Looking for some expert advice on my future gaming/3D Modeling box. I don't know enough to tell if this will all piece together or not. Also looking for advice on a better APEVIA PSU, and a decent cooling system for the CPU (Plan on over clocking it to at least 2.7Ghz) and cooling for the video card (at sometime dual cards).

BTW, I'll be dual booting windows (Maya3D support) and Open Suse (whatever ver. happens to be current at the time).

Case:

* APEVIA X-CRUISER-BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case



PSU:

* APEVIA ATX-AS680W-BL ATX12V / EPS12V 680W Power Supply

Dual +12V: Yes
Efficiency: > 70%
Fans: 3
Hold-up Time: >10ms at full load
Main Connector: 20 + 4Pin
Over Voltage Protection: Yes
PCI-E Connectors: 2 x 6Pin
PFC: No
Power Good Signal: 100-500ms
SLI Support: Yes
* Model #: ATX-AS680W-BL

Thinking about getting another one. In the reviews it states that the 8800 gtx does not run with it. Not that I'm using the 8800 gtx but just in case at a latter time I want to get something simular. I would rather stick with a APEVIA PSU to fit the APEVIA case.


CPU:

* AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+(65W) Windsor 2.2GHz Socket AM2 Processor Model ADO4200CUBOX - Retail


* 64 bit Support: Yes
* HT: 2000MHz
* Hyper-Transport Support: Yes
* L1 Cache: 128KB+128KB
* L2 Cache: 2 x 512KB
* Multi-Core: Dual-Core
* Process Type: 90 nm
* Series: Athlon 64 X2
* Virtualization Technology Support: Yes
* Vista Ready: Yes

I've read about this being OC to 3.2Ghz, but it becomes unstable - 2.7Ghz seems max.


Motherboard:

* EPoX EP-MF570SLI Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD



* AGP Slots: None
CPU Type: Athlon 64 X2 / Athlon 64 FX / Athlon 64
Dual Channel Supported: Yes
FSB: 1000MHz Hyper Transport (2000 MT/s)
Maximum Memory Supported: 16GB
Memory Standard: DDR2 800
Number of Memory Slots: 4×240pin
PCI Express x1: 2
PCI Express x16: 2
PCI Slots: 3
* Model #: EP-MF570SLI

Video Card:

* ASUS EN7600GS SILENT/HTD/512M GeForce 7600GS 512MB GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card

* Chipset Manufacturer: NVIDIA
* Core clock: 400MHz
* D-SUB: 1
* DirectX: DirectX 9
* DVI: 1
* Memory Clock: 540MHz
* Memory Interface: 128-bit
* OpenGL: OpenGL 2.0
* PixelPipelines: 12
* TV-Out: HDTV Out

Cooling is still an issue despite reviews. Do you think my case will do the trick? I may need an extra fan to place over the heatsink on this card...

RAM:

* CORSAIR XMS2 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory Model CM2X1024-6400 - Retail
* Buffered/Registered: Unbuffered
* Cas Latency: 5
* ECC: No
* Heat Spreader: Yes
* Timing: 5-5-5-12
* Voltage: 1.9V

X 2 (2 Gigs) to start. Since my MB supports up to 16GB of RAM (overkill) I'll be ok for awhile.


HD's CD/DVD burner etc will come out of my current box.

For the video card, i suggest you go for a 1GB Quadro from nVidia with SLI support. You see i'm a multimedia artist too and i too intend to buy it when i can shell enough for the card.

If you want advice, don't overclock. Simply put it won't give you that much more computing power; if you really need those "precious MHz", get a bigger cpu or consider getting a system with more cpus.

EDIT: of course multi-cpu system is of great use only if your 3d modeling program(s) and/or games can make use of multithreading, i.e. actually share the job between the units.
It's the same thing as with cameras: if you want good performance, you need to pay for it; cheap parts are not as good as more expensive ones even if you did tweak them a little. If you really are going to get machine power and not toys.

That's a pretty slick looking case. I especially like the old style gauges on the front.

I'd probably go with water cooling or a case with built-in refrigeration for overclocking though.

Hahah, sweet, I was thinking of building a system w/ that same cpu and mobo. Let me know how that turns out, that way if its bad, I'll get something that linux likes better. I might sound a lil paranoid but I bought a radeon 9600xt and tried to get that set up, didn't go so well. This time I'm trying to make sure everything's gonna work out nice and easy.