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Hardware Configuration Updated 5/7/04: Be sure to use a passively cooled video card if you want to minimize system noise. I replaced the PNY nVidia card with one from XForce (XFX) which is built on the same nVidia GeForce FX chipset. The XFX is passively cooled and uses DDR333 (vs DDR400) SDRAM. Otherwise the XFX is identical to the PNY model. The fan on the actively cooled PNY video card doubled the noise from the Shuttle XPC! Luckily, Tiger Direct agreed to RMA the card with no restocking fee and even paid for the return shipping.

What started out as a PC upgrade has become a full scale replacement. Here are the specs for the system components that I have on order from Newegg and TigerDirect. All items are being shipped either UPS or FedX and should be delivered by Sunday!

Shuttle XPC SN85G4 Barebones kit
AMD Athlon 64 2800+, 512KB L2 Cache, 64-bit Processor
XFX nVIDIA GeForce FX5200 Video Card, 128MB DDR, TV-Out, 8X AGP (Updated!)
Corsair ValueSelect 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200

I was going to try to reuse the RAM from my old system, but a little reseach was enough to convince me otherwise. DDR400/PC3200 (Double Data Rate 400Mhz, 3.2GB/s bandwidth) has 4 times the througput of basic PC100, making it well worth the extra $96 for a 512mb stick (no tax, free shipping and Newegg threw in a free t-shirt as a customer appreciate gift!).

I had already purchased a new Seagate 200GB hard drive (7200RMP with 8mb cache) and NEC 2500A 8x DVD/ 40x CD burner combo. However, I'll be reusing my existing PS/2 quiet keyboard and mouse along with my old NEC Multisync M700 monitor.

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