Lets see what the geeks think...

[Guest Captain Vala]

I dont know how it works for you guys, but for some reason my HDDs NEVER fill up. On my current computer I have an 80gig drive, and after a one year since the last format, I only have 36gigs of it filled... and other than gaming, I do a lot of Photoshop work and stuff, have the whole Los Alamitos HS yearbook files on my PC and a lot of other hi-def pic... but it doesn't fill up !!!And back to our subject... I cant afford to put too much money into the storage, unless it makes that big of a difference... Is a fast HDD really gonna change the computer's performance while gaming and stuff, or is it just more convenient when hanging around your files?Vala

[Guest Robin.B]

You won't see too much difference in game performances since games don't use the HDD much while playing, that's what the Ram is for. You will notice an increase in Flight loading times and such though...

[Guest Captain Vala]

Ok so I'll just got get the $40 (after rebate) Maxtor 120gig and just put the money into getting a 4200 X2.Also, does anybody have any recommendation on a cheap and cool Case for this system? I would prefer a clear side, but if not, then its ok.Vala

[Guest TDaddy]

Antec server case, big and plenty of cooling and tooless removal of drives...

[Guest LO006]

1) You WILL see a difference in load times. When I upgraded from a 4200 RPM Maxtor to a 7200RPM Western Digital the upgrade was awsome. I would say it was a better upgrade then my Ram. I bought an extra 512 PC3200 DDR stick and barely noticed any difference at all.2) I recently got a Dynex case. It comes with one Blue LED 90mm fan in the back and a funel thingy going to the heatsynk of the processor which provides a direct exhust for the CPU fan which i thought was pretty cool. It also has spaces for 2 80mm fans which i already got filled up with more blue led fans (ones a Dynex and the other is a Antec). The case comes with a Alied 500 Watt power supply which was the main reason I bought the case. It's pretty roomy inside as well. 4 5.25 slots (the CD-ROM type ones, 3 3.25 slots (Floppy and HDD type) and 2 HD Holders on the bottem. I took these holders out to get better airflow since the two 80mm fans are at the bottem too. I got all this (except the two 80mm fans) for 131 bucks at bestbuy. Edit: Here's a pic of my caseThose pics are a bit old. I got the 3rd LED fan put in so it glows more now.

[jeffhunter 0]

Not the cheapest, but I've got a Thermaltake Armor (USD134, on Newegg) and a Shark (about USD160). http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...154#DetailSpecsStd psu is 430 watts. Comes with 4 x fans that are extremely quiet. What strikes me most about it is its size. It's really cavernous - 6 internal bays, 10 external and 7 expansion slots that are screwless. Installation into that space is much easier that normal, with plenty of room to keep cables out of the way.All that space makes it easy to keep cool - but it's set up to handle liquid cooling without any troubleThe flaps on the front are a bit silly, though, and don't seem to serve the slightest purpose.Other thermaltakes start well under USD100http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList....ry=1379&bop=andJeff

[Guest LO006]

>Not the cheapest, but I've got a Thermaltake Armor (USD134,>on Newegg) and a Shark (about USD160). >http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...154#DetailSpecs>Std psu is 430 watts. Comes with 4 x fans that are extremely>quiet. What strikes me most about it is its size. It's>really cavernous - 6 internal bays, 10 external and 7>expansion slots that are screwless. Installation into that>space is much easier that normal, with plenty of room to keep>cables out of the way.>>All that space makes it easy to keep cool - but it's set up to>handle liquid cooling without any trouble>>The flaps on the front are a bit silly, though, and don't seem>to serve the slightest purpose.>>Other thermaltakes start well under USD100>http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList....ry=1379&bop=and>>Jeffooooo That is a very nice case i must say.

[Guest Captain Vala]

Konrad, I really like the idea of funnel in your case, as there ardent too many cases with that around these days, but for some reason no matter how much I searched for your case, I couldn't find it on Newegg.com. It would be a great if you could possibly post a link to it please,Jeff, I am very excited about your case, and I might even end up buying it, since good cases last for a long time. The thing is, it looks like your case doesn't come with a power suply, so would you or any other geeks ( :) ) let me know what would be an appropriate wattage for the Power supply of the case I'm getting?My system specs again-so far:-ABIT Fatality AN8-SSLI with nforce 4-OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered (will have more later on... maybe mid-next year)-AMD athlon 64 4000+ 939 OR AMD athlon 64 X2 4200-XFX GF 7800GTX SLI over clocked (will have SLI by next year this time)-ABIT audioMAX with 8 channels OR a creative audigy-120gig 7200 Hitachi (for now, but thinking about getting a faster one to add to this)Also, a few more questions:-What is an unbuffered ram and what is a registered ram?-looking at the AMD 4200+ CPU, the specs seem to be a little lower than the 4000+, for example: the operating freq. of 2.2 vs 2.41GHz of FSB vs Integrated into the chipand L2 cache or 1x 512kb vs 1 MBnow is 4200+ with its multitasking capability but with lower specs worth paying so much more ($80) to get the X2 instead of the 4000+? does it make that much difference in gaming or photoshop work?Thank y'all for the time and effort! and looking forward to more kind help :DVala

[Driver8 0]

>-ABIT Fatality AN8-SSLI with nforce 4>-OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200)>Unbuffered (will have more later on... maybe mid-next year)>-AMD athlon 64 4000+ 939 OR AMD athlon 64 X2 4200>-XFX GF 7800GTX SLI over clocked (will have SLI by next year>this time)>-ABIT audioMAX with 8 channels OR a creative audigy>-120gig 7200 Hitachi (for now, but thinking about getting a>faster one to add to this)Specs sound good!I did a little different on the HD - i went for 2 smaller drives (Best Buy was having a $50 rebate on 80GBs Western Digital 7200RPM 8MB cache drives at the time). Theory being, i'd have all may games and such on one drive, and the Windows OS/Swap File and stuff on the other. Not saying that's necessary, or even that i notice much of a difference, just something to consider if a sweet sale comes along or something :) Also consider though, you can put the Photoshop Scratch file on a different drive than the program, and thus add some additional performance to that as well.One thing i may have missed in this thread - what PSU are you going for? Watch out for "comes with case" PSUs, even if their wattage SEEMS high. It may not be bad there, but other components might be. Personally, i recommend spending the extra money on either an Enermax or an Antec (some will tell you Enermax sucks, go with Antec, some will tell you Antec sucks, go with Enermax - either way, they're the two brands i personally rate the best, and i doubt you can go wrong with either). It may add $40 or $50 to the price, but if you don't, you MAY regret it later on...>-What is an unbuffered ram and what is a registered ram?>-looking at the AMD 4200+ CPU, the specs seem to be a little>lower than the 4000+, for example: >the operating freq. of 2.2 vs 2.4>1GHz of FSB vs Integrated into the chip>and L2 cache or 1x 512kb vs 1 MBRegistered RAM is not something the Athlon 64 needs. Usually used in Servers, the Opterons, and used to be for the AthlonFX. Can't remember what, exactly, it does - may be better on errors or something - but it's a bit slower, and your A64 probably won't like it. Just go with regular, unbuffered, non-registered RAM and you'll be fine.If your Motherboard supports it, ECC RAM supposedly has error-control, but again, there may be a (probably un-noticeable) performance hit. Again though, really not needed...>now is 4200+ with its multitasking capability but with lower>specs worth paying so much more ($80) to get the X2 instead of>the 4000+? does it make that much difference in gaming or>photoshop work?Depends.Now - i'm gonna confess, i'm behind on my Benchmarks... First off though, just cause the specs are lower, if there was a core upgrade, it may very well be more efficient, thus perform the same.But, as far as the "X2" making a difference - probably depends more on what you're going to do. If you're like me and only use only one App at a time, you'll most likely not need the X2. If, however, you're doing something in Photoshop, with a modeling program running, and ripping a CD or something all at the same time, then you'll definitely want the X2, even if in a single-app situation it may be a tad slower (but at today's performance levels, i highly doubt you'd notice the difference in a single-app state without actual benchmarking software - where i HAVE heard that in Multitasking, the difference WILL be noticeable, so decide on that :) ). So really, it depends on how you generally use your maching.

[jeffhunter 0]

Re power supply. Both the Shark and Armor came with a psu of 430W. I'm not sure what the go is with these cases, but I do recall that the Thermaltake branded carton it came in had check boxes for a range of psu's up to about 550 watts - so it seems that a psu is standard, you may just have a choice.Thermaltake also make psu's: http://www.thermaltake.com/purepower/fanlesspsu.htmI'll let others who know what they're on about fill you in on ram and cpu's.Jeff

[Guest LO006]

>Konrad, I really like the idea of funnel in your case, as>there ardent too many cases with that around these days, but>for some reason no matter how much I searched for your case, I>couldn't find it on Newegg.com. It would be a great if you>could possibly post a link to it please,I didn't find it on newegg. I check just to be sure and it wasn't there. I got my case at bestbuy. I don't know if they got that store around where you live. I think you can even buy the case off the internet off the bestbuy website. here's the URLhttp://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?sk...d=1091099784169

[Guest Captain Vala]

Ok well thank you all for the help... you helped me get the most I could get out of my buck!I think I'll be very happy to get this system... and if you guys are interested, I actually decided to go with the case called the Tsunami, made my Thermaltake.Vala