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Old 18th January 2009
DrJ DrJ is offline
ISO Quartermaster
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Gold Country, CA
Posts: 507
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That all looks fine. One comment, which I hope does not muddy the waters too much. You could still get a motherboard with a Q35, and add a video card for the XP box. You then would have the Intel video and its associated driver for FreeBSD, and the horsepower for gaming on the other computer. Everything else would be the same, and that might be good enough. It would save you $120 or so.

On cases and power supplies, I like the Antec Solo and Seasonic and Corsair models. The Solo enables you to build a quiet computer, with well-routed cables, quite easily. It is a bit snug, and conservative in style (which I like, actually) but it is overall a good choice. In the US you can often find them on sale or as refurbished units (which are perfectly OK). I don't know if you have that option.

Seasonic and Corsair supplies in the 400-500W range should be fine. Seasonic makes the supplies for Corsair, so it is mainly a difference in features. Detachable cables are very nice, since the only cables you have to manage are those you need. Neither of your computers should consume that much power unless you use a second high-performance video card or a huge disk array, which it does not sound like you will do.
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