A couple of questions about mobo/psu/cooling

[Shmee150]

Hi,

I have a few simple questions:

Firstly, with an Asus A8N-SLi Premium and an Athlon X2 4800, how easy and reliable is the bios flash to the newest version for X2 support? Are there any known compatibility issues with USB and X2 or similar?

Secondly, what type of cooling/fan will I need to go over my X2? It's retail so I have no fan for it. Do I just need a Socket 939 cooling system of any type?

Thirdly, Are there any disadvantages to a Tagan 580W over one with less power? For instance would it be quieter for a smaller wattage? Or is it just initial cost?

Last but not least, my computer with the X2 4800, 7800, 3 HDDs, and a load of other stuff, will it need anything beyond the heat sinks on the ram, built in cooling on the gfx card, a fan i buy for the cpu, seperate in and out 8cm fans on the case. Is this going to be cool enough? What else should I be buying?

Thank you very much for your time,

ShMeE

[herulach]

Hi,

Secondly, what type of cooling/fan will I need to go over my X2? It's retail so I have no fan for it. Do I just need a Socket 939 cooling system of any type?

You mean OEM, if its retail and you have no cooler send it back. But the stock cooler for an x2 is a pretty impressive bit of metal, so get something decetn (xp90)

Thirdly, Are there any disadvantages to a Tagan 580W over one with less power? For instance would it be quieter for a smaller wattage? Or is it just initial cost?

Id doubt its much louder, if it has the same fan control as my 480 then the fan only spins up at high load anyway

Last but not least, my computer with the X2 4800, 7800, 3 HDDs, and a load of other stuff, will it need anything beyond the heat sinks on the ram, built in cooling on the gfx card, a fan i buy for the cpu, seperate in and out 8cm fans on the case. Is this going to be cool enough? What else should I be buying?

Thank you very much for your time,

ShMeE

Cool enough is a bit subjective, but probably not no, look into either a top blow hole or getting some 120mm intake/exhaust.

[Shmee150]

DARHHHH - I just typed a really long reply and it didn't post for some unknown reason becase I wasn't logged in so this is going to be a bit brief:

Thank you for taking the time to reply to my questions -

My CPU is OEM not retail, don't know why I wrote that - I was wondering if something like this Zalman thing is any good? http://www.overclock.co.uk/customer/...roductid=18007 - It would look good through my case window though

Thank you for clarifying the PSU thingy.

I don't really want to cut into my case in any way so would just getting a better pair of high quality 12cm fans do enough? By cool I meant along the lines of cool enough to run stably and not hot enough to damage any components.

Thanks again for your time,

ShMeE

[herulach]

There pretty good, there not that much better than the 92 mm one, and youll certainly be able to find it cheaper. That case has holes for 120mm, so use them yes, noisblocker are very quiet, as are panaflos, You should be set then, although i dont know quite how much heat 7800s kick out.

[Shmee150]

Do I want a heat sink like this; http://www.overclock.co.uk/customer/...roductid=17502 on the cpu below the fan? Or is a fan alone good enough? I know that's only a 92mm heatsink, but I could easily get the corresponding Zalman one or equivalent.

I can't find any UK retailers that have the Noisblockers or Panaflos' which is annoying, should anything do the job? Are Antec any good? something like this: http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=79901

Thanks again for all of the help so far,

ShMeE