OT: If You Were Going To Build A New PC

[Thermodyne]

Gandalf Parker said:
(A)Remove the case

(B) bend a sheete of acrylic down over it, then out across the desk for a few inches, then back up to an inch higher than the case wo that its a large blocky W shape

(C) Seal front and back of both "wings" of the W

(D) provide water, fish, and air pump

You have just created a symbiotic environment in which the computer provides heat to the fish tank, the fish tank provides cooling to the computer, and you get to see the internal workings of the computer running "inside" a fish tank.

I would make suggestions on topic with the subject but I usually just trust my local Mom & Pop computer shop to give me good desktops. I only have opinions when Im building servers (which are much simpler)

Gandalf Parker
-- WANTED: A trustworthy "wish I had ideas" project finisher to partner
in a profit sharing relationship with an excellent "got too many ideas"
project starter.

Well, for those with tastes for servers, we have http://home.comcast.net/~jkelly21/ws...ue-skip-0.html

It’s a homebuilt 1U with a pair of 73gig scsi mirrors. And runs SBS 2003.

[Atrocities]

When it comes to case cooling, how best to achieve this?

A fan front and rear, the front sucks in air, the back blows it out.
Or
Two side fans, one on the right one on the left, the left blows out while the right sucks in.

In most cases this would require some machining of the sides to fit the fans....no problem I have small machine shop with a machinest, my dad, at hand for such things.

I am going to rebuild the blue box.... Actually replace it.

New case - one set up for max cooling.
New MB - replace the msi one
New AMD XP series cpu ... cost
New SATA HD - I think the old on is toast.

This machine will be Win2k or XP if I can aford to buy XP Pro.

I would be happy to sell the old MB and 1.4 ghz CPU, but what I am thinking is using them in the blue tower and puting all of my old P2 400 stuff in it. (I would have to find a windows 98 disk as mine has been stolen or lost.)

This will leave me with spare parts for the P2 400 I just picked up. I would then have four computers....

I buy a Nvida 5700 ultra - Geforce FX card and put in the new machine and keep the Geforce 3 card in the blue box.

Should work..... right?

All I need to know now is what is the best AMD XP cpu and what Mother board and memorie works best with it.... to avoid the head ace I had with the blue box and that damn MSI mother board.

[Sivran]

I have an Athlon XP and a Sempron running on ECS (ie cheapo) mobos. Gotta love them mobo/cpu combos at Fry's. Neither one is unstable, so either ECS is better than people think or I have insane luck--I'm the guy who gets month-plus uptimes out of Win98SE, after all.

Then again, I don't overclock.

[Thermodyne]

Atrocities said:
When it comes to case cooling, how best to achieve this?

A fan front and rear, the front sucks in air, the back blows it out.
Or
Two side fans, one on the right one on the left, the left blows out while the right sucks in.

In most cases this would require some machining of the sides to fit the fans....no problem I have small machine shop with a machinest, my dad, at hand for such things.

I am going to rebuild the blue box.... Actually replace it.

New case - one set up for max cooling.
New MB - replace the msi one
New AMD XP series cpu ... cost
New SATA HD - I think the old on is toast.

This machine will be Win2k or XP if I can aford to buy XP Pro.

I would be happy to sell the old MB and 1.4 ghz CPU, but what I am thinking is using them in the blue tower and puting all of my old P2 400 stuff in it. (I would have to find a windows 98 disk as mine has been stolen or lost.)

This will leave me with spare parts for the P2 400 I just picked up. I would then have four computers....

I buy a Nvida 5700 ultra - Geforce FX card and put in the new machine and keep the Geforce 3 card in the blue box.

Should work..... right?

All I need to know now is what is the best AMD XP cpu and what Mother board and memorie works best with it.... to avoid the head ace I had with the blue box and that damn MSI mother board.

The case should be certified for the layout of the mainboard so that air flow and fan location supplies cool air to the processor. Also, you should have a little positive pressure in the case. Usually done by pulling air in the front with larger/more fans than are used to pull hot air out the back. This keeps the disk readers clean. Also, modern hard drives need to be directly in the intake air stream to cool properly. I recommend putting them in a drive rack that is vented or better yet, has its own fan.

If you OC the system, disregard all above. Do anything you can to get room air onto the board. Put fans and heat sinks on everything.

PS: Check the slot key on the GF3, it might not fit the AGP slot on older MB's AGP slot type must match the card.