upgrade options - CPU? GPU? Both?

[lost eden]

Probably going to order this later on today (looking at the clock it seems it is already Monday morning!);



I figured I may as well go all out & buy the HDT-1283 along with some TIM-cleaner for the Pentium & some decent thermal paste, as I plan for this machine to last me many years & the processor will eventually be replaced with something more powerful.

The Gainward 8600GT looks quite nice too, for the price. I eventually decided there wasn't much point spending more than £50 on a card as I'm not going to be spending a lot of time gaming & a silent card will be nice for the rest of the time. I've been pleased with the slient Gainward 8400GS I've got atm, now I'm going to get it's bigger brother! It's the first 8600GT I've seen with a HDMI port too, even though I have no use for it (yet).

That should arrive on Tuesday, but I've got a miniature radio-controlled helicopter arriving today to keep me occupied 'til then thanks to Thursday's Today Only offers!

[staffsMike]

I've got the 8500GT version of that gainward.. very nice cards Mine runs under 45 degrees too.

[Dano]

I am also using the Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound, it is a great product which reduce extra 3~5 C of my CPU temperature (compare with the standard one came with the CPU package).

For the CPU cleaning product part I am using ACETONE which only cost 99p from local Pharmacy

[lost eden]

For the CPU cleaning product part I am using ACETONE which only cost 99p from local Pharmacy

But the Akasa stuff is citrus scented!

Edit: just my luck, the graphics card is in stock at 1am but out of stock & with no ETA when I came to make the order at 11am!

Edit2: now I'm really annoyed, the graphics card has disappeared from Scan's website, what's going on?

[lost eden]

Finally got the new card this morning (from a guy on eBay who had bought it from Scan by mistake!) & I've got the CPU running at 2GHz. BIG improvement, I wasn't expecting this much!

[cobhc]

Looks good. But I'd have the HSF facing the back of the case, so it exhausts out that fan. Unless you've got the fan on the heatsink blowing air into the heatsink and the exhaust drawing air out of the other side of it.

Also unless I'm being a complete noob. Do you have an external SATA Adaptor you're using to Raid those Barracuda's? Only it doesn't look like it, and the IP35-E doesn't have onboard RAID does it?

[lost eden]

Looks good. But I'd have the HSF facing the back of the case, so it exhausts out that fan. Unless you've got the fan on the heatsink blowing air into the heatsink and the exhaust drawing air out of the other side of it.

Airflow is from right to left as you look at the photo. Fan on the heatsink blows through the heatsink to the exhaust fan that blows out the back of the case.

Also unless I'm being a complete noob. Do you have an external SATA Adaptor you're using to Raid those Barracuda's? Only it doesn't look like it, and the IP35-E doesn't have onboard RAID does it?

I've got 2x 320GB SATAII Barracudas (bottom 2 disks in the photo) & 1x 320GB IDE Barracuda in the 5.25" enclosure at the very top of the case. I'm using mdadm to handle software RAID.