My Dream PC (help needed plz)

[overdosedelusion]

runs the risk of leaking (small though that risk may be).

well cant you buy noconductive and non corrosive fluids? if they leak they wont ruin your prized posessions

[Ronyx]

how much CFM (what does CFM stand for) would i need covered so that i could cool my system. Iv'e seen fans which can do 30CFM at around 23 decibels. Would that be quiet or loud? Considering that the case will hold 2 80mm fans and if i get both of them to do around 25CFM each (or maybe get some loud ones but then control them to lower their speed, reduce their CFM and decibel amount but only have to crank them up to a fast and loud setting when i feel like the system is getting a bit too hot) would that be enough or should i go with the loud but controlled alternative?

[overdosedelusion]

Iv'e seen fans which can do 30CFM at around 23 decibels. Would that be quiet or loud?

that would be fairly noisy, get some AKASA amber series fans, they run at only 18DB

Considering that the case will hold 2 80mm fans and if i get both of them to do around 25CFM each (or maybe get some loud ones but then control them to lower their speed, reduce their CFM and decibel amount but only have to crank them up to a fast and loud setting when i feel like the system is getting a bit too hot) would that be enough or should i go with the loud but controlled alternative?

Get some 30CFM fans and buy a fan controller (preferably one with a temperature sensor thingy - you can buy this seperately also), this way you can run them at lower speed and when the indicator starts to read a high temp, you can turn up your fans.

[Silenced_Coyote]

Don't worry about cooling the RAM. I got a friend that doesn't even have heat spreaders on his RAM and they run perfectly fine.

If you do want to get more airflow in your case, you could make the front bottom fan into a 120mm fan by cutting a bigger hole. It has enough room for that size fan (I orginally wanted this case too and was figuring out ways to maximize cooling). But you shouldn't have any problems.

If your video card starts to get too hot, you could buy a PCI slot fan cooler.

CFM stands for Cubic Feet per Minute. So it is a rating that tells you how much air goes through (or pushed through) a 80 mm hole (size of the fan hole) in 1 minute.

[Ronyx]

also one more question:

nVidia SLI (dual layer, liek two video cards joined?)
or nVidia GeForce 8000 (whenever it comes out)

because the motherboard is SLI compatible so should i go SLI and if i should how much better graphis would the be?

[Silenced_Coyote]

When you go SLI, the 2 cards go in to seperate PCIe slots. That is unless you get the nVidia 7950 GTX, which is 2 cards joined together that go in one slot.

I would advise getting one card and then getting the another if you really need it. Graphics will be better but you would have to stop (in game) and really look at it. Like if you were playing through Call of Duty 2, you probably woulnd't notice the improvement of Anti-Aliasing on a tree.

This article is about quad SLI, but it kind of has the same point about image quality. You can see what increased AA and AF can do.
http://firingsquad.com/hardware/gefo...date/page2.asp

[Ronyx]

hmm well considering that i most likley won't be running a 19" LCD at resolutions over 2000x1000 (i guarantee it) then the GeForce 7900 GTX SLI should be a good choice. but this wouldn't be a forum if i walked out happy right now now would it? no, now i am asking another question (lolz i'm sure you're all tired but i want to learn so that i am prepared and am not ripped off when i buy).

Is there going to be a big difference between GeForce 7900 GTX SLI and the 8000 DirectX10 series graphics cards? and if anyone could tell me how i would setup the graphcis cards to run at what they recommended. the 4xAA 16xAF settings? do i have to access BIOS and configure it there? also what about the voltage timings for the memory. 4-4-4-5, 3-4-3-6, 2-2-3-4 do i set that in the BIOS as well and if so what exactly do these timings stand for?

[overdosedelusion]

well if you want the most power possible from a dual graphics card, get the eVga 7900 GT KO, its more powerful when put in SLI than any other cards. it has a core speed of 580MH and a mem of 1580MHZ. 2 of these puppies would seriously pwn.

I dont entirely know when the GeForce8 series will be marketed, because nVidia are now liscencing Their material to Intel (much like AMD have bought ATI) and both companies wish to have the GPU as part of the main CPU, or as a Second chip on the board. So we may well seee the GF8 series on the CPU itself. This has some bad consequences but i wont go into it, lets just say gaming pc's will become a niche.

If you would rather save some pennies mind, The get a single card first and the another later on down the road. The 7950GX2 will give you the power of 2 7900GT's in sli, it has a clock speed of 520mh and a mem of 1300MHZ. Its also about £200($400+?) cheaper than 2 7900's in sli. Plus, the added benefit is, when you go sli with these you get qaud core ^^

Is there going to be a big difference between GeForce 7900 GTX SLI and the 8000 DirectX10 series graphics cards? and if anyone could tell me how i would setup the graphcis cards to run at what they recommended. the 4xAA 16xAF settings? do i have to access BIOS and configure it there?

Like i said before, there could be a huge difference. this all depends on how well the CPU/GPU works out.

You do not have to muck about with BIOS settings for the card, The card comes with forceware (a software that messes around with the hardware) and this is what you us to overclock, set your anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering, and a bunch of other stuff too. though most manufacturers recomend you leave it at the default "let the application decide", this way, you edit the aliasing etc in-game.

Don't ask me about memory though, i havent a ****ing clue what 4-4-4-5 stands for, i just got mine because it was well reviewed.

[Silenced_Coyote]

I never overclocked memory before so I am not sure when I say this... It isn't just going into the BIOS and changing the timings, I think you have to also play around with the voltages and the multipliers. Increase voltages by very small increments. Don't just jump straight to the highest voltage that someone else has it at. If you really want to overclock memory, you should do a Google search and/or start a new thread about "How to OC RAM".

The BIOS will tell you what 4-4-4-8 stands for, as in what each number stands for. I'll use the 4-4-4-8 timing as an example. I hope this is correct...
4 = DRAM CAS# Latency
4 = DRAM RAS# to CAS# Delay
4 = DRAM RAS# Precharge
8 = DRAM RAS# Activate to Precharge

This isn't an overclocking guide but it might help explain a few things:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/02/...ory/index.html
This might help too:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/03/...k_frequencies/

The two links are to articles that are like an introduction to RAM. It is a good read. Tell me what you think and if it was helpful at all.

By the way, keep asking questions. It is better to ask and learn from your mistakes in the forum then to learn after killing a few PC components.

[Ronyx]

ok thxs for the reply's =] and i will keep asking questions, although now i'm going to read everything you guys recommend and then ask questions =]

also what do u mean when u say "go SLI with it"? do you mean you can take any card and then switch it to SLI or somethin? i thought you buy SLI cards and non SLI cards. isn't that how it works?