[Panoptic]

The only point I really like to drive is to keep your OS and your multimedia on different hard drives. If you're like me and run music or video or whatever in the background almost constantly, the performance difference is huge.

[Panoptic]

That and on-the-fly copies.

Also, if you get SATA optical drives, note that enabling AHCI tends to piss them off, so don't use AHCI unless you have two SATA controllers.

Also also: standard DVD-ROM drives tend to be faster than DVD burners - another reason for dual drives.

[Panoptic]

With that cooler you should already be running at 4GHz. If you're not... what are you waiting for?

and yeah, the 775 heatsink mounting system sucks.

[Panoptic]

Turn up FSB, turn down memory multiplier, done.

I got a Conroe back when the Core 2 first came out. Immediately cranked it up to 3.2GHz (400 FSB) dropped the memory to 800MHz, and booted up. No voltage adjustment or anything. I have an extreme series now (unlocked multiplier) that runs ~3.6GHz, and it's even a 65nm chip.

[Panoptic]

Is that an analog CD audio cable I see going to the sound card?

[Panoptic]

I've got a spare HDD I was planning to load it on. Impressions later, I suppose.

[Panoptic]

I'm told the 7000 build is "faster than XP."

Also, I only do quick formats unless I suspect there might be something wrong with the drive.