Looked everywhere, ended here.

Take a look at this build - http://www.digitalstormonline.com/comploadsaved.asp?id=114986 - $2476

Make sure that you ask for them to replace the 3 empty 5.25" external drive covers with mesh grill and add a 120MM fan behind them.  This will help to lower the temp of the inside of the pro case.  This is something they just started to offer on the Pro case.

If heat is a concern you would have to upgrade to either an extreme or ulta case for $215.  The above fan and grill mod would be much less expensive.

Edited by gdhart - 23 Jan 2008 at 12:44pm

Thank you for the quick answers!

I'm like you, ended up here after a lot of looking around, and almost ready to order my new computer from DG :)

I think I may answer your questions.

Originally posted by Anon-E-Mouse 1. does having two Hard Drives give any performance advantage over having just one large drive? Is the second needed for anything but space?

Without a RAID setup, there is no other advantage than extra space.

Okay!

 

  Here is teh design I came up with after looking at some of the suggestions here and in other places around. Couple of questions though...

 

  I went with liquid cooling to help maximize what could be overclocked, but is it really going to make a difference?

 

 Any compatibility issues?

 

 Anything that is overkill and could be downgraded or is not strong enough to meet the needs of the machine?

 

I may have read it here but Alienware was purchased by Dell.

Thanks for the update Digital.

  My problem with Dell was about 10 days after I got the laptop, the monitor split in half right down the middle.

  I had three friends in the room who could vouch for me, and essentially this was the situation.

Me - "Hi Dell, my laptop bro-"
Dell - "You dropped it."
Me - "Well, no I didn't eve-"
Dell - "You dropped it."
Me - "My name is-"
Dell- "You dropped it."

Etc.


 After being told multiple times over the phone and in emails about this, I made a video with all of my friends that were witnesses in it, did a detailed scan of the laptops edges to show there was no dings or dents, and even zoomed in on the crack which showed it orginiated from just under the latch.
 
   It actually split when I opened the laptop, so I have no idea why, but it seemed something right under the latch poked into the screen and split it when I put pressure on it.

 Regardless, after posting that video on Youtube and getting some 'slander'ous comments, Dell agreed to replace the screen if I removed it, and told me 'Even though you are wrong, we will replace it because of the trouble you went through'.

  I didn't care so long as I got my screen :P


 
 And thanks for the hints for this config, I'll be twinking and adjusting it a little as I try to make up my mind.

Rai,

A little off topic, but about the dell

Mine did exactly the same thing, i use mine with a sat nav and was house hunting for my mother in law, my wife and i drove to a house and shut the screen down to about 1 inch (didn't want to go to standby wasn't going to be long enough) was in the house roughly 20 mins, came out and system had shutdown, restarted it and screen was split in two.

Long story short.... Dell said they would fix it, they collected and then phoned me up saying i would have to pay for a new screen as i had "done something to it to make that happen" thankfully i used to be a dell repair engineer so shouted at them and got it repaired, but the service is awful, it took at least 20 phone calls and emails, also they refused to update my address (since i moved) and the courier company kept delivering to my old address 100 miles away.

that was £1200 or roughly $2400, wish i had got one from DigitalStorm now