Quote from: EagleMy rigs still at stock - because I dont know what to tweak and by how much...
 

does it do everything fast enough?  If so dont bother.

And as a suggestion :: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=396709

For 120mm case fans.  Love these, im running 2 in my case, and they are near silent, even when CnQ winds them up full pelt they make so little noise that you can hear the GFX card fan over the top of them.  

Thanks, Ill look into swapping the case fans then. Reading up, there doesnt seem to be any positive reviews of the Asus P5N-D board. In fact no reviews I can see, just sketchy remarks on stability. Any suggestions on alternative boards alongside the Asrock sdp recommended?

The P5N-D is a good board from personal experience.

The only other current Intel board I could comment on is http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/product?product=608547 but the fan is to loud for what your looking for and it's a bit pricey.

Quote from: Clockd 0NeThanks, Ill look into swapping the case fans then. Reading up, there doesnt seem to be any positive reviews of the Asus P5N-D board. In fact no reviews I can see, just sketchy remarks on stability. Any suggestions on alternative boards alongside the Asrock sdp recommended?

Ive used a couple of those recently, seemed OK, but they arent being Overclocked.  Also used an Asus "Striker" board, and an EVGA board.  All of them seem pretty reasonable to be fair.  These days the reliability really only kicks in when you are stressing the board, and it doesnt actually sound like you will be doing.  Even some of the ECS Stuff is actually turning out to be Not Bad For The Price, not brilliant, but not bad for what you get out of it.  

 Spoke to a guy I know who spends a lot of time over at Xtreme and has far more knowledge on hardware from the last few years than I do.

He recommend if your not looking to go for a top of the line board and want passive cooling on the chipset  to go for  :

http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/product?product=607794

Here are some reviews:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/abit-ip35-pro.html
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3142&p=1

Also a handy post from over at Xtreme http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=147163&highlight=abit+IP35-Pro

I had no idea Abit were producing quality boards again, that will teach me for slacking on hardware for a year or 2

Quote from: ShaunI had no idea Abit were producing quality boards again, that will teach me for slacking on hardware for a year or 2

If that is a good, reliable board, then its a blip on Abits otherwise recent flawless record of bloody awful hardware.  The only brand I personally try and avoid like mad to use for customers is Abit.  They occasionally pump out some good products, but most of it is actually bloody awful.  If you want cheap you can get better, if you want good quality there are other better suppliers.  

Edit :: I also stay clear of MSI, ECS, PC Chips and Jetway type brands.  Ive no love for them, though ill use them if its an emergency, or if budgets dont stretch.

I was never an Abit fan but that Abit board looks very good, I like the fact it has an HDMI audio header too and the CMOS reset on the back. Reviews seem to like it too, so I may go with that one

Quote from: Clockd 0Nethe CMOS reset on the back.

lol, a sign of total confidence in the reliablity of their own board Im sure Nah, it looks good, but a £100 board in a low/mid range system running stock really isnt good use of moolah imo.

fwiw Foxconn make Dell & HP boards. MSI make IBM and Fujitsu-Siemens boards. These are £20-30 boards going into what for most customers are business critical machines.

ass-crock is utter utter utter utter pap.

I think I have my final Tekheads shopping list:


607794 Abit IP-35PRO P35 Chipset (Socket 775) DDR2 PCI-E Motherboard   In stock: 3   £79.00   £79.00  
607391 Antec P182 Performance One Super Midi Tower Black - No PSU Out of stock: 5 days after order placed. £74.00 £74.00
608544 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz Wolfdale 6MB Cache LGA775 (1333 Mhz) - Retail In stock: 10 + £104.50 £104.50
608976 Samsung SpinPoint HD502IJ F1 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3GB/s 16MB Cache - OEM In stock: 10 + £39.99 £79.98
607818 Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular Whisper Silent PSU In stock: 3 £54.00 £54.00
606957 Thermaltake BigTyphoon 120 VX LGA775 & AM2 Heatpipe Cooler In stock: 10 + £23.79 £23.79
607851 Noctua NF-S12-800 120mm 800 RPM Quiet Case Fan


Ive just bought a HD3870 from Adam, so I just need to nag Kris to get some P182s in if theyre not on order already.

This look like a good spec then?

Yeah but is that enough memory?

Shhh! Dont tell him he needs memory as well, keep it a secret then we can all laugh at him when it doesnt work

Crap, I could have sworn I was missing something earlier. Recommendations on 4Gb please, anyone? Suitable for the XE version of the IP-35PRO that supports 1066 DDR2.

only 4 ?   pfffft.