Ok im looking at getting a new case, mobo, maybe ram(though not sure on this as I would like to stick with what I have at the moment), and cpu. Now for the case i was thinkin of a lian li, maybe the 61 or 60. The mobo would hopefully be the asus av7n8x duluxe and an amd 2500+ barton core cpu. Now my questions are, surrounding the ram cpu and mobo. Do i have to buy the ram, i already have pc 2700 ddr ram and was hoping i could get away without upgrading untill later. Also the mobo, is it any good. Does it use a raid array on the IDE controller, i will eventually upgrade to SATA drives but not at the moment. Lastly the cpu, now i got a bit confuzed with the 2500+ barton, is it better than the 2500+ thunderbird? i didn't really get the difference. Any input would be helpfull thanks G{u}ns [EDIT]Also good recomendations on a QUIET HSF would be good as im not sure how to cool this one. As quiet as poss for as cold as poss[/EDIT]
The Tbird core has a Front side bus of 133 (x 2 = 266 DDR) and an on chip cache of 256k. The barton core has a FSB of 166 ( x 2 = 333 DDR) and an on chip cache of 512 k. Your 2700 DDR ram is rated to 333 speed ( the 2700 relates to bandwidth rather than bus speed, just to be confusing) so is ok with either a Tbird or Barton core. For a motherboard roundup see here http://www.overclockers.co.nz/ocnz/mobo/amd/nforce2/nf2ktroundup/f1.shtml I think the Asus Deluxe is the only one with on board Raid. For coolers, cold + quiet = cost, with diminishing returns. Check out this review http://www.dansdata.com/coolercomp.htm The Alpha8045 , Thermalright 600,700,800 and Swiftech are tops, but need appropriate mounting holes. Or go for cheaper Taisol, Globalwin ranges.
