I'm building my first true quiet PC based on the great information provided by this site.

Here is a list of my current parts:
SLK3000B Case
2 - 120mm Nexus fans for case cooling
Super Flower Fan Controller
Seasonic s12 430
ATI Radeon X800XL - VF700CU

4X512MB Kingston HyperX
I've been waiting for the Rev E processors so I can run at full 400mhz FSB with all 4 sticks.

I wanted to get:
AMD64 3500+ Rev E
DFI Lanparty UT nF4 Ultra-D - Passively cooled NB
Thermalright XP-120

Based on the previous posts it doesn't sound like the DFI board is my best bet. It sounds like I could get the XP-120 and Ram in there, but passively cooling the NB adequetly might be a problem.

My first preference is stablility, then quietness and then performance. Can anyone recommend some others boards that might accomdate all of that and still run stable and quiet? I was thinking of the Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-9.

Does anyone else have any recommendations that would accomdate the rest of the gear?

Thanks

the nforce4 chipset just seems to put out so much heat (compared to via/ati) that i'm purposely avoiding it. if 90% of mobo manufacturers are too scared to passively cool it, i don't want to either.

as for motherboards supporting e-revision chips out-of-the-box, we won't know for sure until they show up. i'd certainly hate to have to get a 2nd older cpu from somewhere just so i could boot up and update the bios. though since motherboard manufacturers have had e-revision chips since october, i'd say that any motherboard released from the start of this year likely will support them just fine.

if i was building a (quiet) gaming rig now i'd go with a soltek k890pro. as much as i'd like to go with the ati chipset, you can't buy them! not if you want to do any overclocking, anyway. since you'll have to wait for the e-revision chips anyway, i'd wait for the reviews to come in and choose a board then, it'll save you a lot of heartache should you pick the wrong board early.

Sounds like a nice rig.

Since you are waiting for rev e, you could give a thought to this sapphire "Gruper" board. It's based on ATI Xpress 200 chipset. It should be a killer performer and it should be available in May, at least according to that thread (page 19). More picshere and here.

Things that I like most about it are:
- NB positioned above pci-e 16x slot
- Azalia HD audio
- Integrated x300se graphics.
- Great overclocking features.

Basically I don't need any add-on cards with this board -> more space = better airflow and less heat. NB is located above VGA so zalman nb cooler will fit without a problem, where it will benefit from the zalman cpu cooler.. Even if I bought a graphics card later I would know it would fit. It has everything I need integrated. Gigabit Lan, good audio and graphics. x300se would be enough for my needs at least for now. I may buy a gfx later this year when Ati releases r5xx series that support the longhorns new Direct 3D. Well enough about my plans...

Do you have a specific reason for needing 2Gb of expensive ram? You could have almost the same (gaming) performance with much cheaper ram and only 1gb. If gaming is your motive to buying the memory I can guarantee you could have much better performance by buying x850 and cheaper ram. Check this for explanation.

I agree with yeha about everything. If you don't want to wait Soltek is a good option.

Thanks for the reply. I thought about waiting for the sapphire board. It looks like it'll be pretty nice.

Some of the games I play eat up more then 1GB of ram (EQ2 is great with all of it's memory leaks). I already have the memory left over so no purchasing required.

Thanks for the advice, I'll have to look at the soltek board more closely.

I am building a system with a Soltek SL-K890PRO-939 and I am having problems with the on-board Ethernet. It sometimes disconnects and/or connects at only 10 mbps with a crossover connection to 3Com 10/100 card.

Strangely enough, when I put my SB Audigy 2 ZS card in the last PCI slot, the Ethernet does work at all, but sometimes connects at 10 mbps when the sound card in the next-to-last slot. I have RMA'ed the board with and am working with Soltek support on the problem. Soltek does not have a working Audigy 2 card in their support center right now for them to test this, but they did forward my complaint to Realtek, who supplies the Ethernet driver. But I am not very optimistic about finding a fix for this.

Other people have reported similar problems in this forum. So if you need the on-board Ethernet, beware of potential problems with this board.

I'm happy with my DFI Ultra-D modded with a passive NB47J. Folding 24/7, my chipset is at 45C (case temperature 32C), with CPU at 240x10 and memory at 240.

ILH, I saw your drive suspension 'cage' in another post. Have you detailed it's construction/design anywhere yet? I'd be interested in seeing more details about it. I have some scrap MDF laying around that I could maybe put to good use.

-Chomper