Comments/advice On My Upgrade Plan Sought

[PlatinumFX]

Hey

I currently plan to get this equipment and thanks to extensive help from Wildcard among other people and sources; I am 75% settled on what I will be getting. Please, fire away with any criticisms or better ideas if you have them. N.B. I dont plan to get anything (except the case) until atleast April.

Case -
Antec P160W (buying 2nd hand off a mate)
Its already received some modding to accomodate a water cooling setup but I will be using air. Eventually with the kind help of iMess, the end result will be for it to have two 120mm fan mounts on the top. N.B. No side fan.

Case fans and configuration -
My carefully crafted Turner prize entry below details two possible ways I might arrange the cooling in my case to optimum levels.

Which configuration do you think would be the best? 2 makes more sense to me simply based on "heat rises" principles. But then config 1 gets more cold air in, plus allows me to use a PCI slot blower "thingy" to exhaust more air out.
For the fans themselves, I would like to use 120mm blue LED fans. Any reccomendations on makes/models that deliver reasnable throughput at <40 db volumes? Or I could employ high CFM fans, and use a fan speed controller to optomise their volume (ie. turn the buggers down when I am not gaming and... god forbid... working!). Reccomendations for both please.

Processor / Cooler -
I am looking to acquire a Opteron 165/170 and based on reasearch and reccomendations from Wildcard, have reason to believe these steppings would be good ones to get:

CABYE/CAB2E/CABNE >> 0535 to 0542
CCBWE >> 0550 UPMW
CCBWE >> 0530 TPMW
CCB1E >> 0550 VPMW

Any comments, additions to what steppings I should consider. I am aiming to reach atleast 2.6 really.
What voltage can I expect an Opteron to tolerate before it pops? 1.7?

This setup will be on air cooling. Probably either an Thermalright XP-90C or a Thermaltake Big Typhoon. In the case of the Thermalright, a 92mm fan suggestion would be appreciated.
Could I realistically expect a < 40db fan to deliver enough air to reach the speeds im hoping for (2.8 +) ? If not, dont hesitate to reccomend something louder if it will get me there. OFC for the CPU fan, quality is also of higher importance than the general case fans.

Motherboard -
Either a MSI K8N Diamond / K8N Platinum or the DFI Lanparty UT nF4 SLI-D. I would prefer the hardware audio solution of the either of those MSI's but if the DFI would be more helpful in hitting those magical 2.7+ speeds, I'll get that.

Memory -
2GB Crucial Ballistix PC4000.

PSU -
Assuming I want headroom to OC the CPU and RAM, and running a high end (though just the one!) gfx card like a 7800GTX/7900GTX, I will probably be getting a Tagan 580w EasyCon U15 ATX/BTX PSU.

GFX / SATA HDD -
Ill sort what actual models of these I want closer to the time of the bank robbery... erm I mean purchase.

Theres alot there but I appreciate greatly any and all advice given. I'm spending a heck of alot of cash I cant afford to make mistakes!
Thank you in advance.

[Madafwo]

The only real thing I can comment on is the fans, neither is the best solution, It might be an idea to have the two top fans as far apart as possible if you are set on having two at the top. and have the closest to the front as an intake and the one further back as an exhaust

I only have two lowish CFM fans on my case and it works fine, I guess I would have to say only go for only the one blow hole and having it exhausting air, one at the front as an intake, the one at the back as an exhaust and the pci exhaust fan if you want more air flow.

The rest of the spec looks pretty good, although I have been hearing good things about G.Skill Ram at the moment but I cant confirm how good it is.

Also, getting hold of a 165/170 is like trying to find rocking horse droppings.

Can vouch for Tagan's being a rock solid PSU, but if you dont mind going non-modular then the Seasonic's are also top quality.

HDD's from what I've heard, Spinpoints for low noise Deskstars for speed.

[PlatinumFX]

Thx for your thoughts Madafwo.

Re. the fans; im going to go with config B. but some time in the future, I will add two intake fans over the GFX card and CPU.

[ajones]

I have to agree with Madafwo. I go with exhaust fans at the back and top, and intake on the front. Then use your CPU/GFX/chipset heatsinks to transfer the heat from your active components into the air flow generated by your case fans.

[turgid]

I gonna build a very similar system, might get the DFI aswell, or maybe the asus a8n sli SE