Help on upgrading rig to uber fast/uber quiet

[Bob The Great]

ok, first off here are my current specs

Athlon XP 1800+ Palimino w/AS 3 TT Volcano7
EPOX 8K9A2+
512mbs pc-2700 DDR
ATI Radeon 8500 AIW 64MB DV
2x 40GB Maxtor 7200rpm ATA-133
chieftec (basicly Antec 1040sx black with better paint job, 400watt PSU and a case window)
12x LG DVD (beige)
Windows XP PRO

My current situation is this rig works well. Its very stable, and very quite and about a year ago extremely fast. Now its just a nice PC. So I'm going to upgrade now. I'm going to spend about $200-300 a month doing it till the jobs done. My main concerns on upgarding is keeping it quite (its the quitest at lan parties with the exeption of the dells), increase speed so I can play everything at the highest res and still have great FPS, and also keep current features like being able to wath TV, and have my playstation plugged in.

So here is what I'm looking at buying from newegg.

AthlonXP 2600+ Barton core $96
SB Audigy 2 $78
Antec Sonata $105 (very quite case)
ATI Radeon 9700 AIW $328
MSI black CDRW 52X24X52 $39
Sony black 16X DVD $39

What I need is your opinion on the products above. The Sonata I've heard runs a little warm but is very quite as it has a 120mm fan running at a lower RPM (less disturbance of the air while moving the same amount). I'm not going to be oc'ing at all so thats not an issue.

Also what type of heatsink would you guys suggest? I was looking at the Volcano9 as I have enjoyed all my volcano's so far! I need again something quite, and a fairly good preformer too as it will probably be pretty warm in there. A variable speed fan might be nice as my family is very into leaving doors open even during the winter at night so i would be nice if it could slow down then when it doesn't need to be fast.

Also the Audigy is a concern. I have onboard AC-97 wich is nice, but I want a sound card with a MPU so I can get better preformance in BF1942 and also better sound from my speakers which are fairly nice. Thanks a ton

[nurdonsite2]

i donno about the rest of ur stuff, but i have heard the turtle beach santa cruz is much better then the audigy2. just what i heard.

[Bruneau]

I think that the 2500+ Barton would be a better deal. The newer steppings are overclocking quite well w/ out pushing a lot of voltage to them.

[JPMiller]

I just bought a Volcano 9 cool mod 3 days ago because it was $12
(open box floor demo/never used)
Got it home and plopped it on a XP 2000+ and let her fly.
And fly it almost did...these things are not quiet even at the lower speeds!
I like Volcanos as well ...mostly been running 6+ and 7's.
It is a good HSF but I would personally buy a Vantec Aeroflow or one of the SLK line of heatsinks.
Much higher cooling capabilities/ lower noise.
I gotta go with the Turtle Beach as well.

[Bob The Great]

ok, I'll check into the Turtle Beach! Thats why I was asking cause I really haven't been updating myself on sound cards for a long time. Not a major upgrade, but in this case I think one that needs addressing.

Bruneau, as I said I don't want to be overclocking this rig at all. It needs to be stable so I don't have to worry about it wonkin out on me. I wen't with the 2600+ because its like $4 more then the 2500, so I decided with what I have in mind it would be a better buy.

JPMiller, thanks for your heatsink ideas. Yeah I love the volcanos. I have a 5 in my old 1Ghz machine and while its loud it cool like nothing else! My 7 though is uber tight! Its so quite! Hopefully one of those will be just as good or better!

Keep the ideas coming! I'm off to do some research!

[vass0922]

I stuck with the 2500 because its a Barton core and has 512k on die cache, vs. the 256k cache of your future proc

[Bob The Great]

REALLY? The 2600Barton has less cache! Wowzers thanks! I'll just keep that $4!

I've read a few reviews for the santa cruz and one for the audigy 2 so far and the audigy seems to have more/better features. Why do you peoples like the cruz better? Is there something the reveiws are missing?

[Bruneau]

There is no 2600 Barton ... at the present, but I think that will change soon. New chips will be forth coming.

And, don't worry about stability. Even with mild overclocking you can take the 2500 up to 3200 levels w/ absolutely no loss of stablility. Try it and you'll see what I mean.

[Omardeth]

ya ya what vass said . i would go with the barton . other than that you already have a good system .

as far as the heat sink fan combo . if 30$ isn't to much the one way to go is Vantec Aeroflow .... the thing is so quiet you will start complaining about your power supply makes more noise cause you WON'T hear the hsf at all . i have 2 and they are both on overclocked , and very stable i set it and forgot about it , pc's . or go with a Glacialtech hsf if you don't want to spend the money that the aeroflow cost . also they seem like a better value all the way around . i am waiting for get newegg to them back in stock to get one myself . to lazy to hunt them down anywhere else . you can get them at newegg but they are outta stock at the moment .here is a 65 heatsink fan review you can see that the glacialtech fans are right at the top of the chart . the IGLOO SILENT BREEZE 462 is about THE QUIETEST fan you can get on the market that works well with an amaze'n 19dba noise rating .... the volcano 9 has a dba rating of 58 dBA. if you have no plans on overclocking the the IGLOO SILENT BREEZE 462 sounds like it has you name writen all over it .put a new video card in and you are set . the 9700 aiw is a very nice card but man do they kill your bank account . and as far as i have heard . i am not a big sound person the onboard sound works great for me . the Turtle Beach cards are supose to be great and sound as good or better than the audigy cards ..and cheaper also .

hope this helps
good luck

[poopeyhed2]

For Sound Cards
Audigy 1/2
AudioTrak's Prodigy 7.1
M-Audio Revolution 7.1

The Prodigy and Revolution uses Via's EnvyHT sound chip, provides 24 kbit playback and some say it's better than the Audigy for price and sound quality. Maximum PC last month reviewed the Revolution and for July they reviewed the Prodigy, I can't find the Prodigy anywhere, so I might settle with the Revolution for $90 at newegg (cheapest price).

A good heatsink you might consider is the Coolermaster Aero 7+. It uses this fan that's like a turbine, and cools very nicely and is quiet. It's $40 at newegg shipped.

I'd go with the Barton 2500+ because of the extra cache. Cheapest I found is at googlegear.com 91.50 shipped