Very good but for most peroposes a 7200k drive STAT 2 16mb is just as fast as a raptor for most things, chances are he will see little if any difference. Forget the Fatal1ty cool just get the same modle but without Fatal1ty on it save a little bit. For gaming soon you might need 2gigs of ram but you can always do that later. Graphics card any 7800GT will do BFG has a life time warranty. On bord will do if you ever need anything else later the XFI from creative is said to be very good, but this is just my opinion, the other guys might have a better idea.
Butch, the raptor is for OS performance. It will load a lot quicker than any 7200 drive. It will bost games quite a bit as well. the fedility is the only zalman I can find that supports AM2.. yes, if you need 2gb of memory, try getting 1 x 1gb, not 4 x 512mb. just if you need it. most games will run comfortably with 1gb as long as you have most of your programs off. I'm not sure on graphics, I let Xelink do that bit. that ASUS has nice sound on the board. I would only go to creative's XFI if I was watching alot of movies on there.. Creative is the 1337est sound around.
Do you want to wait 'till conroe is out? And in 2007 Vista comes out and DX10 too, not sure if it's good enough for wait for... but k. And the case (aspire x-cruise) is also availible in other colors, I might buy the same case in black too And about the HS, I think the stock one will do, but if your oC'ing then you might need a better one, just get the boxed version of the 3800 and you should be fine if you dont oc. About the graphics card, there are several good cards, the x800gto, which xelink already mentiond for a low budget system. A 1800xt (not sure 256mb/512?) or a 7900GT are good cards for gaming. I've heard EVGA has a 7900GT card which is standard @ 600/1600 and you can OC it to 665/1850 and then you have the same/better performance as a 7900GTX, but this card is 100$more then a normal 7900GT, still cheaper however then a 7900gtx. If you're on a budget, but still want a nice card, get the 7600.
some of those things are pretty sweet, i might go with a few of those. Thanks for the help. Ill update it when i know exactly what im getting
don't bother with a zalman just use stock fan... you only need an after market cooler if you're going to OC and if you are, getr an opteron 165... then see if you need it after the OC... for me, my motherboards the limiting factor... stock cooling on my 165 is excellent... most people get atleast 2.4GHz on stock voltage 2.6ish on stock cooling... though newegg is carrying the CCB1E stepping right now which is quite good... get a 165 if you plan on OCing... amazing in games... EDIT: nvm didn't see it was AM2... well g2g be back later... after work... XMASTERS recomendations are fine... just slap in an x1800XT for $220 and you're set...
Ok, and i was never really clear on what overclocking was. . . could anyone help me out =(maybe a definition?)
ok, thanks. whats the advantage of having two HDs? Does it run better if you dont put the system on the same HD as you put everything elese?
ok. the raptor i posted above runs at 10,000 rpm, which transfers data faster than a 7,200. you can pout Windows and your games and software on the raptor, and just save your psd's, movies, music, etc. on the 7200 drive. from what I said above, the raptor is faster, so it will be faster in starting up your computer, and other programs. treat the 7200 as storage. In case Windows ever goes down, you'll still have all your work saved on a secondary drive.
