building a monster

[stl]

I'm in the process of building a monster system for NL editing and DVD stuff.

Tyan s2460 mobo
2 AMD athlon MP 1800 CPU's
1024 mb registered DDR PC2100
promise fastrack TX2 raid controller
2 WD caviar 80gb "special edition" HDD
1 WD caviar 20gb HDD
1 maxtor 80gb firewire HDD
elsa synergy 4 550 XGL ( or PNY quadro 4, same thing)
enermax 350 power supply
sound blaster mp3

sounds nice, huh? , my question is: How am I supposed to properly cool this beast? other than the obvious CPU and front/rear case fans.
I see ads for HDD fans, memory fans, etc. Do I need all this? and at what point does the energy demands of these products come into play?

[TRILIGHT]

Your most important concern should be airflow. You need to make sure you're not just blowing a bunch of air around without taking into consideration where it's going. Most of the time you will be fine as long as you have proper intake and exhaust points. This is the case I have for my system...

http://www.supermicro.com/PRODUCT/Chassis/SC760.htm

It may be a bit more expensive than many others but I've yet to see a better design when it comes to accessibility and ventilation. I have it loaded with fans and have no problem so I wouldn't really be too concerned with the power drain.

[[ABC_War]JD]

Check out www.overclockers.co.uk for all your hardware needs built my system from parts bought from them, they also have one hell of a helpfull forum....

[theReal]

You definitely don't want to buy a 350W Enermax PSU for that system!

If you want an Enermax, be sure you get one of the newest series and make it >400W (the older Enermax had big problems with their 5V lines). I'd rather get a really strong Antec, Sparcle, Fortron or Leadman anyways (does it seem I don't like Enermax? Right, I don't like Enermax!).

For a good case I can also recommend the Antec/Chieftec towers http://www.chieftec.com/products/products.htm
In the big-tower varieties, you also have enough space for two systems, just like in the supermicro ;) (why would they chose a name that says "micro" when they make cases bigger than anyone else???)
But, I think chieftec looks better, you can get it in all colors you could wish for and it's also great for handling and easily adjusting a lot of fans. In addition to that it's so heavy that it doesn't vibrate at all, even with a lot of monstrous fans and harddrives.
For a monster system (not a LAN-party system that you want to carry a lot) this is the right monster case with monster airflow :)

[TheCocaCola Kid]

I agree don't buy enermax (aka: burnoutmax) adn for that system I would definitely put in some additional hard drive and memory fans. the other thing is drilling some 3 inch round holes on the one side panel and installing fins on the panel blowing onto the board.
Dual AMD systems are famous for thier speed but the massive heat also comes with that.

On a side note the Intel Xeon 2.2Ghz CPU's and up don't seem to be as hot as thier predicessors and my newest box is just smokin' for ripping.

Dual Xeon 2.2Ghz, 3Gb DDR PC2100 of Redundant memory (actually 6Gb in box), 10-73GB U160 hot swap drives(2 in a Mirror and the other 8 in a RAID 5 stripe), on an Adaptec RAID controller 3200S, ATI 8500 Radeon 128Mb All-in-Wonder, 10/100/1000 Intel NIC, (yes I have a 1000Base T switch in the house, Dell Power Connect 2508), 16X Toshiba DVD ROM, Plextor 40/12/40, SB Audigy Platinum. Then I have it in a Custom 24" Server chassis with 2 CPU fans, 2 memory fans, 4 air out fans and 4 air in fans, all powered by redundant SH power 465 watt power suppies.

Now this is the most kick @ss system i have built for myself yet. The house is getting a few too many systems in it, I think I may have to install air conditioning soon to keep it cool !

[theReal]

...you could've bought a nice sports car instead...

this is a great system! Have you ever run Seti@home on it, or some benchmarks? How does it perform?

[TheCocaCola Kid]

I hate seti being an IT tech !!

But it smokes with Winbench, I forget the final scores but it kicked ass over anything else I have ever seen.

The Matrix in 1 pass DivX 4.12 using Flask = 2hrs 32minutes

almost realtime guys!!!!!

Oh and on the Sports Car: who needs one of those when you have a Ford Expedition with a 5.4 liter engine that is Super Charged! Say bye-bye to any Vettes or Mustangs that come my way!!!! Plus this can go off-road!

[[NEX]]

were the hell did you found the Pentium 4 xeons of 2.2?
just for a question how much are they?

[TheCocaCola Kid]

I work for a large company and I have some ins with Intel. And they are about $1500 Canadian funds each.

[stl]

Thanks for all the advice everyone,

Coca-cola I'm jealous, you've got a real monster.

just my luck, the antec PSU I wanted showed up after I bought the enermax, however, I've been looking into what you said and have yet to read a bad review. Hopefully I won't have any problems.

[maven]

watch out w/ the promise fasttrack tx2...

i had a tx4 and it causes _massive_ problems in my dual athlon system... ended up getting an adaptec 1200a instead.