Quick question: I'm looking for a nice gaming video card to go in a HTPC case (antec fusion 430). I can't fit the 4850 plus an s1 in this case without some serious bending, but I don't want to deal with high idle noises that I've seen complained about on the stock cooler. Would the sapphire toxic be...

I am now just waiting that manufacturers come with their own cooling solutions for the HD 4850 and that powerplay will be enabled without Bios upgrade. Idea would have something like Akasa Vortexx Neo: http://www.akasa.com.tw/akasa_english/spec_page/vga_cooler/spec_ak_vc03_bluv.htm on cooler out of...

Hey jontseng, let us know how your HTPC rig goes with the pretzeled s1.

I'm thinking of putting a HD4850 into an antec fusion case, and I was hoping to cool it with an s1.

Any extra advice you could give me would be great.

Thanks!

Thanks!

Looks like I'll be waiting a week or two to order my 4850.

How long before we can expect the new drivers to be out? Any estimates?

Yes, I'm also interested if anybody can recommend a quality, quiet optical drive.

Is it worth getting DDR 1066 mHz RAM? Is that overkill?

Does the 4850e 2x even support that?

After a second thought, I think 2gb of RAM will be plenty. Thanks for the advice! I'll look into the WD green HD's some more. What do you mean by soft mount? You mean, like an elastic suspension? Is this usually necessary to get the HD to run quietly? As far as optical drives, are all DVD-R's pretty...

Any advice on cooling a 4850 inside an Antec Fusion 430 case?

I'm going to be putting together a HTPC/gaming system, and I don't think an s1 will fit inside the Fusion without some major bending.

I'm thinking of going with the SPCR recommended Samsung f1 1TB hard drive.

Any comments?

Good call on the s1 not fitting. I read up a bit more and it seems that I would have to do some serious bending of the heatpipes. I'm worried the s1 would take up too many of the other slots as well. I might just see how noisy the stock cooler is, then decide what to do about it. I don't really care...

Thank you for the quick and informative response! Its starting to come together now. As far as the sound card goes, I'll be keeping the signal digital all the way through, so I think integrated sound should be fine. If I get into heavier gaming, I can always add a sound card later. Thanks for the he...

From what I can tell, only the notebook motherboards support PowerXpress. Still, if I am running Windows Vista I could use CrossfireX to combine the 780G and 4850...Though I'm not sure how well that works. Has anyone tried this? Is there even a noticeable improvement over the 4850 alone? I read a li...

Well, the AMD vs. Intel is definitely going to take me some time to sort out.

Another question: If I'm going to end up just disabling the IGP, what's the point of paying extra for a nicer IGP like 780G on the MB?

Thanks MODO...that helps to get some things answered. I actually followed the link in your sig and it looks like you built a machine with a similar idea in mind. A couple more questions based on your responses: So does this mean I should just get a micro ATX motherboard with integrated graphics (780...

Hi all, I'm starting on the long road of building (from ground up) a home theater/gaming PC for my living room. This started as simple project, but more recently I've wanted to juice this thing up with some nice graphics so it can run the latest games. I need this PC to do the following: -Play the l...

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