New computer .......

.....and it was fairly inexpensive (250 gig Seagate for $64, it's kind of hard to beat that.)

Oh I'm sure they'll find something new to spend your money on soon 

Thanks for the pointers - certainly I'll be putting SATA drives into the PC in due course, but for the time being I'm concentrating on getting the rest of the hardware a little more up to date.

Any comments on the following combination of new parts:

ASUSTeK P5W DH Deluxe motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor
ASUSTeK Silent Knight II CPU fan
ASUSTeK Extreme N7600 GS Silent 512MB graphics card
Kingston 2 GB DDR2-SDRAM PC6400 CL5 memory

Whilst I'm sure this lot will easily outperform my elderly Athlon 2600XP with 768MB of RAM and bog-standard AGP graphics card, am I missing anything crucial in this selection? I'll admit I'm way out of touch hardware-wise at the moment...

You might want to consider a good quality power supply. I just have a cheapy one that came with my case. It works though, but may add noise while recording, I'm not sure yet.

I'm not that familiar with the things on your list, but ASUS does make good stuff. I'd also go with the Q6600 chip if I were building a new computer today. Because of expense, I don't know if I'd go with the Quad, but certainly the duo. The quad is getting rave reviews on other forums I visit.

.....and it was fairly inexpensive (250 gig Seagate for $64, it's kind of hard to beat that.)

Oh I'm sure they'll find something new to spend your money on soon 

What money ?? I already blew it on this new computer and AA3. The only thing I'm planning on buying at this point is a cheap one channel midi to USB interface, $30-40, or maybe a $50 two channel one, depending on what's compatible with Vista. After that I'm not planning any purchases for a while. I've got this great desire to start saving money.

You might want to consider a good quality power supply. I just have a cheapy one that came with my case.....

I can highly recommend the Corsair HX520w. It has modular cabling i.e. you only have to connect the cables you actually need and put the others away until you buy more kit! More neatness and tidiness in the cabinet! You have to love it AND it is silent!

I've no worries with the quiet monster that currently supplies the juice!

ASUSTeK Silent Knight II CPU fan
ASUSTeK Extreme N7600 GS Silent 512MB graphics card
Kingston 2 GB DDR2-SDRAM PC6400 CL5 memory

I was amazed how quiet the stock fan that came with the Q6600 is - pretty much as quiet as the Zalman I had before. YMMV of course.

I used a low-end Asus graphics card.  Most of the high-end stuff is for 3D and gaming - or Vista, I suppose.

Memory - just get 4GB and be done with it - it's dirt cheap, and you'll find a use for it soon enough!

But all those answers are largely from my perspective, of course.  I'm sure you'll be just as happy with your suggestions.

Paul

I'm also using the stock fan that came with the e6750 Intel processor. I tried the Arctic Freezer Pro, but it didn't stay installed to the motherboard good enough for me. Those push pins just seem too weak for a unit as big as the Arctic Freezer. Leverage seems to work against you with this unit. It's just too big and heavy. The push pins on the stock Intel fan seem to have a better fit and tighten up better. I still would prefer some sort of nut and bolt fastener. I can't believe they are using this method for something important as a CPU cooling fan. It's just an accident waiting to happen.

On testing out the recording capabilities of the mini sound card that came with the ASUS motherboard, I am pleasantly surprised at a very quiet and stable -90 db's noise floor with the microphone and line inputs disconnected. This is a nice step up from my old computer which measured around -70 to -80 with my 2496 and 1010LT sound cards, -60 db with the Revolution 7.1 sound card,  and -45 to -50 with a Soundblaster Live card, and -40 with the onboard AC'97 card. I can't test the 24/96 or 1010LT sound cards until I get Vista compatible drivers for them. This test I do, shows me how much noise is attributed to the computer, power supply fluctuations, etc..........so in the meantime, this mini sound card will work out nicely for an upcoming recording project I have scheduled for next week.

Frankly I'd rather have a motherboard which replicates the features of the Asus but puts graphics onboard and ditches the sound option. Any ideas?

"ditches the sound options "........ Nooooooooo !! I want to be able to chose and change sound cards. I want to be able to install my 1010LT for the added inputs and outputs, if I need them.

I'm not a big fan of video cards myself, but it seems to be a necessary evil, as some people just want the basics and others want high definition gaming quality cards. So I just bought mine based on price...I didn't want a dirt cheap card, nor an overly expensive card, and ended up with a G Force 7300GS from EVGA. It's got 256 mb ram, but the main selling point for me was I can run dual monitors with it. It works and everything looks nice....no problems to report.

In the end I took your advice, downgraded the video card, upped the RAM to 4GB, and stuck with the original fan. Now I await delivery. Thanks guys!

I just got 2 gigs of ram, just because it seems to be the least amount people are using now days for music recording programs, and Adobe recommends it for high definition sound. I also have a 2 gig flash drive setup in Vista's Ready Boost.  I had 1 gig in my old computer and that seemed to work okay for most things, but I wanted 2 gig for the new computer. The ram I got was from Kingston, 2 gig, DDR2, 800 MHz buss, ECC capable.

I just got 2 gigs of ram, just because it seems to be the least amount people are using now days for music recording programs

Looks like my 786MB and 1GB in my two current machines leaves them pretty underpowered then!

Yep, a couple years ago, 512 or 1024 was considered great, but 2 or 4 gigs seems to be what you need to keep up with the Jones in today's world.  My computer will handle up to 8 gigs, but I don't feel the need to go any more than 2 gigs at this time. The price of memory has really come down, so 2 gigs is not that expensive.....actually mine was around $85......the 2 gig usb Ready Boost drive was only around $15-17.