What do you expect to do with the computer? How you use it will determine if that config will be good for you and your expectations.

I plan on surfing the interweb, playing a few games (don't know how it'd handle newer games), Photoshopping, and having a million applications open at once.

Looks like a good overall system. If you add a tuner card and some software you'd have a nice DVR, but I don't know if that's what you're looking for.

Then for the money, it seems like a good system. You'll get what you pay for.

I would guess that this system would be easy to upgrade, also.

The article says that the CPU is regularly overclocked to 3.0 GHz, which seems like plenty.

As far as upgrading video cards go, would this one last me long enough? What with SLI and DirectX 10 cards being all the rage, I'm just wondering if this card will last longer than a year or two. And a question about DX10 cards: Can a card be SLI and NOT have DX10 and vice versa?

Having the laptop since 7th grade has me kinda hyped that I change what I want, when I want.

Updated the main post.

This. Computer. Is. Awesome.

But does it give you amazing brownies? I think not!

DJ

Well, do you??

Yes, yes you do.

Both of you have the strangest brownie relationship I've ever seen.

Just out of curiosity, how many brownie relationships have you seen?

And once one has witnessed a number of strange brownie relationships, how does one go about determining which one is the strangest?

Are you suggesting Mintz play with you instead of his new computer?

Why do you have to go making this all weird?

This reminds me of the time me and mintz went to the mall...

Someone bakes/buys some brownies and someone else partakes of them == 1 brownie relationship.

Estimated number I've seen in my day: ~250

Why this one is weird: they keep going on and on about it. Were the brownies laced with marijuana or something? Why is it so frickin special that DJ gave Mintz some brownies. I don't get it.

Did you eat the brownies? No, no you didn't. I wouldn't expect you to understand.

Wonder why EA hasn't partaken in this discussion? Because he's had the brownies. He understands.

Now he's going to chime in and say how wrong I am, but I know I'm right.

Yes, it is true. I have had relations with those brownies.

...wow.

If it's the brownies that EA brought to work then yes, I have had them, and I thought they were a little too rich.

Blasphemer. And yes, EA is the greatest person in the world because he's the one who brought the brownies.

I have the same mobo (M2N4-SLI), and similar video card (xfx GeForce 8600). If and when I want better graphics, I'll probably just buy another identical video card when it comes down in price, and run them in SLI.

To my knowledge, two GPUs must be of the same chipset for SLI to work.

I've been able to overclock my CPU to 2.2GHz. Not as much as I was hoping, but it should be enough for a while.

What kind of cooling are you running? What's the temp of the case and the CPU? You ARE monitoring the temperature right? I say this because I don't want you to destroy the CPU and/or mobo by an incorrect setting.

"To my knowledge, two GPUs must be of the same chipset for SLI to work."

Yep. You can't run ATi cards in Crossfire on an nVidia chipset. You can't run nVidia cards in SLI on an ATi chipset.

I heart ATi, but I wanted the Striker Extreme motherboard which runs an nVidia chipset. I would never be able to run two ATi cards in Crossfire. That's OK, because nVidia is pwning face right now.

By the way, I just bought an E6850 3.0Ghz Core 2 Duo chip.

Good googly moogly, that's a sweet processor. If only I had the money.... ;)

When do the 45nm chips hit the shelves? Not that I'd immediately be in the market for one, but it'd be interesting to keep an eye on how they do.

I don't know if you've used the Asus diagnostics that came with your board, but it seems the temp readouts are higher than actual. I don't know if it's the sensors, or the program reads them improperly.

I'm in the same boat, as I have the same board, so I'm going to flash my BIOS soon, to the newest version from Asus, then try an updated version of their diagnostic software, and compare that with a program called Speedfan, and see if that yields anything different.

I haven't overclocked yet (AMD 64x2 4200 @ 2.2GHz), as I'm still running stock heatsink/fan, but when I get that replaced, I plan to.

I was amazed that I could flash my BIOS via a USB thumbstick without any hardware hooked up to the board (so that means no hdd with an OS on it).

Reportedly
45nm hits Q1 2008.
32nm hits 2010.
22nm hits 2011.

I thought Slayer had been sporting 45nm since 1987.

You know, when I saw the subject "nanometers", for some reason, I saw that coming.

I gotta admit, though, it's funny.

He really lobbed that one up in the air for someone to take a swing at. Sorry you had to be the recipient. I'm sure you understand.

Of course. Who else?

The first two I thought of when you asked that question was Shyzza and J-Dogg. In that order. I have no idea why.

Yeah, I'm not sure what I can add to midnights statement to make it any better. Though, if the market trend is to shrink the size every other year then that means slayer is most likely setting the benchmark when it comes to the smallest processor out there. I will not research it any farther...extremely small font leads to squinting, which in turn leads to my eyes and head hurting.

I've got the stock HSF. Of course I monitor the temps with Speedfan. The CPU runs at sub-40C idle, ~48C loaded (never more than 50C). Last weekend, I stupidly tried OCing to 2.4GHz in one big jump, and my PC crashed (as in, I had to reinstall the OS), and the temp didn't even reach 50C. So I don't think it's the cooling, and even if it is, I'm not shelling out ~$50 for a copper HSF.

Can you match up different size memory GPUs for SLI? Like a 512MB card + 256MB card?

Wow! That's one super-freakin'-pizzazz-whoo-daz-a-diddly-doo-wop she-blargen-doodle hummanuh-hummanuh-hummanuh fast processor!