Forum Overview :: American McGee's Honda Civic :: You are insane

[quote name="McMoo The Anti-Drug Cow"]I'm going with the 'only play poker and Q3' line and run with it here. I'm not sure what you are doing with all of the server-type components so here's what I suggest. # Case: Why on earth do you need 12 drive bays? Get an Antec P180 - good, quiet case. # CPU: Athlon X2 4200, I think the stock cooler is fairly quiet, you could go up to a nice big heatpipe cooler and a fan controller to cut the noise down. # Motherboard: PCIe and ECC memory support are the main things. 6-8 (or more) SATA ports would be a plus. Again, why you need ECC memory or will have 6-8 drives I have no clue (4 terabytes of porn?). I really like the ASUS A8N-VM from ASUS for more of a 'starter' gaming system. It has an onboard Geforce 6100 (no noisy video card fan) and if that doesn't have enough grunt there is a PCIe slot so you can throw in a 7900GTX when you win the lottery. # Memory: 2GB ECC, choice here seems extremely limited. Kingston and Corsair have affordable parts, so I guess I go with them? A 2GB matched set from Corsair is always the way to go. # Power: Antec 500w fanless. $80 more than the equivalent fanned part from Antec, which seems fair. I have no problems with that. # Video: Undecided. I only play Q3 and online poker. I may play BF2 someday, but no promises. I went with ATI for my current PC and missed the nvidia driver experience, so I'd like to go back to nvidia, IF I CAN. Modest power requirements and low operating noise are more important than performance; it would also be nice if the card wasn't half a square foot in size. I'm looking for the Honda Civic (or entry-level Accord) of video cards here. See Mobos above. # Storage: WD Raptor SATA 74GB (x2). This is for the system disk, pagefile, and my poker handhistory database. It chafes me to spend so much on so little space, but my attempts to get 10krpm performance from arrays of 7200rpm drives have been universally disappointing; I see no alternative. DO YOU? Get two of the 2nd generation Raptors, they go up to 150 GB now.[/quote]