Well... the cruel world of the computer gods are not looking favorably on my new build... Hit post code 25 and have to swap parts to figure out if its the video or the motherboard...

Other than that, the case kicks ass! I had all fans turned on high and I could swear I saw it hover above my bench.

As mentioned, the case is a little lacking in clearance for the video card. I had to use the bottom PCIe slot in order to connect the power to the card.

Also, Tank... did you have two hard drives installed? If so, How did you get the plastic cover to snap on completely? I can get one set of connectors to lock, but the others are hitting the side of the second hard drive.

I love my ZEROtherm Nirvana

It outperforms the Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme. Also, you dont have to attach the fan, one reason I didn't go for Thermalright.

Also the ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro is a big hit over at Newegg, but it doesn't look at cool as the Zalman or Nirvana imo.

I also would recommend the Zalmans 92mm or 110mm too, you can get the 92 version if you dont think your case can handle the big ones. And you dont have to attach the fan on it either.

Well, I finally got my entire system built and running and I must say, the Q6600 has to be one of the most versatile under rated chips on the market.

(I ended up giving the 6700 to a friend and buying me a 6600).

End specs I have it running at 3.2 right now and plan on cranking it to 3.6 as soon as I break in the rest of the system.

A few thoughts...

The 900 case rocks. It's loud as hell on medium fan settings, but there was plenty of room and more than enough air movement in the case to satisfy almost anyone.

The PSU was one of the best modular PSU's I've worked with and would recommend it to anyone.

I ended up with an XFX 780i motherboard over the EVGA (the evga was proving too buggy for me). The only issue I have with this board is the placement of the SATA 1 and 2 connectors. Not a really big deal, but still kind of annoying.

The OC'd 8800GT has been rock solid. The corsair 8500 dominator ram has been a speed demon as well.

The Q6600 and the Zalman CNPS9700 rock. And I mean rock... I waffled on going duel core, but I'm so glad I ended up with the Q6600 at 3.2 its blowing away my expectations and with the air flow and current temps, I'm pretty sure 3.6 won't be a problem.

I ended up loading Vista 64 Ultimate and have not had one issue, hic-up, or crash yet (knock on wood). Everything I've thrown at it has worked. I haven't found any issues getting 64 bit drivers either. I would highly recommend the switch now that service pack 1 has cleared up many of the issues that turned me off originally.

Sounds like your sytem will rock

I might could use some help here. Last October I bought a Gateway Quad core, not the best sysytem but not bad. I dont play many games and was not planning on playing AOC but changed my mind after checking it out,. I was happy about buying a new puter when I decided to paly. Now I find that what I thought was a decent system aint that great.

What I want to know is this. I WILL NOT buy a new puter like 6 months after buying one., Would I be beter off just running two graphics cards or just suffer through with what I got? Or if you got any other relatively inexpensive ideas I would be very appreciative.

Hi guys! I'm planning on building a new rig soon as well, my current Dell built machine just doesn't cut it. I've built in the past, I'm not really sure what compelled me to order from Dell this last time, but what a mistake that was. Back to building for me!

Here's what I'm currently looking at....

Case: Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - $119.99
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - $89.99
GPU: MSI NX8800GT 512M OC GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - $184.99
PSU: PC Power & Cooling S610EPS 610W Continuous @ 40°C EPS12V Power Supply - $104.99
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - $194.99
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory -$144.99
HD: Seagate Barracuda ES.2 ST3250310NS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $79.99
DVD: Pioneer 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model DVR-115DBK - $29.99
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit English 1pk DSP OEI DVD - $99.99

Extras: Logitech UltraX Silver/Black USB Standard Media Keyboard - $18.99
Logitech MX518 2-Tone 8 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB + PS/2 Wired Optical Gaming-Grade Mouse - $39.99
APEVIA CF12SL-UBL 120mm Blue LED Case Fan - $7.49
OKGEAR 36" SATA II cable, UV Blue Model GC36AUBM - $2.49

Total: $1118.87

The idea behind this rig was to keep it below $1k, but I decided that I wanted to splurge a little here and there... I'm looking for a little bit of feedback. I've read everyone's discussion about the 900 case and I'm ready to deal with a little bit of loud fan noise for extra cooling.

stratien wrote:I might could use some help here. Last October I bought a Gateway Quad core, not the best sysytem but not bad. I dont play many games and was not planning on playing AOC but changed my mind after checking it out,. I was happy about buying a new puter when I decided to paly. Now I find that what I thought was a decent system aint that great.

What I want to know is this. I WILL NOT buy a new puter like 6 months after buying one., Would I be beter off just running two graphics cards or just suffer through with what I got? Or if you got any other relatively inexpensive ideas I would be very appreciative.

First, does your Gateway motherboard support SLI? Some motherboards only have one PCIe slot, so you might be stuck with the single card. Also, what's the graphics card that came with it? How much ram does the system have?

At the worst, you can upgrade your card and ram for under $250, but depending on what you have, you might just be a victim of video drivers (which are free).

rhyzen wrote:Hi guys! I'm planning on building a new rig soon as well, my current Dell built machine just doesn't cut it. I've built in the past, I'm not really sure what compelled me to order from Dell this last time, but what a mistake that was. Back to building for me!

Here's what I'm currently looking at....

Case: Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - $119.99
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - $89.99
GPU: MSI NX8800GT 512M OC GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - $184.99
PSU: PC Power & Cooling S610EPS 610W Continuous @ 40°C EPS12V Power Supply - $104.99
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - $194.99
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory -$144.99
HD: Seagate Barracuda ES.2 ST3250310NS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $79.99
DVD: Pioneer 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model DVR-115DBK - $29.99
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit English 1pk DSP OEI DVD - $99.99

Extras: Logitech UltraX Silver/Black USB Standard Media Keyboard - $18.99
Logitech MX518 2-Tone 8 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB + PS/2 Wired Optical Gaming-Grade Mouse - $39.99
APEVIA CF12SL-UBL 120mm Blue LED Case Fan - $7.49
OKGEAR 36" SATA II cable, UV Blue Model GC36AUBM - $2.49

Total: $1118.87

The idea behind this rig was to keep it below $1k, but I decided that I wanted to splurge a little here and there... I'm looking for a little bit of feedback. I've read everyone's discussion about the 900 case and I'm ready to deal with a little bit of loud fan noise for extra cooling.

Not bad components at all. I would make a few suggestions however. The PSU is one of the most import pieces of the build. Skimping in that department is not worth it. I would upgraded it to a Thermaltake/Antec or other solid PSU maker. The few extra bucks will be well worth it.

Secondly, I can't stress this enough for people building PC's. You need two drives. One main drive running at least 10k RPM for your OS and main application. You will definitely reap the rewards. The second drive at 7200 RPM to hold all your other programs and files.