Ok, here's how it goes: not to bore you with a long story as to why, I might end up with a brand new MSI 875P Neo-FISR PCB 2.0 and P4 3.0C Ghz laying around within the next few days. I figure, "what the hell? why not build a secondary gaming machine and see how far I can overclock that beeotch?" The operative phrase here being "secondary machine" - I don't want to go all out, I already went all out with my primary desktop. I want a mid-tower, more lan party size, and I want to spend as little as possible. Is there such thing as a "modest high-end mini-overclocked gaming rig?" I don't know?

So I have the motherboard, I have the processor, I just need to build the rest of the system around it, and I'm interested in your suggestions for case and PSU. I thought the AeroCool AeroPower II+ Titanium Acrylic Series 550W looked pretty cool, but I couldn't find any reviews on it, and the Chenming UltraLan 301 Elite looked like the perfect case, but I'd also like to maybe go with something all-acrylic and UV reflective.

I'm planning on doing this over the next few months, adding a piece here, doing a case mod there, taking my time, doing it with care. Mostly just for the fun of it and because I'll have these spare parts. For the record I do plan on overclocking, like seriously overclocking, so if you want to throw in some suggestions for cooling and RAM let me know. Again, I'm planning this as a secondary system, so the further you can keep the total (excluding the CPU and mobo) under $1,000 the better. Don't need sound card or optical drives and I'm saving the video card for last.

Thanks in advance.

Let me git this straight... your secondary computer is a 3.0 p4....then wtf is your "good" one...

Actually my "good" machine has a 3.0C as well. Long story short, I ordered a new CPU and mobo to replace what I thought I killed on my current machine, but 1) my mobo is fine and 2) I'm within my warranty and ABS said they'll replace it for free. The company I ordered the new mobo and CPU from has a 15% restocking fee, so instead of paying, like $80 bucks for nothing, I figured I'd keep them and build a new machine. I just got a new job that pays very well, so why not start a side project like this?

See, my primary machine is more of a media center. I have a Radeon AIW 9800 Pro, 240 GB Seagates, 3 gigs of Corsair XMS DDR Ram, 52x34x52 burner, region free DVD-Rom, DVD-RW (well, will soon at least ), etc, etc, and although it's certainly a gaming machine, I use it mostly for video recording/editing/encoding, photoshop, etc., pretty much everything. It's a big, loud, hunking machine, and I want it to remain the central machine in the house. It's got a lot of cold cathods and stuff, LED fans, LED feet, so on, and the RAM and CPU are running a little fast, but it's not really an overclocked/pimped machine by the standards of this site

This one I'm building, this isn't going to be my primary machine, so I'm pretty much just building it to run Half-Life 2, Doom 3, etc as well as possible I'm going to still do the majority of my computing on my current machine, but this one I want to throw in the next generation ATI or NVIDA card. I would just throw a X800 in this one now and go, but I just love the AIW too much to let it go. I've been spoiled . So I'm only really concerned with overclocking the ram, overclocking the processor, and throwing a bitchin' video card in there. I can't overclock with the mobo I have now, and I'd like to get into this more. Maybe try out water cooling, you know? The rest, ah. I'll make do with the optical drives I have laying around the house, use the soundcard built into the board, 120 gigs of hard drive space would be more than enough.

Ok, I like the X-Dreamer II case, but I want a different power supply - suggestions? Baring in mind the limitations of the case.

For HSF I think I'll go with a MCX478-V and a Delta 80.