Dell Dimension 4600 Upgrade

[phreadom]

Not all GPU's are 2 slots huge, the one I've been looking at getting only takes up one slot, an ATI HD3870, and the 3870 will run just about the same as a GeForce 9800GT

As for noise, just get quieter fans, or turn down the speed using something like speedfan. You can change GPU fans.

Phreadom, is that a microatx in an atx case? Why not go full size Atx?

That's a full ATX in a full tower. That tower is almost as high as my "desk". I think you're missing the scale of it.

http://www.dansdata.com/pc70.htm (8.25 by 23.5 by 23.5 inches for the tower)

http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?model ... 3=815&l4=0

That said, I am adjusting my fan speed on the GPU, however the stock adjustments are inadequate and the card runs far too hot for my tastes under load, so I keep the fan running as a slightly higher RPM all the time so that the card stays cool. Definitely not the best solution, but better than running my GPU at almost 100C when gaming. That's just an absurd temp as far as I'm concerned, and whether or not they say the card can handle it, that kind of heat isn't going to help the lifespan of the card.

[Stone_Cold]

That's just an absurd temp as far as I'm concerned, and whether or not they say the card can handle it, that kind of heat isn't going to help the lifespan of the card.

I'm amazed it's survived that long at those temperatures. Look into submersion for your next build. When well-built it'll cool your system much better than conventional cooling and allow for stable overclocking (ex. http://www.hardcorecomputer.com/). I've held off doing anything since a major change in computing will be coming here soon (couple years or sooner :^P). Though, I've never known computers not to advance on a regular basis, but this advance will literally be double/triple/quadruple the current processor power. IBM already produces a 5GHz processor that swamps Intel's server chip-sets. Anyway, yawn... I'm starting to hate computers.

[keatonatron]

That's where you're doing all your work?? No wonder you keep banning Zen

[phreadom]

That's where you're doing all your work?? No wonder you keep banning Zen

What, you mean it isn't the very paradigm of ergonomic comfort I thought it was!? *gasp*