Hey guys here is my latest system update
Spec:
CPU: AMD64 3200 Winchester 90nm
MB: ASUS "A8N-SLI Premium"
HS: Thermalright "XP-120"
FAN: 3X EverCool 120mm Aluminum Case Fan (in addition to the P180 case fan)
PS: Seasonic S12 500 Watt
RAM: OCZ EL Platinum Revision 2 (512MBx2) DDR PC-3200
HD: 2 Maxtor Diamondmax 10 6B300S0 300GB SATA 150
2 Maxtor Maxline III 7L300S0 300GB SATA 150
MR: Kingwin KF91-Black mobile rack
VIDEO CARD: Leadtek nVIDIA PX6600 Video Card, 256MB
DVD: ASUS Silver 16X DVD-ROM QuiteTrak Drive E616P2S
DVDRW: Plextor 716A (Sliver)
SOUND CARD: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS
FC: Vantec Fan controller
CASE: Antec P180
FLOPPY: Mitsumi Floppy 7-in-1 USB card reader / smart media Black
KEYBOARD: Logitech PS/2 keyboard
MOUSE: Microsoft Optical PS/2 USB mouse
Look at all the messy wire. ;( Maybe someone can tell me what to do with them. Anyway, it is pretty quite and very cool even when room temperature heat up in the afternoon.
Ok couple issues with the pervious build:
One of the major problem was the 6600GT video card, whenever I run games, it would eventually crash and reboot when the temperture gets to 60 degree C. I suspect it is due to the way I mount the fanless heatsink. This problem went away when I change it to the PX6600.
Another issue was when I added 3 more 300gb maxtor HD, they become extremely hot especially during the afternoon. This is fixed after changing the case to Antec P180.
The Seasonic S12 and Tangen Power supply actually heat up in my Silverstone case. Not sure if it was due to other component but it is solved when use in the P180.
Because of case heat up issue, i went on and seek the maxium airflow yet could be silent 120mm fan. To my surprise the Evercool 120mm fan actually push quite alot of air while being quite enough. However it is difficult to mount them on the XP120 heatsink due to the aluminum frame design, I had to use another 120mm frame to mount it on. With the fan controller, you can't really hear anything unless you turn it all the way up. This is actually a better choice for me than the Nexus fan because they push so much more air flow while being quite enough.
The USB mouse and keyboard cause system not able to recongize during OS installation or ghost boot up. This is so annoying when the keyboard and mouse is not working when you need it. I had to change them to PS/2 keyboard and mouse in order to work 100% all the time.
Anyway, it is quite unbelievable how fast you can run outta space these day with 1 gig like file size of video or ape music files. Originally i thought about buying more external hard drive, but because I already own 2 external HD (120gb and 400gb), I realized how unreliable they are consider many delay write fail on these drive; maxtor internal Sata drive seems to be the way to go since they are quite, close to raptor like speed, offer lots of space while cheaper than external drive and you get 5 year warrenty on the Max Line III. The mobile rack is added transfering between different computer at home is much faster now instead of using the external. And If it ever run outta space again, just buy more Maxtor internal drive and swap it in. Now I am waiting for a AMD X2 processor to drop in the 200~300 dollars range (maybe at the end of the year?!?!... praying), then buy one and plug in and viola~ 30%~ 70% faster... ;D
! Do you have any idea of what to go for before the 500W phantom hits the market?
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Maybe it would be less problem if you do CD to CD copy due to the same brand of optical burner, but I am not sure.