Stopped by the store today and discovered some (ahem, a LOT of) stuff...
1st thing:
ATI 800 XL card (of course retail, it's from a physical store!) PCIEx. $249.95 I figured online it would be lower $200s, but to my discovery the cheapest OEM versions I find are a fair chunk above $300!
It's tempting to buy.
2nd thing:
The Belkin Isolators are now only $19.99. I am talking about the BIG one! Extremely tempting, they are supposed to be like 80 or 90 so bucks.
3rd thing:
The CM Stacker seems alright. Better than expected, but still not as thick and strong as my Compaq Case. Not quite as big as I thought as it does not have space above the psu like my case currently has, so it's only maybe 2 inches taller than mine. This is good. I would just be looking for a system that can hold a water cooling setup descently, with room for A LOT of harddrives, I'd figure water cool them so each one harddrive needs to take two slots up. They didn't have Lian-Li, but I'd like to see one. I don't know if I want the Stacker, I have mixed feelings. If I water cooled the case I wouldn't want the pre cut holes on the top, left, and right.
4th thing:
I tested out some raid 0 36gb raptors, nice improvement! Noticable. It's hard to guage sound levels at a store, but I wonder if the 74gb's are quieter?
Other things:
The fanless Antec 350w is heavy, looks better than most power supplies of equal or less price. The Modular psus look and feel like s*it. I also could pick up a (or more) WD SE 160gb drives for $49.99, again tempting, I want raid now! .........................................
Man, so much new stuff since my little ol' P4C from the mid '03 era. I need a new system. I guess I better start saving. Once dual core comes out for amd I am going to absolutely require it! There is only one thing I don't understand, if a single core 2.2ghz AMD is rated about 3400+ then why is dual core 2.2ghz (4.4ghz) rated at 4400+, shouldn't it be a 6800+? Or did they redesign the numbering scheme?
ATI 800 XL card (of course retail, it's from a physical store!) PCIEx. $249.95 I figured online it would be lower $200s, but to my discovery the cheapest OEM versions I find are a fair chunk above $300!
It's tempting to buy.2nd thing:
The Belkin Isolators are now only $19.99. I am talking about the BIG one! Extremely tempting, they are supposed to be like 80 or 90 so bucks.
3rd thing:
The CM Stacker seems alright. Better than expected, but still not as thick and strong as my Compaq Case. Not quite as big as I thought as it does not have space above the psu like my case currently has, so it's only maybe 2 inches taller than mine. This is good. I would just be looking for a system that can hold a water cooling setup descently, with room for A LOT of harddrives, I'd figure water cool them so each one harddrive needs to take two slots up. They didn't have Lian-Li, but I'd like to see one. I don't know if I want the Stacker, I have mixed feelings. If I water cooled the case I wouldn't want the pre cut holes on the top, left, and right.
4th thing:
I tested out some raid 0 36gb raptors, nice improvement! Noticable. It's hard to guage sound levels at a store, but I wonder if the 74gb's are quieter?
Other things:
The fanless Antec 350w is heavy, looks better than most power supplies of equal or less price. The Modular psus look and feel like s*it. I also could pick up a (or more) WD SE 160gb drives for $49.99, again tempting, I want raid now! .........................................
Man, so much new stuff since my little ol' P4C from the mid '03 era. I need a new system. I guess I better start saving. Once dual core comes out for amd I am going to absolutely require it! There is only one thing I don't understand, if a single core 2.2ghz AMD is rated about 3400+ then why is dual core 2.2ghz (4.4ghz) rated at 4400+, shouldn't it be a 6800+? Or did they redesign the numbering scheme?
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