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I would suggest getting a case without a power supply, and buying a separate power supply. Most supplies that come with the case are not very good. The power supply is very important, and you don't want to ruin good hardware with a crappy supply that craps out. OCZ and Seasonic are excellent brands IMO. Get a good 400w+ supply.
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I haven't read a ton of reviews, but the ones that I've seen seem to indicate that the Antec power supply is pretty good.
This is the one that comes with that case. I really like that case because it seems to be one of the quietest cases available. I like the looks of it too. Reviews say that it's a nice, well built, easy to work with case. Do you think that this power supply will be OK?
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I think a 3500 Venice is overkill for your purposes. Just get the Venice 3000 , which is much cheaper and the performance difference won't be huge. You can always learn to overclock it later if you need to (you won't).
here
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Thanks for the mobo suggestion. There is a combo deal right now at Newegg for $20 off of the 3500+ and the Asus A8N-SLI, effectively bringing the Asus price to $144. If that is still available when I order, I'll probably just go that route.
As far as the processor, I considered a cheaper one, but given my history, the computer probably won't be replaced for a very long time. (I am typing this from a PII 350 machine.) I am willing to spend a bit extra here and there. For no real good reason, I decided that the 3500+ was a good middle ground between cheap and expensive. I wouldn't want to spend much more than $300 on a processor, but I'm not trying too hard to cut costs either. I may eventually learn how to overclock it (mildly) but probably not for a while.
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If you want 2 monitor support, just buy a regular card (1 DVI, 1 analog video) or a dual DVI card (more expensive). No point in buying two cards unless you want to set up SLI support for games.
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I am not sure if I will ever spend the money for an LCD. If I get one, dual DVI will obviously be unnecessary. If I get 2, I'd prefer to run both off of DVI. Since I'm not planning on spending $900 on LCDs any time soon (maybe never, who knows...) I don't want to run a dual DVI card right now. I figure later on down the road, I can either get a dual DVI card or a normal DVI+VGA card if I ever do get 2 LCDs. I was just curious whether or not I'd be able to support more than 2 displays at once with 2 video cards. It isn't clear to me whether the Asus A8N-SLI supports 2 PCI-express video cards running independently. On the Newegg site, it says:
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2 x PCI Express X 16 (*SLI mode : x8 , x8 *Default Single VGA mode : x16, x1)
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I just wondered if there was a x16, x16 option for 2 independent video cards. I will probably never need more than 2 displays anyway, but I was just curious about future possibilities. It would be nice to have a third screen for lobbies and PT related stuff.
Ignoring all of that, what card would you recommend for running 2 CRTs at 1600x1200 and no real gaming?
Hopefully I can get this sorted out by the end of the week...
I look forward to your opinions on the Antec power supply and video card. Thanks for your help!