Thanks. I generally agree on the airflow remarks and your general thrust. But 1. the E5-2620 and Z9PE-D8 mobo are twice the price (£620 vs. £330 excl. tax). 2. Then I would have to replace my Echo 3G (which does do more than 26 channels) with an M-Audio (frankly not as good) or RME audio box: add £3...

Thanks Bonestonne. However: 1. I am on a limited budget of around £1000 (under $1800). I do not have the money for dual CPUs etc. The Xeon equivalent to a 3820 is an E5-1620 which has exactly the same specs. Where's the advantage ? 2. I already have a PCI audio card (not PCIe) which works v. well - ...

Thanks - the PAQ guy is down the road in London so I will investigate. It looks like his cases have 3x120mm fans centrally mounted and damped. I hope my 28cm GPU card (GTX580) can clear the obstruction !

Thanks very much Steve. 1. Case: Silverstone FT02 - impossible design with buttons and leads on top. P183 reviews worse than my choises. Any experience of Nanoxia ? 2. PSU Will the Seasonic Platinum SS860XP be quiter than the Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 850w in normal usage - given I want automatic ...

Thanks for prompt & informed replies. All decisions are price/performance/upgradeability/future-proof trade-offs. So: 1. The 3820 chip was chosen over soon-obsolete socket 1155 as the best budget compromise. I want the ability to keep and upgrade the machine for more than 9 months ! 2. The Gigabyte ...

Can you help on choice of matched components please ? I am an audio/video guy and no PC expert. I want to spec a QUIET socket 2011 audio and video workstation on a tight budget. All the system firms in Europe seem to be run by nut-case gamers not pro AV experts. A tower PC to run Cubase 7 and Adobe ...