Ready to Buy - Last minute advice

[Hullz-Modz]

Hi guys, i'm trying to build myself a nice silent system for a change

Heres the last 3 components i need to complete the system, any advice, queries, cheaper products or anything at all, please let me know before i order these on the 3/1/2006.

Motherboard: Asus A8N-SLi Premium NF4 S939 DDR400 PCI-E SATA Raid Gbit Lan 8Ch Audio.
PSU: 580W HiperPower Type-R Modular Blue PSU Quiet Dbl Fan aPFC ATX2.2 20/24 Pin.
GFX: 256Mb Sapphire PCI-E ATI X800GTO Ultimate GDDR3 TV DVI Retail.

Components i already have:

CPU: Opteron 146 (on its way, so unsure of stepping yet).
CPU Cooler: Thermaltake Big Typhoon 16dba s939.
RAM: MUSHKIN 991434 2x 1GB RAM, CAS 2-3-2-6, DDR 400 (PC3200) 184-pin 2.6-2.8V.

And the usually HDs, DVD-RWs etc etc.

Upgrading from (Soon to be for sale):

CPU: Athlon 3000+ 64bit Newcastle s754.
CPU Cooler: Stock Heatsink + Fan.
Motherboard: Asus K8V-SE Deluxe S754 VIA k8t800 ATX Sound Gig lAN Firewire USB 2.0 FSB 800.
RAM: 2x 512mb Generic, CAS 2.5-3-3-8, DDR 400 (PC3200) 184-pin.
PSU: Thermaltake Purepower Butterfly 480w.
GFX: ATI Radeon 9800SE, 256mb, 256bit AGP x8.
Sound: Creative Sound Blaster Live! 24bit 5.1 Surround Sound.

[sawyen]

I heard them Ultimate cards run very very hot... And keeping sufficient airflow thru the passive sinks just translate to higher noise.. u cud just settle for a normal GTO or GTO2 and pay £20 more for a Zalman VF... just as quiet, tons cooler...

[Nox]

Would it make more sense to get a crossfire board for an ATI card? Or get an nvidia gfx card? Am I right in thinking you're needlessly blocking off a potential upgrade path?

Nox

[Hullz-Modz]

I doubt i'm going to head down the crossfire path. If i did, it would probably be on a new socket type, so the system would be a rehaul anyway.

Thinking of getting the Powercolor x850xt , but not sure whether to replace the stock cooler with a Zalman VF or Artic Cooler Rev 5.

Seems the Zalman is actually quieter by alot: 18.5dba Zalman = 30dba (0.5sone) Artic Cooler.