I've provided my comments to Missy Hoppe's questions regarding the parts for 
a new computer, which was posted Wed, 28 Feb 2007.

1. Regarding RAM.  You shouldn't need heatspreaders on value DDR2 ram.  It 
doesn't get that warm at default voltages.  Unless you are overclocking or 
concerned about getting the highest benchmark scores, the performance gains 
between using the more expensive RAM and the value RAM are not that 
significant, especially with the new Conroe Core 2 Duo processors.  The 
large amounts of onboard cache, as well the internal architecture of the 
processor, do a good job of hiding any memory latency issues.

2. Regarding fans, since you aren't going to be running software that pushes 
the processor and the video card that much (for example, you aren't going to 
be playing 3D intensive games or compressing large amounts of vide), I would 
give more thought to what can be done to keep your system quiet than moving 
a lot of air through the case.  A couple of 120mm case fans should be plenty 
for this purpose (one pushing and one pulling).  Likewise, if you look for a 
better than stock fan, I'd be looking for one that uses a large lower rpm 
fan, compared to what is on the stock heatsink.  (The Zalman 9500 you have 
listed is capable of running in "silent mode", for example.)  On the other 
hand, the Intel motherboard should be capable of a configuration that 
regulates the speed of the CPU depending on how warm the CPU is.  It should 
run nearly silent when the system is more idle and only speed up when placed 
under stress.

3. I've not used an Apevia case, myself.  This is a large full tower case. 
You could just as well use a mid-tower case for your purposes.  It also 
looks like it comes with 4 fans (2x120mm and 2x80mm fans) with blue LEDs; 
so, you wouldn't need to buy any more fans for this case.

I wasn't sure why you were selecting a high-end gaming video card.  Unless 
someone else plans on using this computer to play 3D intensive computer 
games, I don't see the need for all that 3D processing power.

An 850 watt power supply is probably a lot more than you will need.  People 
running two high end video cards in SLI or crossfire configurations might 
have a need for that, but you could easily make do with something in the 550 
to 650 range, especially if you are rethinking the need for a high end 
gaming video card.

There really isn't a need of an actively cooled chipset heatsink.  Folks 
that are overclocking their systems might find one helpful, but for stock 
bus speeds, the stock chipset heatsinks will be fine (and quieter).  I'm 
also not sure that there will be any need for the passively cooled Zalman 
chipset heatsink,either.  I believe that this item is more targeted at users 
who have an actively cooled chipset cooler as the stock item and want to 
replace it with something silent.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the information that you provided.  Take 
them as just something to think about, since everyone will have their 
particular opinions on what will make for a "super" computer.

John Sproule

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