The recent mobo thread got me interested in my building my own computer. Theoretically it shouldn't be too hard; I've worked on computers enough times to know which parts go where and not to break anything. However as I've never actually built one from parts before I have a couple questions:

1)Is there a big risk of the thing overheating? For some reason I always read stuff on the net about people building their own computers but having overheating problems.

2)I've noticed a lot of nice deals on parts from NewEgg. But is there any catch? Should I go with the cheaper part from the lesser-known manufacturer or the more expensive one? Does it matter?

3)What mobo, cpu, gfx card would you recommend to someone who wants to be able to play the latest games(BF2, Oblivion, CoD2) but not break the bank?

As for the processor, get an Athlon 64... somewhere between 3000+ and 4000+.

The motherboard should be from a company you know and trust. Gigabyte and Asus are really good companies. Make sure the motherboard has the right socket for the processor you want to get.

One time when I was making a computer a long time ago, it wouldn't turn on. I couldn't figure what was wrong. I finally figured out that I needed the spacer things between the case and the motherboard (it was shorting out.)

Also, another time, a friend was building a computer and couldn't figure out why it wouldn't start. It turns out that the computer will only start if you plug the CPU fan into the CPU fan slot. Go figure.

I don't know what other tips to give.

No. Don't listen to the fan fanboys - stock heat sinks/fans and regular cases will work just fine unless you start overclocking. It's well worth it to spend a bit more to bring the noise level down though.

I just realized that building a computer is a lot like playing with legos.

Think about it.

Thanks for your tips, guys!

Spend a bit more on a less-noisy fan, you mean? BTW, how many fans do you need? I don't plan to do any overclocking.

Except several times more expensive.

Not just fans. The new case here has larger fans (which don't need to go so fast, and are thus quieter), and has rubber spoke thingies to hold them to the case. It also has rubber pads for you to set the HD's on where it connects to the drive bays.

It was nice and quiet until we got that monstrous video card cooling kit.

You have to get a cooling kit for the video card, too?

Another question: How come it says 3800+ but it says the operating frequency is 2.4GHz? Are those completely unrelated things?

If you want your video card to be quiet (they ship with noisy fans nowadays ). My passive Zalman heatpipe cooler was definitely worth its price.

They are.

Athlons use relative speeds to describe their processors, since clock frequency is not a great way to describe how fast a processor is (look at the Pentium M for example).

Not usually. But the manufacturer we got the card from had a poor heatsink/fan combo so we had to replace it to keep it from overheating.

The 3800+ is approx. the equivilant speed of an Intel CPU. The AMD64 3200+ we have runs at 1.8GHz.

I see! Another question: Do you have to use a 64-bit OS if you have a 64-bit processor?

I remember the first system I built. Lesson learned: Those standoffs are in the kit for a reason

I still can't believe they replaced the board for me

Ah, man I thought this thread was going to be about building an alu from logic gates and a bread board .

Heh, that would have been fun! (Building with Logic Gates and Breadboard)

It'd probably be better to use demultiplexers and decoders, but it would be fun. I think using vhdl and verilog with an fpga would hide the good stuff from you. I don't know for sure though, I haven't used either.

Would be fun! The most complicated thing we made in our digital design class was a little clock that looped from 0 to 9, though.:-/ Hopefully I'll get to take some classes on computer architecture next semester.

64 bit processors are compatible with 32 bit operating systems.

AFAIK there are graphical editors which let you placing logic gates yourself (but they still get compiled to match FPGA structure), so FPGA can be used to avoid having to wire single gates, which should speed up the process greatly and allow making more complex circuits (buying FPGA is surely cheaper than buying everything you'll need to make circuits of similar complexity yourself).

Here's another tip!

Don't put the processor in backwards!

I did that once and the processor blew up and melted the socket.

Good job! Did you get an 'A'?

Oh and if anyone is really interested in building a cpu, google for 'opencores'.

And i thought it was about building computers, like Jeri Ellsworth did with the C-One.

Basicly 3 - one on powersource, one on processor and one on gfx cards (pretty nasty thing which will make one PCI slot unusable).
If you want your pet to get a cold you could add one 12cm fan to side dual 8cm fans on back under powersource and one 8cm to the front - it will make circulation in the box and bring there fresh air, also you can add an airfresher
The other way is to obtain 30l aquarium, put there all non-drive components (motherboard) and fill it with frying oil

What's wrong with Pentiums4?

Or get a pentium 4... whatever.

You pay a nice premium for the "Intel" logo. Just like with Nike shoes and Levi jeans.

My Sempron64 2800+ is 1.6GHz.

I'm running Linux AMD64 and also plain Windows XP (32bit). Though I need 32bit emulation for my Linux installation to use some 32bit programs.

I only have 2 fans (CPU fan and PSU fan). It's quite quiet.

What kind of CPU and Socket was it? My Sempron has only a single way to fit into the motherboard.

If you're getting a Sempron64, check the CPU says "BX" at the end and not "AX".
Get a Sempron. You want a Sempron

Yeah, buy an AMD64 instead of Intel4, so that you can say you have 32 unused bits :-P Of course, you can download the 64 bits version of any game... oh... none... well, you can download MSVC for 64 bits and program at double the... hmm... no version? Well, doesn't matter, 64 > 32, so it cannot be wrong!

It means the 2.4GHz AMD benches at 3800+

RB: the 64 bit thing was covered by hoho in the other thread, you can't get a 32 bit compy (according to him) that will preform as well as the 64 bit compy in 32bit mode for the same price... aparently they support mega overclockage also. also the architecture supports dual cores, an added bonus just for choosing Sempron.

if you get any internal fans, I recomend you get covers/grills for them, esp case fans, that way if a ribbon cable/power cord, etc gets to close you don't have to smack the case until the "grinding" noise stops

I would love to take part in that discussoin ;-)

Ummm... arn't they, like, keyed? On the same note, don't unplug the processor while the machine is running!

GFX card should already have heatsink/fan on it... probably shouldn't need an add-on pci slot fan... I did see a gfx card the other day that had it's entire surface area covered with a heat-sink...

Make sure you know how to install an OS, with XP it's pretty damn simple now adays.

Who uses ribbon cables anyway? Rounded IDE cables..mmmm....;)

Who uses the old IDE with those huge cables? SATA all the way

Depends. Often the difference is in the features and not in the quality of the parts, most commonly in the motherboard sector. You want to get the features you want with the performance you want, which will turn into the price you need to pay
SLI and IEEE1394 tend to add a fair bit to the price tag as well as Dual Channel Memory, SATA II, and others.

Athlon 64 3200+ venice or higher, depending on the bank, with an nForce4 chipset, depending on the bank, an NVidia 6600GT video card.

Nope. Think of 64-bit as an extention. Like adding an additional library to your project
It allows you to use more functions.

You need to find a balance between noise and cooling. This is generally attained through buying larger fans - 120mm (12cm) is the best bet. You move the most air with the least revolutions which leads to less noise.

You typically want the following fans:
Processor fan. Critical.
Video card fan. Very important, especially if you go with a 6600GT
Exhaust fan. Very important and commonly overlooked. This fan will blow air out of your computer. Typically this is placed at the rear of the case.
Intake fan. Less important than the exhaust, but still quite important. This will bring new air into your case and is typically at the front of the case.

That about sums it up.

Hmmmm... I tried that, but it got the cpu temperature higher instead of lower... probably the intake fan disturbed the air flow through the case, so it wouldn't reach the cpu anymore. BTW, yes, I tried both rotation directions...

Here's the optimal setup:
{"name":"airflow.jpg","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/b\/8\/b89e2dc06a021ec0c70db93d7065e0dc.jpg","w":500,"h":309,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/b\/8\/b89e2dc06a021ec0c70db93d7065e0dc"}

..whatever you do, though. Do NOT refer to the exhaust as the 'outflow' unless you are very ill and taking high doses of strong medication. In which case, it is excusable.

Outflow.. pbhhht.. I should have just made my own diagram.

Well that fan on gfx card is actually part of it but with that damned heatsink my friend has, it blocks the PCI slot, but nowdays it's not a problem.

Thanks for the advice, everyone.

What do you say to these choices?

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3700BNBOX - Retail

GIGABYTE GA-K8N Pro-SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

eVGA 512-P2-N435-AX Geforce 6800GT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail

Yeah, the fan on the video card blocking the top PCI slot has been an issue for quite some time now. Primarily on NVidia cards and third party heatsink manufacturers.

It's not really a problem these days, for two reasons.
1) PCI slots aren't used as much as they were in the past. There are a lot more onboard features. Missing one of your 3 - 5 PCI slots is no big deal.
2) PCI Express slots are becoming the norm and often these are placed higher and do not interfere with the PCI slots when a large heatsink/fan is used.

I use a third party zalman cooler. Very nice.

[edit]
Pravit: Looks good to me!
That 6800GT might be a tad overkill, though.. but that all depends on what you want to spend. If there is a 256MB model available for a cheaper price you would likely be better off getting that. 512MB is still a little overkill.

I would just be a tiny bit weary about that motherboard. It doesn't seem like it's appropriate for your scenario. I would suggest the Chaintech VNF9 Ultra. SLI isn't particularly useful, costs more, and it creates problems in terms of board layout. That board isn't the greatest overclocker, but that's probably not an issue for you.

For video card: MSI NX7800GT-VT2D256E Lite Geforce 7800GT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail $365.00

Almost the same price but about twice as fast as 6800GT

For CPU you might find a 144 series opteron. They have the same core as high-end AMD FX, only lower default frequency and a lot lower price (around $200). I know some people OC them up to 3.2GHz on air. I think ~2.8-3GHz is pretty much granted.

I figured I wanted at least 512MB because it seems like every time I buy a new computer, my hardware ends up being obsolete within 1-2 years. So I figured I would get ahead of the game But I'm thinking about it and it seems if 256 will still be good for some time to come, I can just upgrade later when 512 is cheaper. Is there any difference between PCI, PCI Express, and AGP video cards?

EDIT: HoHo, thanks for the video card suggestion!

I didn't find any VNF9 motherboards, but I did find a VNF4/Ultra:
CHAINTECH VNF4/Ultra Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

My bad, I meant VNF4 That motherboard is the one... I'm thinking of switching to it soon, I bought the Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 and am not very happy with it's layout right now and it's lack of SATA II support (but the gigabyte mobo you posts does have SATA II support). I can't replace my chipset cooler and it's very loud.

PCI is slow and old.
AGP is still relatively fast, but support is fading.
PCI Express is the fastest slot with the most features.

On another note, the memory on a card does not directly affect it's performance. Higher memory typically improves performance in high resolutions with high settings and FSAA. Without these features you don't see much of a performance improvement after 128MB. This is likely to hold true for a few more years.

Hmm. What should I be looking for in a video card besides memory? I'd like to run games at high detail for once, but to be honest I have trouble telling the difference between high and medium settings in games and it's probably not that important for me.

7800GT is the second/third fastest card on the market now. It is currently a bit faster than x1800XL, future driver improvements might make XL faster. 7800GT is roughly $100 cheaper than XL. In about month or so x1800XT becomes availiablle and then it will be the third/fourth fastest.

I think 7800GT is a quite good choise

Pipelines, pixel shader support, memory bandwidth, etc. There's really quite a bit to consider. I would suggest reading some reviews over at anandtech.com and seeing what they have to say.

I am still a little behind on the newest generation of video cards. I'm still catching up on processors. I've been working with software too much to keep completely up to date with hardware

Well, with later cards pipeline count and/or clock speed is not something that defines speed very well, at least not when comparing ATI vs NVidia (has it ever been?).

Previous generation (6800 from NV and x800 from ATI) you could compare pipelines but clock per clock NV was way faster and had more features.
Now with 7800 from NV and x1x00 from ATI it is even more confusing. ATI has only 16 pipelines versus 24 of NV. Thing is that ATI has a bit more transistors and way higher clocks. GTX@ 24 pipes/430MHz GPU is roughly as fast or little slower than x1800XT at 16 pipes and 625MHz GPU. Also ATI has much faster video memory. ATI has some features NV lacks and also does NV.

I suggest reading a bunch of reviews and decide then. When you are using Linux I suggest choosing something from NV, way less problems with drivers, also NV drivers are quite a bit faster in OpenGL.

As far as

You need to use a 64-bit os if you want to utilize the 64 bit feature. I'm runing windows 32bit on my athlon 64 at the moment for lack of drivers for XP64 for a few of my devices.

I disagree with Thomas's intel vs amd comparison to Nike I've bought cheap $20 shoes before, and i went through 2-3 pairs of those per year. On the other hand, I can spend $50-$70 on a pair of nikes and they will live up forever. I have my pair from a year and a half ago, and even though they are all dirty and icky, they are still comfortable and in one piece, and my new pair was on sale for $45. We'll see how long they last

My pair from 3 years ago was still in good condition when I got rid of them, only reason i ditched them is because my feet grew and I no longer fit into them

Here's a tip. Write the purchase date of your sneakers in your shoes. That way you know when to toss them out.

I have two pairs of Nike's from nearly two years ago and they're still in very good condition. Those asian kids sure know how to make a good shoe!

Anyway, yeah. Intel != Nike.
Intel is like Sears and AMD is like a local department store. You get the same products for cheaper at the locally run department store, but Sears has hundreds of stores and a big consumer base and people trust them (even though they shouldn't). They get their sears points (Intel tumblers) and the 'higher class' feeling when they purchase items there.

Intel didn't even mention AMD when they re-implemented the AMD64 instruction set as the EMT64 instruction set.

I was displeased at Intel for not mentioning AMD, but then I got a Pentium M laptop anyways.

AMD outsold Intel on retail desktop systems in September in the US.

Hmm, I think I will go with the 7800GT, and I'll search around for reviews, too.

No fair. There isn't anything underpaid white kids make that I can think of to counter with.

If money is no object, go with the 7800 GTX

So if you purchase a mobo and processor, can you get oem winxp at a discount? If I built a system today I'd have to install win me then use my upgrade disk to upgrade to win xp, provided I can find them and they both still work.....

If you buy from newegg, you can get Windows XP oem anyway, pro for $150. They send you a Y power splitter cable, thats all you need to "buy" (they have it on for $0 after a $5 instant coupon) to be eligible for OEM.

Regardless of the type of cable, if it rubs on a fan it's going to make an annoying noise, get grilled fans.

Processor fan is a given.
Video card comes with stock fan that is usually not changable (if it needs one.)
Exhaust/Intake fan are built into the powersupply. Your case was engineered by people who knew what they were doing, and it's own design + the power supply allow for proper air circulation. The powersupply is not only an output mechanism, otherwise only hot air would flow through it, and your transformers would overheat.

Exactly.

Nice! What kind of memory/hdd are you buying for it?

Says Dezero & BAF. Nice.

... A guy at my work says that he ordered OEM software before (didn't specify from where) but says that it came with a piece of ancient non-functional busted up circuit board in the box with a note telling him to disregard the included hardware, and that it was included to comply with OEM regulations.

Wha? Most power supplies that come with a case aren't worth a crap, and powersupplies have one way to blow air, and thats out. You will usually want other fans in the case. My case came loaded with fans to move air too.

The CPU I linked to says it comes with a heatsink and fan. Do I need to buy another fan on top of that? I guess my real question is, "What fans do I need besides the ones that will come with parts I need to order?"

Is the choice of memory manufacturer important? I just picked the cheapest 184-pin 1GB DDR memory:
Patriot 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 333 (PC 2700) Unbuffered System Memory Model PSD1G333 - Retail

About hard drives: What's the difference between PATA and SATA? I guess I might get this, though I don't really know how to pick out good hard drives:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA NCQ 3.5" Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM

Power supply: Anything to be aware of in particular or can I just get the cheapest one?

Case: I'm also going to go for the cheapest one I can see unless there's anything I need to watch out for.

Am I going to have to buy cables to hook everything together or will these parts already come with them?

I think so. There's articles saying how spending extra money on a trusted brand works out better than buying no-name ones.

Which memory manufacturers do you trust?

I've only had Kingsmax/Kingston and I now have PQI.

I haven't had any troubles with them.

Other people trust Corsair and OCZ. Some people use Geil but I haven't heard anyone on Allegro.cc mention it (except myself).

Note that I don't overclock, so it's still possible that Kingsmax/Kingston or PQI can't handle it well.

Is it possible to attain drastic(or at least noticeable) speed gains by overclocking?

I would assume so, many people do it.

Most people do it to get N more points in useless benchmarks. Now some chips will let you get 400 more mhz or so, but usually not iirc.

PC3200 RAM (400mhz) is displayed as 200mhz in the BIOS screen right?

Thats why they call it DDR

Its "double pumped" as in it can send/recive data twice in one clock cycle.

Yeah but they might've made the BIOS say "400MHz" in that case.

Why? Its not running at 400mhz.

I see now.

TF: In that case does the BUS run at 400MHz, and the ram is just double pumped at 200MHz, or is everything 200MHz...?

That's what todays research on the net has taught me, I guess you can't really trust what you were taught in highschool, I think it was part of the A+ hardware prep that we were shown posters of air flow thru a computer, and it had the air comming in the fan's bottom area, across the processor, cycling around the case, and out thru the top of the fan (i think at that point it was supposed to be pass thru.) wild.

no; none.

usually case and power supply ship together, make sure that your power suppy is "big" enough for your computer; not as much of a problem anymore tho, most new powersupplies that I've seen are 400W.

If the memory is good, he should have no problems, so as long as their is a return policy if the memory happens to be bad, I see no problems; You can buy expensive memory that can be just as bad as cheap memory...

Right then, didn't consider that -- I can see that overclocking would need memory that can handle the higher bus speed and maintain stability. I trust kingston.

In this new era it seems so, back when I was in highschool and everyone was doing it, no, not really. Most of what I saw going on was 120mhz -> 133mhz, etc... altho further back in the day, before multipliers were standard (and most cpus MIGHT not have had heatsinks on them!) a friend's dad, who was a comp geek, had a 486 (family comp) 33MHz that jumped to 66MHz on the press of a button, but we wern't allowed to press it, only him (and he only did it if he needed to load windows 3.1)

Depends on the CPU. A64 2GHz OC'd to 2.5GHz is quite a bit faster than in stock speed. It could be even faster than a stock a64 running around the same speed if memory runs 1:1 with FSB.
Stock:
multiplier: 10, FSB: 200, CPU speed 2GHz
OC'd:
multiplier: 10, FSB: 250, CPU speed 2.5GHz
If you have a really good ram you could OC like this:
multiplier: 9, FSB: 278, CPU speed 2.5GHz

The last setup will probably be faster than the second one.

I think that whole OEM regulations thing, does not apply to germany. You can buy OEM software anywhere here, without the need to buy hardware along with it. I got my WinXP Pro OEM version(no handbook, no support(but who needs that anyway?)) for around € 115.

No. There is absolutely no intake fan in any power supply I have ever seen. That's ridiculous.

The power supply does act as a mild exhaust fan, but that is not it's purpose at all. If it is a cheap power supply that is included with your case it is likely to only have one low rpm fan at the rear which will not serve as a very good chassis exhaust fan at all. The purpose is to release air from the power supply unit, not from the computer case. Heck, many cases are designed these days with the power supplies below the other components.

It is optimal, in a case that is designed properly, to have both intake and exhaust fans. If you add an intake and an exhaust fan and it reduces your air flow or obstructs your air flow and causes negative effects then your case is not designed properly and should be replaced. If you buy a half decent case it will already come with these fans anyway.

As for RAM, Geil is nice. It was the best on the market for a short while when they introduced their dragon-something models. Really tight timings. Personally, I like OCZ. The Platinum EL stuff is amazing.
For the average user I would just recommend name brand modules on generic PCBs. I prefer samsung for price and reliability.
Avoid Micron and Infineon like the plague. I've had issues with Hynix on bad PCB's as well. Winbond makes good modules.

Yes, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you know what you're doing. Especially without additional fans. Using the stock fans and no exhaust/intake when overclocking is begging for heat issues. Pushing the limits of your hardware often comes at a price.

Overclocking has become a lot more user friendly, but it can still be very damaging if you're not sure what you're doing. Higher frequencies means more power consumption which leads to more heat. If you can't dissipate the additional heat, then you will need to purchase a new processor and/or motherboard sooner than you would have expected.

If you do/did go with the Chaintech and plan to overclock, I would strongly advise getting some additional fans. The chipset will require air circulation (as it has passive cooling) and without it your overclocking results will be very poor -- or very expensive.

If you're going with the cheapest power supply and the cheapest case, you're going to need to purchase a new power supply in the future and perhaps some parts that it takes along for the ride.

I would recommend getting a decent case with a good power supply. Better yet, a mid-range $40 case with a seperate power supply. I always recommend the OCZ PowerStream, but it isn't cheap. About $70-$100 for a 420W. Of course, it will probably last you 10-20 times longer than a power supply that is included in your case and will be 20-30 thousand times more reliable

Some cheaper cases from Antec, AOpen and Asus (just to name a few) will include half decent power supplies, but these will not last as long as the OCZ and will not be as reliable.

SATA is faster, but the difference is not very big. However, your board supports SATA II. I would recommend investing in a Seagate with NCQ - like the one you posted a link to. Seagates have a 5 year warranty. As a general rule of thumb a hard drive will die on the day it's warranty expires, so keep that in mind when deciding which manufacturer to go with
Seagate and Samsung both offer 5 year warranties. I prefer Seagate.

Everything you need will be included. Some fancy cables you might want - such as Rounded IDE cables, as mentioned - but they aren't necessary. If you use cable ties and keep the inside of your case neat and tidy then ribbon cables should not be in the way. If you do decide to go without intake and/or exhaust fans then rounded ide cables are ultimately pointless.

Ok, there you go. You've now completed my 3-week training course

Depends on a definition
My PSU has two fans: one sucks air in above CPU heatsink and other one blows out of the case.
That means my PSU has an intake fan bit it doesn't work as an intake fan for the case

My 3GHz p4 prescott with inbox cooler and no extra casefans (only PSU one) has been working perfectly fine at 3.8GHz and 75-80C

I agree. Also better PSU's are probably much more effective. E.g qtec 650W psu took ~1kW of power from wallsocket if it had to give out power ~400W and around 450W it just blew up.
My old 300W Vikings got extreemly hot when it had to power my new prescott. If my calculations were correct my PC used around 350W power. Fortunately it didn't blow up. My new 370W Enermax is almost at room temperature and probably uses much less juice to power my PC.

Speed difference is bigger if you have to put two IDE drives to one cable. There is no such problem with SATA. Also SATA cables take much less room and don't distrub air circulation as much.

There is only one definition for 'intake' and 'exhaust'. Intake brings air into the computer, exhaust takes air out of the computer. Power supplies have their own intake, but they do not effect the air intake of the case.

That was my point, 75-80C is considered a 'heat issue'. You do realize that your prescott probably is not getting a very effective overclock at those temperatures, right? 80C is high, even for a prescott.

Only if you're simultaneously using two drives on the same channel.

Let me repeat

Yes, there is no case intake fans on a PSU but there certainly are PSU intake fans.
I do understand that you meant there are no case intake fans in a PSU. It is just that one can't say there are no intake fans on a PSU.

According to a few tests I did it didn't seem like it was throttling or anything. If you didn't mean that it is throttling then what else did you think by "not very effective OC"?

Yes, it is high but it is not lethal and it seems it hasn't done anything bad with it during the last ~8 months.

Another high temperature story.
Someone had put CPU cooler on a bit wrong and there was about 1mm of air between the IHS and the cooler. It had been used daily for several months until I got my hands on it. I let it to crunch some numbers at full load for more than 24h and when I started studying why it didn't do as much as I had hoped to I saw it was running at almost 100C and probably not at its default speed. After fixing the issues it ran perfectly fine with normal temperatures.

Probably, last time I had only one two IDE drives in my PC was a long time ago but I remember when I got an additional drive performance wasn't as it used to be.

We weren't talking about cooling power supplies at all, that's the important part to keep in mind. The discussion was about cooling within the computer itself, not the internals of specific components.

Under this context you can, because under the context of cooling a case an intake fan brings air into the computer by definition. It's swell that many power supplies have proper cooling systems too, but I don't recall that being disputed. The power supply's intake fan is an exhaust fan for the computer. It will never bring air into the computer, it takes air out of the computer.

Anyway. The entire point about intake and exhaust fans being important is that 80C is a far cry from ideal. Since I don't know a whole lot about how the Intel cpu throttling works exactly - I would have expected that to occur at 70C or so, but you say it isn't - I don't know about your specific case. However, with a typical AMD Athlon (with cool & quiet off ), you will surely see problems if you overclock your processor any significant amount with stock cooling and no auxilary cooling whatsoever. With cool and quiet on you will definitely see performance issues running at or above 70C. Even without overclocking you are going to be running things in a cooling environment that is less than ideal for any components using passive cooling.

Your hdd is good, you shouldnt need to buy more fans, and as far as RAM, i've only had experience with no-name brand, Corsair, and OCZ. OCZ was in a box i built for someone else, his box got only several hundred less than my box (he had a 2800+, i have a 3200+, he had an ati 9600 pro card, agp, and i have pci-e 6600GT). The corsair is in my box, and no-name is in my old celeryon. THe noname worked fine, but i didnt do anything extensive with it.