You may want to go to www.resellerratings.com to check out compusa before you buy from them.www.xtremesystems.org
has a good list of power supplies and their quality.
Just to be safe with cooling, I'd buy an extra 80mm fan
for the side panel duct, and a 3-speed switch that
mounts in a spare PCI slot. Alternatively, Antec
sells 80mm fans that have a small 3-speed switch
at the end of a short length of wire: that wire
remains inside the case, so you won't be able
to reach it with the side panel installed:
If the duct doesn't fit with the CPU heatsink/fan you choose,
then remove that duct, but definitely add the 80mm fan there.
Corsair makes THE best memory module cooler
that we have tested and used successfully to date:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835704001 Considering how cheap it is, a 3-fan DIMM cooler
for $20 is perhaps the best insurance buy in town.
There are nice 3.5" fan controllers from Vantec,
but it's wiser to reserve your external 3.5" bay
for a floppy drive: floppies are still useful
for loading RAID device drivers with the F6
sequence during Windows XP Setup.
Alternatively, with 5 x 5.25" drive bays,
you could use one of those bays for a 3.5" adapter
where the Vantec fan controller will work nicely.
The second side vent can be modded with
another fan, but that's not necessary with a fan
integrated on the GPU you selected.
Finally, if you end up with unused PCI slots,
there are plenty of PCI slot coolers around:
they come in different flavors e.g. single-slot
and dual-slot, some blow out, some suck in:
For cases with the CPU mounted at the top rear,
I really like the Antec VCool GPU cooler:
http://www.antec.com/us/productDet [...] odID=75060 this cooler uses 2 x PCI slots and
intakes colder air from the lower exterior
area of the case and directs that colder air
right at the video card: it also has a sleeve
to extend the fan housing closer to the GPU heatsink.
Also, one of my very favorite coolers is the
Antec Hard Drive Cooler:
http://www.antec.com/us/productDet [...] odID=75011 This HD cooler mounts in a 5.25" drive bay,
for extra hard drive storage. It is very
well engineered with 2 small fans,
and 2 thermal sensors: one on a short wire
to affix to the hard drive, and the other on a
longer wire to affix inside the case, or
just dangle to measure interior air temp.
Two hints: loosen all screws slightly,
to allow the HDD to slide in easily; and,
remove the packaging label stuck to
one side of the bottom plate, e.g. with
a fluid like GooGone. A one-sided razor
for cleaning windows will help there.
If you mount this Antec HDD cooler in an
uppermost 5.25" drive bay, it will help
fresh air to flow directly towards the PSU,
which will help to mix warmer interior air
with relatively cooler exterior air.
Stagnant interior hot air is your Enemy Number One!
When planning your overall cooling strategy,
keep two principles foremost in mind:
(1) hot air rises, so try to position intake fans
at or near the bottom of the case, and
position exhaust fans at or near the top
of the case; and,
(2) try to balance input air volume
with output air volume, measured in
cubic feet per minute ("CFM" ) and NOT
by fan rpm. A 120mm fan can turn slower
and still move more CFM than a faster 80mm fan!
The key to making an inexpensive chassis
work very well is to make it a great cooler
for any and all components that you might
ever install in it.
To SupremeLaw I appreciate the very informative post, but That case/cpu fan deal is not really a deal to me. It's 45 bucks after the rebates, then the cheapest shipping is 21 bucks, and I am in TN so I have to pay 5 bucks tax. So for a $45 combo I'm paying $70. Also I just noticed the case in my original post is now on 2-4 week backorder, so much for that I guess. To me the difference between a 10 dollar case and an $80 dollar case seems pretty negligible, but I'm new at this. Really looking for a bargain power supply/case because I'm trying to change to a 640MB GTS instead of the 320, and I don't know whether I'm going to be eligible for my university's free Vista download service. I appreciate all the responses thus far and if anyone has anymore ideas I'd love to hear them.
My system is going to have 4GB Crucial(4x1), a Q6600 after the price drop on the 22nd, an 8800GTS, and either a GA-P35C-DS3R mobo or the GA-P35-D3SP I can't decide which is a better deal, if that information helps.
