I am reconsidering my upgrade. I have been looking at Monarch Computers as well. However, I have two questions. 1> They use Shin-Etsu thermal grease; how good is it? 2> Their best heatsink fan combo is the Thermaltake A1772 offered with the Abit AV8 90mm A64 3000+ combo I am looking to perhaps buy; how good is the Thermaltake A1772 for overclocking the super overclockable 90mm A64 3000+ chip?RHAthlon XP 2800 (2250Mhz) OCd (2240Mhz)1Gb of 3200 SDRAMASUS KT400 WD Special Edition 80Gb (8meg cache)ATL 9800 Pro 128Mb

Shin Etsu is quite good though Arctic Silver 3 or 5 is better but easy to apply later yourself. You can use Isopropanol or Isopropylalcohole (don

Thanks for the info!The AV8 is a K8T-800 board. It uses AGP. The reason I would go for that one is because I currently am using a VIA chipset (and don't want to do a fresh install of Windows) and I currently am using the ATI 9800 Pro. I just want to pop in the new board/CPU combo and hook up my current hard drive and go. I want it to be a minimally painstaking process.Any thoughts?RH

I wouldn

"I wouldn

Thanks guys for the information. The AV8 is supposed to be one of the best overclockable MBs, and the Winchester 3000+ is supposed to be one of the best overclockable chips to come out in years. I was just hoping I could move my HD from my current KT400 board to the new 800 board with minimal headaches, but from what you are telling me, that won't be possible. I just have so much installed on my current rig that I don't want to have to do it all again... I don't have a week to sit down at my computer. :(RH

Hi Robbie, just an idea; click yourself through the Abit USA forum and perhaps verify which board version has 'the lock'? AFAIK, some older ones didn't have it. Then, all you need is a guarantee from your vendor, it actually is that specific board version. IMHO, you should be able to swap them without hassles. Only if you're running winXP-SP2, it could be a bit tricky. As of SP2, Via and MS recommend to NOT use the AGP bit of the 4in1 driver. Good luck and kind regards Jaap Using an unlocked 754 Abit AV8-pro v.1.0... 3 weeks after my purchase, the v.1.1 had the lock!

I appreciate the information. What's the difference between a locked and an unlocked version? Thanks,RH

"What's the difference between a locked and an unlocked version?"The PCI bus runs at 33Mhz and the AGP bus runs at 66 Mhz. But in reality they are both on the same bus. In order to overclock successfully the bus must be locked. In the past not locking the bus proved to be a weak point for overclockers as some device on the bus would go goofy when the FSB was increased too far (which often was not very far at all for overclockers).Because I'm an overclocker I wouldn't even consider a motherboard that doesn't have a bus lock.Monarch are very good about making sure the boards they assemble have the latest BIOS. Jaap mentioned about asking them before buying about the AV8's bus lock, and that certainly is a good idea. Abit released some early versions of the board without a lock but recent versions all have the lock.Bottom line... make sure Monarch sends a board that can be bus locked.Greg

Thanks Greg for the info! It's clearer now. I think I have read bits of that information several times before, but it never has come together.RH