[Edwood]

It's expensive, but consider the Thermalright XP-120.

I have one on my 3500+ Winchester right now, and with a Papst 4412 FGL @7V, it is nearly silent. I cannot hear it unless I put my head right against the case.

Not sure if the Zalman ZM80D will fit on a 6600. Does it have mounting holes around the processor? The 6800 does not.

-Ed

 

[uzziah]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peppermint Duck Thanks for all the info so far guys, and thanks SDA for the heads up! Your right, the £100 I save by buying cheaper RAM I could put towards...say getting a Geforce 6800GT instead...though I'd be interested to see any benchmark comparisons between it and the 6600GT if anyone has any? Maybe I should SLI 2x6600GT? I'm looking into 2 different types of cheaper RAM atm... Corsair 1GB DDR Value Select PC3200 CAS3.0 Kit (2x512MB) £117.44 Corsair 1GB DDR Value Select PC3200 CAS2.5 Kit (2x512MB) £128.02 I take it it's worth paying the extra £10 for the 0.5 lower CAS? (though I'm not entirely sure how that affects the performance?) I'll also save in the region of £100 by getting a socket939 A64 3000+ (Winchester), which, from a certain site I can get for £90 this week only (£20 lower than normal retail), but I'm not sure I'll be buying my system just yet. So if I outline my current budget... EMU 0404 = £70 A64 3000+ = £100 CORSAIR RAM = £130 6800GT or 2x6600GT = £280ish ASUS NFORCE4 SLI MOBO = £130-190? Then a case+psu+hard drive+cd drive(s)+tft... The more I look at this the more I realise how expensive it's going to be! And to think at the beginning I wanted an amplifier and some high end speakers. Dang. I still do want that though...just there's been no feedback on those specific items. Maybe I should just make a high end music system and ignore games...what good games have I played in the past year anyway? Doom3 was a let down...and infact the only game I've played since then (3 months ago) is Half-Life2...which was good, but I completed it in a day. If I get out of this gaming loop I'll probably save myself a bit of money...but then again the money I save will probably end up going towards new high end audio equipment...which I guess you'd all support anyway!

exactly, it's up to you

if you decide to axe the gaming you could build a comp system for about $700 usd based on amd athlon or mobile xp processor. the extra $500 or so you save could be put towards those speakers, amp or an external dac; though unfortunately i'd still go with the emu 0404 at your price range.

then take that $500, buy yourself some speakers (look at axiom m3ti and paradigm atom among others), and an amp (you can always start with a sonic impact t-amp and go from there). you'll have money left over.

make sure you go to the cables/speakers etc. forum here for advice on speakers; and the amps forum for amps advice. but my personal advice is the t-amp and upgrade as needed.

 

[uzziah]

not to mention you can forget about the zalman heatpipe with a non-gaming rig; as you can get a fanless vid card.

if you're getting a 6600gt, the fan is going to be very loud; and it would be silly to build a silent pc and not go with a vid card heatpipe