Does having a bigger case make much difference to internal temperatures (and therefore the need for case fans)?

Or is it negligible?

just wondered if a cheapo tall tower is likely to be much cooler inside than a small midi tower. are a couple of case fans a necessity with the athlon 64s or can you get away without any.

I got by without fans for a while. I don't think you need then with a 64. The cpu fan should be enough. You can try it without and if it's too hot for you, buy some fans. It's not like they are expensive.

(p.s. your student loan in then?)

loan is in aye, but 4months rent needs paying next week so i have to resist!

although was looking at possibly getting A64, sli motherboard, and X800 or something, which comes in around 350.

use my old PC2100 ram for a short while till i get some better.

just an idea though, i doubt very much i can squeeze this.

will the ram realistically make a difference to game performance. obviously loading times will be slower?

yup - you base your memory on the speed of the front side bus which in turn is related to the speed of your processor (which is the fsb speed x a clock multiplier) - it is always best if your memory speed is sync'd with the fsb for maximum perfomance, eg:

athlon 3GHz which runs at 2158MHz really - 333mhz fsb (and PC2700 aka DDR333):
fsb x multiplier = clock speed
333 x 13 = 2158mhz

intel 3.2GHz which runs at 3.2 - 400mhz fsb (and PC3200 aka DDR400):
fsb x multiplier = clock speed
400 x 8 = 3200mhz

etc...

Does that make sense? Just to reiterate, for max performance, always sync the fsb with the memory speed.

but is that not just 400mhz to each processor core?

either way, if it runs at 800, then running PC3200 @400mhz is pretty much syncronous anyway...

cheers thats cool boys, explains it a bit clearer.

i think my hope of having the money has gone out of the window, probably going to end up being away for 7 weekends out of 8 in feb/march for uni sailing stuff. computer or sailing, sailing wins.

and i think the ability to play BF2 and other such games would be the final nail in the coffin for my degree

team racing in either laser2's or fireflies.

and im steering our 2nd boat at the student yachting at easter which is in 37footers  

and i used to sail a laser at home but not for a while now.