Gigabyte is a brand I have always liked. Not the best in terms of raw performance, but generally good, and reliable.

That said, so far the only board I have seen in any Deneb reviews was MSI's K9A2 Platinum (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130136), which has SB600, which I don't want due to its poor SATA performance. So, I guess I need to wait some more and see if there are either any announcements, or any new reviews that use boards with better southbridges.

-Adam

[Travis]

I think some recent ASUS AMD mobos aren't bad. You can recognize them.

[rip97000]

there is a pretty good dicussion of deneb here: http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=720299

and

someone from that forum posted a link to this chinese forum (translated by google): http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fforum.coolaler.com%2Fshow thread.php%3Ft%3D191848&sl=zh-CN&tl=en&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

it's a long post (14 pages) and some of it is hard to understand but the pictures here say it all. look on pages 1 and 11 for some interesting pictures. on page 5 there is a screen shot of a 4ghz clock on a MSI DKA790GX Platinum Edition.

[Silk_the_Absent1]

I got a reply from Gigabyte, they said they won't have any information until after Deneb is released. I didn't really want to spend that much (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130190), but that MSI might be the one I go for.

-Adam

[Silk_the_Absent1]

Still have yet to get a reply from MSI, but it's Monday morning, so I'll see. From what I'm reading, it is looking like boards with 8MB bios will have enough space for the new bios. So far, I see that the Biostar has 8mb, the Gigabyte 790GX has 2*8MB (dual bios, IIRC), but I can't find anything on the MSI.

Pisses me off that the companies won't say anything when you bet your bippy they already have new bios already coded for whichever boards they intend to release for. I don't want to get an ASRock, but I may end up doing so, as the 3600+ is due to get here this week, and I need to get up and running so I can send this laptop in.

-Adam

[Zap]

It's funny, AsRock is advertising several as being "AM3 ready," but nobody else.

ASRock always does this. They are big on doing motherboards that support anything and everything. Didn't they make AMD boards that supported daughter cards so you can go from socket 754 to 939? Endless Intel boards that supported DDR and DDR2? Boards with AGP and PCIe? Heck, they even use older chipsets like the 945GC and made them work with Wolfdales.

[spursindonesia]

If Deneb's are indeed good clocker, 4 GHz daily usage without much tinkering and needing exotic cooling (nothing that my Apogee GT and CoolIT 3*12 double plies can't handle), i might be going back to AMD platform also, that would be awesome, taking out this sinful feeling of using Intel products in my system.

[Silk_the_Absent1]

I have decided on a motherboard. As soon as the homeowners insurance money comes in, I'm ordering a GA-MA790GP-DS4H (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128352).

For the video card, I am probably going to go with a Visiontek 4850 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129112). And for a hard drive, a 750GB 7200.11 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148298). I'm out of the loop on optical drives, but I have a spare DVD ROM, which will work for now. I just hope that the Antec doesn't crap out on me, I'll need a month or two before I can get something better.

-Adam

[jonnyGURU]

For the video card, I am probably going to go with a Visiontek 4850 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129112).

Noooooooooooooooooo! Not my arch enemy! ;)

[Silk_the_Absent1]

Tell BFG to make ATI cards, then. I want that warranty, and as far as I can find, they are the only OEMs for ATI that offer it. I really liked my BFG 7800GT OC, but it died from reasons outside of the warranty, and I'm not about to cheat them. Now that the grounding for my house is back up to code, I want to get another card with a lifetime warranty.

Seriously, I want to see more ATI OEMs.

-Adam

[jonnyGURU]

You will at the beginning of next year.

A lot (but not all) of the rumors you hear are true.

[Super Nade]

If you guys start selling ATI cards I won't buy anything else but BFG. After enduring a craptastic RMA process from HIS I wonder why guys like BFG with a proven record are not muscling out these sh!** companies with crap CS? :wall:

[jonnyGURU]

Not BFG. Sorry. Our blood is green, tried and true. ;)

[Super Nade]

Are you guys going with the X58 boards like eVGA? Put in a word Jon, bat for the red team and you guys would sell a lot more. ;)

[jonnyGURU]

What's funny is if a year ago someone said that, they'd be questioning the decision. Sometimes Nvidia sells more... sometimes ATI. It swings both ways. You can't keep switching hitters everytime you're down a run.

[HOOfan_1]

What's funny is if a year ago someone said that, they'd be questioning the decision. Sometimes Nvidia sells more... sometimes ATI. It swings both ways. You can't keep switching hitters everytime you're down a run.

well you have companies like MSI and ASUS who swing both ways....of course I am sure those are both larger companies with more financial resources than BFG.

[Silk_the_Absent1]

I got the 3600+ and the memory, which as a nice surprise, turned out to be this set (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16820231114), which frankly, has the most aggressive timings I've yet seen in DDR2.

The 3600+ is 65nm, and the IHS has been lapped, which is rather nice.

Still waiting on the homeowners insurance, as soon as it comes in, that Gigabyte 790GX, Visiontek 4850, and 750GB 7200.11 are being ordered.

I *really* hope this TP3-550 is up to it. I mean, it should be, but as things stand, I'm just being neurotic. I'm good at neurotic. It fits me well.

-Adam

[Silk_the_Absent1]

Sigh, still waiting on the homeowners insurance. The adjuster said he will try to have an answer for us this week. Anyway, now I'm starting to have some second thoughts on the Gigabyte board. I know, don't trust user reviews, but I'm seeing too many negative reviews over at the 'egg to be really comfortable. Are there any folks here who have a 790 board that could give some personal recommendations?

-Adam

[EaGle1337]

Egg they seem to complain about everything, like one of hiper's cases the guy complained about how the door worked and that it didn't fall down or something like that. Gigabyte boards are pretty nice.

[Silk_the_Absent1]

If it were only minor stuff, I'd take it in stride, but people are saying they can't get it stable with Phenoms, and that it throttles back to PCI-E 8x speed when two cards are used. Not sure if that means it goes to PCI-E 1.0 voltage, but that's not as big a deal as the Phenom issues.

Hopefully it's just folks who got flaky boards. I'm going to be running a Brisbane X2 to start, but I do plan on going to a Phenom when funds allow it.

-Adam

[EaGle1337]

you also have to consider what version of the bios they were using, The version they had may not have supported the cpu.

[Silk_the_Absent1]

I already thought about that, but They have worked since the first BIOS release. The current (second) release only updated the CPUID lookup table.

-Adam

[mp666]

If it were only minor stuff, I'd take it in stride, but people are saying they can't get it stable with Phenoms, and that it throttles back to PCI-E 8x speed when two cards are used. Not sure if that means it goes to PCI-E 1.0 voltage, but that's not as big a deal as the Phenom issues.

Hopefully it's just folks who got flaky boards. I'm going to be running a Brisbane X2 to start, but I do plan on going to a Phenom when funds allow it.

-Adam

What they are saying about PCI-e is that the first slot operates at 16x with one card. If you upgrade to a crossfire setup, both slot will operate at 8x but the advantage of CF outweighs by far the disadvantage of lowered PCI-e bandwidth. By the way both are PCI-e 2.0 slots , which means 8x is the same as the old 16x speed.

I have a previous version of this motherboard (meaning a 780G). But a 790GX is basically a cherry-picked 780G that they can overclock for better integrated video performance (which works very well). I use this one with an X2 and had zero problem. I had to update the BIOS before using all 4 ram slots.

[Silk_the_Absent1]

Yeah, I know about the bandwidth reduction and how little it matters (used to run SLI), I was more concerned with the wattage provided by the slot.

-Adam

[Silk_the_Absent1]

Talked to the adjuster, the check gets sent today, and should get here the middle of next week. What I'm looking at ordering now are:

GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-DS4H (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128352)
Seagate 7200.11 750GB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148298)
Logitech G5 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826104076)

And regarding the video card, I'm debating the Visiontek 4850 now. Reason being the price. It's significantly more than most other 4850's, so I may go with a shorter warranty and higher clock speeds, like on this Asus (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121272). That Asus looks fine, but I noticed it doesn't have a heatsink over the rear mosfets, where most others do. Is that likely to be an issue? If so, who do you suggest? I was also considering this HIS (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161244) for $10 more, due to the better heatsink.

If there is anywhere else selling these parts for significantly less, please let me know. The more I can save, the better.

-Adam

[spursindonesia]

Hmm, things are looking up for u mate, Deneb has shown a lot of potential. :)

[Silk_the_Absent1]

Well, I'll be using a Brisbane 3600+ for now, though the friend I got it from ran it close to 3.2Ghz, so I'll be fine. I'm hoping for a more conservative 2.4Ghz, which is what I ran my Manchester 3800+ at. If I can match that, I'll be happy. I'll get a Deneb when funds allow it.

It's the video card that is irking me right now.

-Adam

[Silk_the_Absent1]

The check from the insurance company just came in, and I'll be able to order in the next few days. I'm making a slight change to the order list:

GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-DS4H (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128352)
WD Caviar Black 750GB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136283)
Logitech G5 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826104076)

I'm still at a loss on the video card. The Visiontek 4850 has a lifetime warranty, only ATI OEM I can find that has it, but it is both out of the price range I want to spend, and out of stock. I keep reading about overheating issues with the standard single slot heatsink, so I'm looking for a dual slot one, I suppose. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

ATI has the GPU I want, but damn, ATI needs better OEMs with better warranties.

-Adam

[Silk_the_Absent1]

I could really use the help, guys. The money is in my account, I am ready to order, just need to pick the video card.

-Adam

[dangman4ever]

I could really use the help, guys. The money is in my account, I am ready to order, just need to pick the video card.

Well the Sapphire HD4850 is cheap at $150 yet has pretty decent cooling AFAICT. However Sapphire's CS is somewhat bad. HIS ICeQ is probably the coolest running HD4850 but I haven't heard too much about HIS support nor how long the warranty is. At about $180, that's about the max I'd spend on any HD4850 considering that one can get the significantly GTX260 for ~$215.

[Silk_the_Absent1]

To be honest, if I'm going to spend that much, I'll get a 4870. I liked my 7800GT, but let's be completely honest here, Nvidia has issues with driver support for aging products. Add to that, the fact that I tend to not upgrade a lot, and ATI is usually a safer bet for me. Anyway, all said, I am looking to keep the bill at or below $450. A few dollars over is one thing, but $50, not really doable. Nor needed, to be honest. Not as huge a gamer as I used to be, I just want something that will be good now, and have enough juice for a while.

That, and (yeah, I know Wicked will laugh) I still have a sour taste after my olde 6800. Great card, until the 70 series drivers came out and ruined it on my olde NF3U board.

Sorry, that wasn't meant to sound argumentative; just that I got sick of Nvidia basically telling me to upgrade every six months via shoddy driver support simply because I wasn't using the latest and greatest.

-Adam

[rip97000]

what about 3800 series? i know it's a step back (or 2), but they are still a pretty good step up from what you had. since you like visiontek so much newegg still has 4 of from that series all in stock

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048%2050001180%201305520549%20106792462%2 01069633099&name=VisionTek

[Silk_the_Absent1]

It's not that I particularly like Visiontek, it's that they are the only ATI brand that has a lifetime warranty. But I'll look for some comparisons between the 3870 and the 4850.

-Adam

[rip97000]

yea that's what i meant, you like it because of the warrenty

[Silk_the_Absent1]

I am really liking the looks of this Asus 4850 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121272). Factory overclocked, dual slot heatsink, and a better warranty than a lot of the others (3 year vs. 2). My only concern is that there isn't a heatsink over the mosfets, which is odd, since it looks like all other 4850s have one. But, if it looks good to you guys, I am ready to order now.

-Adam

[Acid]

It's not that I particularly like Visiontek, it's that they are the only ATI brand that has a lifetime warranty. But I'll look for some comparisons between the 3870 and the 4850.

-Adam

3870 has aa issues, i would settle with a 4830 or a 4670, have you considered them?

[Silk_the_Absent1]

To be honest, they are okay cards now, but I doubt they will hold up over time as well. Check out my post from a minute or two ago, about the Asus model. Looks good to me, but I'd like some input on it before I order.

-Adam

[Silk_the_Absent1]

Damnit, the Asus just went back out of stock. Well, if for some reason it's available tonight or tomorrow, I'll order it. Looked up a couple of reviews, and it runs noticeably cooler than most others.

-Adam

[EaGle1337]

PErsonally I'd go with a HIS ICEQ4 of the 4870 or 4850, They fix one of the few problems the 4850 and 4870 have.. they run hot.

[Silk_the_Absent1]

By a stroke of luck, the Asus 4850TOP was back in when I just got home from work, so I made my order. Here's the total of what is coming.

GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-DS4H (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128352)
WD Caviar Black 750GB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136283)
Logitech G5 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826104076)
ASUS EAH4850 TOP (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121272)

Hope it ships quickly.

-Adam

[Silk_the_Absent1]

PErsonally I'd go with a HIS ICEQ4 of the 4870 or 4850, They fix one of the few problems the 4850 and 4870 have.. they run hot.

As far as cooling goes, I think the Asus be okay. For one, it is dual slot and reviews well, and for another, my case is a Lian-Li Rocketfish full tower that, in addition to the already good airflow, it also has a good 120mm fan that blows onto the expansion slot area.

Here's a shot of my system prior to the lightning strike.

http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/5512/img3597ho6.th.jpg (http://img376.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img3597ho6.jpg)

-Adam

[EaGle1337]

I agree the asus will more then likely cool pretty good.. at least better then the reference design.

[Silk_the_Absent1]

Shipped out today, supposed to get here Tuesday.

-Adam

[Silk_the_Absent1]

I got to have a moment of "hell yeah!" When I was pulling my old stuff out of my case, I looked at my sound card (Audigy 2 ZS Platinum). The card itself looked okay, but there was a dead cap on the front panel portion. I was never that good with electrical soldering, but I figured, it's already as good as dead, why not try? Got a replacement, desoldered the dead cap, soldered in the new one, and popped it in.

My Audigy 2 ZS Platinum has risen from the grave. And, thanks to the fact that I'd saved a set of the Daniel_k drivers on my flash drive, it has all of its functions in Vista.

On another note, the Asus 4850 TOP is idling at 50C, so I don't think it'll be a problem. This case has great airflow, so I'm not worried.

-Adam

[EaGle1337]

nice.. have fun.