Rebuilding the HTPC, comments on these components please

[Kirby]

I am having all sorts of crashing, blue screen, reboot issues going on with my HTPC detailed in my signature, and because I dont have the luxury of lots of time to diagnose it, I am looking at swapping out the CPU/RAM/MB for the following:

1. Intel E6300 Core 2 Duo CPU
2. Kingston Value Ram 2x512MB 1.8V (confirmed good on the motherboard)
3. Asus P5B Deluxe Motherboard (965P chipset)

Anyone know anything good or bad about these items, particularly the motherboard? I've lived in the AMD world for the past few years and just havent kept track of the Intel stuff.

I plan to migrate the video card over (7800GTX) and the PSU and case.

Also, anyone have a recommendation on a good quality, quiet CPU cooler for these new Conroe CPU's?

[clmolnar]

My father just built a new PC with an E6700 and the Asus P5B Deluxe motherboard. I helped him put it together and everything went flawlessly. The fanless design of the P5B Deluxe is really nice, and I love the heat pipes. It convinced me to finally build a new media center PC.

I went with an E6600 and the Asus P5B-VM, which is the micro-ATX version of the P5B. I am also using ADATA PC 800 ram 2x512MB at 1.8V since there was a $30 rebate when I bought it. I have had no problems at all and everything with the motherboard is working flawlessly so far.

I would highly recommend the Asus P5B Deluxe.

As far as cooling options go, I have been looking at getting the Zalman CNPS7000B-CU for my new system. It has the smaller 92mm fan as compared to the CNPS7700-CU with a 120mm fan. I need the smaller version to fit on the micro-ATX motherboard. The 120mm fan will fit the P5B Deluxe, and I would definitely look into it.

The fans will automatically adjust their speed based on the temperature of the processor, however I have read that you need to install updated drivers/bios to make it work correctly. Reviews online have shown that this fan is good for a 20° C drop in processor temperatures under full load. I am currently trying to talk my dad into getting the 120mm version.

[Kirby]

Thanks for the info. The Zalman fans look great, and the 120mm is cheaper than the 92 right now, but I seriously doubt its going to fit in my case (Silverstone LC16-M), unless the 120mm version doesnt overhang the side of the motherboard. If you look at this picture inside my case, what do you think, since you have worked with that board and cooler?

Actually, given the newegg return policy now, I'll just get both HSF's and see which fits best and return the other..

[dagar]

The Gigabyte passive 7600GT is quite nice in my LC16 (running an M2MPV-MV with an x2 4600.) Unless you already have the 7800....

[Kirby]

I have a 7800GT and 7800GTX, but I'm considering getting the XFX 7950GT passive at some point, or just a 7900GTX card (the double wide ones with 80mm fan) because honestly in this case, when its inside my HT rack, I cant hear it, so passive video cards really dont matter much to me. I'll probably just wait out the DirectX 10 cards to be out in full force though.

[olyar15]

I have recently rebuilt my HTPC, and it is almost the same specs as what you are contemplating: Intel 6300, 2x512 Kingston ValueRAM, passive nvidia 7300GT, on an Intel DG965OT mATX motherboard. I chose the mATX Antec NSK2400 case. So far, it has been very stable, much more so than my previous AMD system. I use the stock intel CPU cooler. I figured I would use this temporarily until I found a good aftermarket one, but it turned out to be so quiet that I haven't bothered with an aftermarket one. So I recommend you try the stock HSF to see if the noise is acceptable.

One thing I have noticed over the years is that Intel really knows how to make good, stable, compatible chipsets.

[clmolnar]

I haven't bought the 120mm Zalman, however looking at the pictures on the site make me wonder if it will interfere with the Northbridge heatsink on the p5b deluxe.

The 92mm Zalman will fit on my p5b-vm, which is the mATX version, so I hope that it would fit the deluxe as well.

[Kirby]

My parts will be here today, so I will know if either or both those fans will work. I will probably keep both and use the other on my one AMD setup, but I figured since I can just return the one I dont need to newegg, why not just get both for now!