2 pc's - upgrade advice please

[Grimley]

Thought I'd post here, everyone here seems to give pretty good advice.

I have 2 rigs, 1 for Gaming & Hi-def content, 1 for general use (& back up gaming rig).
Specs as follows

Gaming rig.

ASUS P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600.
2Gb CorsairTwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC6400.
Artic cooling freezer 7 Pro
250 Gb Western Digital Hard Drive.
Corsair HX520 Power Supply.
512MB MSI 8600GTS (deeply disappointed by this card, its less powerful than the card below & its not quiet either, only bought it for the HDMI interface so I flogging it & getting another card instead)
Sony/NEC Optiarc DVD Writer
Thermaltake Tsunami Dream Silver Case. (possible upgrade?)

My TV (Toshiba 27WL56) doubles as a computer monitor for the Gaming rig.

General use rig.
Silverstone TJ08 Silver Micro ATX Case.
AMD Athlon 64x2 4600+ Socket 939 Dual Core CPU. (going in dads rig)
430w Seasonic S12-430 Power Supply.
512MB MSI 7900GTO, PCI-E (x16) Graphics Card.
250 Gb Western Digital Hard Drive.
Asus A8M-VM CSM MBP mobo (selling)
1 gig PC3200 DDR RAM. (going in dads rig too)
Sony/NEC Optiarc DVD Writer

Have already bought 2gig Crucial ballistix for the next set of upgrades, probably one upgrade b4 xmas & 1 after

Gonna rebuild the Gaming rig completely (quietness is the issue in this one)

New case – Antec solo or P180/182
New mobo – owned a few of these now for about 4 years now – no problems at all (opinions) need a spdif or toslink output on it though (& DTS if poss)
Optical – getting the LG Hi-def drive now out LG GGW-H20L
Keep the E6600 in there, or go for the Q6600, or wait for the Penryn range to be extended (opinions again) or go back to AMD (Phenom or 5000 black edition?)
Graphics – been an nvidia man since 2001, but these Ati 3800 cards look a better bet as the rig will primarily be used for HD & less for gaming – looking at the Powercolor 3850xtreme with the integrated HDMI again. (opinions again) unless Nvidia have something identical for the same money or in the pipeline
Soundcard, not sure on this one. My amp has a 6.1 or 7.1 input & I want to input 7.1 HD sound into it, or just leave it & use the spdif/optical
I want a quieter cooler than the Artic, thought about the Zalman 9700, don’t want a cooler that’s a pig to fit (like the artic was) or stupidly massive (like the tuinq tower) opinions again

General use (& back up gaming rig)

I want to try O/C, thinking about getting an E2180 if the E6600 is staying put in rig 1. My only concern is the issue of heat in the TJ08 despite the fact it has 120mm fans front & back – it gets a bit toasty in the top of this case!

I would like a Asus board again but I’m of the opinion that Matx boards arent good for O/C – want 3gig stable if poss out of the E2180 – if you advise against it the E6600 will go in this one instead & it will run at stock.

Want this rig to take the gaming/hidef rig CPU at some point in the future too.

Please note I have 2 pcs because both my Nephews when they come round want to play different games at the same time & tantrums occur when it doesn’t happen –done this just to keep the peace!

Budget – don’t want to go over £1k for both if poss.

All opinions welcome –TA!

[Pob255]

Cooler, Thermalright Ultima-90 (not not ultra 90) you need a fan to go with it, a good 120mm (Scythe S-Flex 800rpm )

[vinnyT]

For the moment stick with the E6600, wait for the penrynns to come out (then wait a month or two till the prices level out).

New case, not much better than the antec 180/182, good cabling, great cooling, not too good if considering water cooling, other than that, great.

The new ati 38xx cards are getting great reviews, but then, so are the nvidea 8800gt cards, not much between them. I think (from reading reviews) that the ati cards are slightly better for HD.

I would leave the SC and just use the onboard sound, very good these days, if you're not happy with it then it's easy to upgrade later on with say, an Auzentech X-Fi Prelude 7.1.

Not supprised that you are dissapointed with the 8600gts, terrible series of cards, not even on parr with the 79xx cards.