"Jim Charter" <jrc### [at] msncom> wrote in message 
news:4b5b1ea6$1@news.povray.org...
> That is pretty much the system I just bought, and pretty much the system I 
> replaced, in pretty much the same time frame.  (I bought that 3200+ also 
> around early '03, just after I lost my job, knowing that I would not be 
> able to rationalize buying a system for a long while hence.)

Being able to "afford" is not the issue.  There are always credit cards, 
loans, etc.  It's the ability to rationalize or justify the purchase that 
allows me to finally make the decision.  But, it's certainly easier to 
justify if you have some money set aside.

> I put in an additional 4Gb Ram, bought separately, for a total of 8Gb
>
> Put in the GeForce 9500 w 512Ram
> Asus P55 LE version
> Lighter hd because I like to have everything external now.

The 9800 card (now it's a 250) is often cited as the most bang for the buck, 
at least from what I had read.  I'm still not sure if I'm going to be doing 
that much gaming, though, other than Flight Simulator.  I guess I just 
figure that for a few more bucks, why not?  Similarly with the i7-860 over 
the i5-750 (no hyper-threading).  Or I may opt for the i7-920, but the 
mobo's are more expensive, so the 860 seemed like the sweet spot there.

> Got a full- instead of mini- tower.  Trade-offs there are as expected. My 
> fam-dambly mocks the size, and it is less convenient for propping my feet 
> up, but with all the space, and liquid cooling, the perpetual overheating 
> problems I had with my old Athlon 3200+ minitower, seem to have vanished. 
> And I love the bank of USB on the front.

Liquid cooling?  *drool*

On a side note.  My 3200+ had been running at 60C when idle.  It was 
approaching 70 under load.  I knew that was hotter than it used to be, and 
it had been getting warmer and warmer over the years.  I figured the 
heatsink was clogged, but I just kept turning up my fan speed.  Last 
weekend, I finally decided to clean it out.  It's now running at 45 C idle, 
with the fan turned all the way down.  I felt both happy and stupid at the 
same time, because it was so easy to do.  I had forgotten that it would run 
with a temp that low.

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