mattjw916

the fan doesn't need to run at idle with an xp-90 on it... my winnie with a stock hsf and plenty of volts only idles 2-3 degrees warmer than yours without the fan on your cpu isn't even remotely warm dont worry about it, but you can buy fans that have manual speed switches that run all the time worry about your temps at load not idle

I was bored and flashed mine to the beta version and haven't noticed any glaring differences (yet)

no you don't have to reformat or reinstall to swap or upgrade modules... that said, some pre-built computers have goofy memory requirement (older Compaqs come to mind) and are really fussy about what you try and stick in there...

roffle :shake:

You can't "upgrade" a computer's motherboard to another model without reinstalling Windows. There are ways to do it, but it is a PITA and not worth the hassle IMHO...

I would if mine would ever #()@$ing show up!!!

spending good money on a system and sticking a cheap power supply in there just doesn't make any sense IMHO... get a decent PSU, esp since DFI boards can be kinda fussy

no, you don't have to reinstall windows when you swap RAM by any means... you will have to resize your page file though since you will be increasing your total installed ram

althought the blow hole might be "short-circuiting" your airflow, that's a pretty clean setup... nice job

it can, with dual channel enabled...

what video card are you going with will make a big difference in a gaming rig too... cpu only scales it so far then it's up to the video card to do all that sexy antialiasing and anisotrphic filtering

oops... http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showth...pteron+cold+bug

as far as what BIOS settings mean you can go here: http://www.rojakpot.com/ and check out the BIOS opt guide... or you can use other people's results as a starting point hd speed can be measured using HDtach... google it, I haven't used that in ages though. HDDs are pretty idiot proof, just set to "auto" and they are usually fine; it's not like you can "overclock" your hdd or anything.

orange w00t!

send it to me, i'll "test" it for you I bought an opty 170 also, I guess I will find out monday what I get...