Here's a picture of her inside her case. You can see there's lots of room left before it would hit the drive bay.
Her case came with that silly passive cooling duct since it's a bit older. I think it might actually be one of the first Sonata's. I hate it and wouldn't have it in mine.

Here's a review of the III and they fit dual 8800GTS' in it.

 

Cool, thanks for the info guys! I didn't jump on the Sonata III deal so I'm going to wait and see if it goes back on sale.

In the mean time the Antec Solo case is $20 after $40 MIR with free shipping. I'm going to order it and sell it on eBay b/c I don't like the look of the case.

 

Hey Guys,

Well I'm purchasing the items.

I'm stuck on the processor though. Which won should I go with?

e6850
e6750
e8400

Thanks,

Duke

 

I would go with the best one that fit's your budget. I just got the e6850 and I like it. I don't think you could go wrong with any of the three.

 

If it will work with the MB, go with the E8400. It will be faster than the same speed 65nm processor.

 

Well I think it'll work with the Abit IP35 pro mobo (which I'm looking to get here in a little bit) but I'll double check.

Newegg says "Quad-core / Core 2 Extreme / Core 2 Duo / Pentium" for the Abit IP35 pro mobo and the e8400 is a "Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail" so it looks like it'll work.

I can't believe the e8400 is faster then the e6860 and yet the e8400 is a lot cheaper too. Though I've seen the price on the e8400 start to rise lately. I guess I'll jump on it while I can get it for $219.

Then again I just read that a quad core Q6600 would be the processor to have if I'm going to be ripping and playing dvd, HDDVD and HDTV.

Is that true, and should I just wait a month to see if the Q6600 will drop in price as I'm not in a huge hurry?

 

It might be worth the wait. I've had it backfire on me, though. Somedays, computer parts are cheap, others, they are higher than when you first saw the item. And it can be a fast market too... I'm pretty sure I saw a HDD change prices 2 or 3 times in one day on newegg.

 

Yeah I'm going to get the mobo as I doubt the abit ip35 pro will drop much below the $143 I found it at. As for the e8400 or q6600, I think I'll give it a week and I'll know how fast I want this done since I'll know if the offer when through on the house by then.

 

Quad will be better than a dual core for that kind of stuff, but then it is also a lot pricier. Do not assume the specs on Newegg are 100% right. Go to the manufacturer's site for the info. It may require a newer build of MB or a specific BIOS update to run the newer CPU. The E8xxx processors are 45nm technology while the E6xxx are 65nm. The 45nm will use less power and can be overclocked more the the older ones. Also with faster front side bus and more cache.

 

Checked the sites for each company and it looks like the e8400 and abit ip35 pro will work. Not sure the extra $60 for the Quad core q6600 would be worth it.

 

They also have new quads out that are 45nm. I expect they will be much pricier. As far as the 6600, I would also expect the 8400 would be better as the 6600 is 65nm and not as fast.

 

Yeah I just went through that Tom's site and did some comparisons between the q6600 and the e6850 since the e8400 wasn't available. I figured the e8400 would perform at least marginally better then the e6850, so I figured it would give a close idea.

The e6850 was better then the q6600 is half of the tests that related to dvds and HDDVD. Then add the fact the e8400 is a lot faster then the e6850 and runs cooler (good to keep noise of fans down) and then I have something that is faster then the q6600 is most all aspects. Almost to the point where sheer speed beats out the ability of a quad core.

 

Well I'm on my way in acquiring parts....

I got a little carried away so far though. I'm stuck on the hard drive and graphics card through:

1. I want to go 750 GB or 1 TB. However, apparently there are some problems with the Seagate 750 GB hard drives not recognizing the full 32 MB cache. The new firmware didn't fix it for a lot of users so I'm a little wary about jumping in. It's $179.99 for the Seagate 750 GB hard drive with 32 mb cache but I still want to wait and be sure it'll work approrpriately.

2. Graphics card dilema. I'm fairly confident I want to go with the 8800 GT. However, I'm a little nervous about getting one now since there is a rumored 9xxx series coming out either this month or next and I don’t know if I should wait for it to effect the 8800 GT price or if the introductory pricing on the 9xxx series will be competitive.

3. Surround sound. I have a surround sound receiver and speakers. However, don't I need an audio card or something of that nature for the HTPC?


Here is what I currently have:

1. Case and PSU: Sonata III w/ Earthwatts 500W
2. CPU: Intel e8400
3. 4 GB of Corsair memory (2 dims)
4. Abit IP35 pro mobo

 

The IP35 has good sound on the board, but if you are going to hand off to your surround sound reciever, you'll probably do so via an HDMI cable, right?
I'm pretty sure there is a header on the board to plug into your video card to supply sound through the DVI (HDMI) to your reciever.

 

Yup, HDMI. I'll read up on the board to find that header. Have you heard anything about the potential new video cards to see if they're really coming soon and if they'll drop the 8800 gt to around $200?