Sorry to hear about the non-functioning port. Do you have the latest ASUS drivers downloaded? There are a lot of posts on this mobo in the anandtech forums - maybe the answer is there.

Oops! Looks like I misread their prices, since the use "$" for both US and Canadian dollars.

Whoa - they are charging a $100 premium for a venice 3200 vs a winchester 3200?

Ever tried a duct connecting the CPU fan on the XP-120 with the exhaust? like that you could get rid of one of the fans and decrease the noise level a bit.

Keep posting carl - its very informative for us!

Let us know how it went. I am personally interested because your system is very similar to the one I intend to build.

That case can take an intake fan - so another Nexus 120 on the intake, blowing over the suspended harddrive and into the passive northbridge and video cards will be helpful. Though the case says its set for an 80MM intake fan, the pictures suggest a larger 120 mm fan will also fit.

You can check out this passively-cooled 6600GT
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe ... ode=322263

The benefit of going with this Gigabyte card is that you wont void the warranty since it comes passively cooled (and overclocked) by the manufacturer.

How does this board compare to the ASUS NF4 boards? Do these have an IR header too? DFI has a fan to cool down the NF4 chip, which can be noisy, and it looks like the position in the DFI board precludes the use of a passive Zalman solution to cool the NF4 chip. Any thoughts on this?

Are the BenQ drives silent? According to DigiTimes, they will be launching Lightscribe DVD burners at the end of February. If they are reasonably silent, they could be an interesting option!

Does the LG drives come in black? Also, how quiet are the Plexor SATA burners? The Plextor 12X DVD+/-RW Drive, Black, Model PX-712SA look very interesting!
Thanks