Decent MB for Q9550?

[Rapid]

My personal recommendations would include

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=1003507

or

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=768118

or

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=967448

with

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=532626

haha! Exactly! You know, the Ultra-120 (its Thermalright and not Thermaltake, my mistake) is the first I have in mind, paired with a Noctua fan, like you proposed. My other options (the complete Noctua solution I referred to previously) are the 2 Noctua options you posted.

I've read that the Thermalright is the top one when paired with Noctua fans. The only problem that I know about this heatsink, is that Thermalright sends the heatsink, only for you to find out that it needs a lot of lapping...

The Noctua solutions are very nice too. If I go with the Silverstone case, given the airflow (top fan sucks air) what do you think is best? A tower version HS or a fan-at-top version?

A fan-at-top version will help dissipating the heat from the cpu mobo surrounding heatsinks, but do you think that it would have a negative impact in the overall airflow and especially that of the GTX card?

 

[Mul.]

Personally I'd say that a tower solution exhausting air towards either rear fans would perform well. I haven't heard much about the issues with the base of the Thermalright Ultra 120's lately so whether they've improved or not I do not know. If in doubt though, the Noctua option is a safe bet

 

[Rapid]

Yep! Indeed. As soon as I build this thing I'll post photos and an overall opinion of the combination. I'm really thankful because you have helped a lot! There is a saying that states: "There is a frustrating of plans where there is no confidential talk, but in the multitude of counselors there is accomplishment". It's soo true.

 

[Mul.]

No trouble at all. Looking forward to seeing a build log

 

[aok]

Either...

A specific P35 motherboard called, Abit iP35 XE Pro, or a P45 motherboard, prefferably, something decent but at a good cost, like the ASUS P5Q Pro.

 

[Mul.]

The IP35 Pro XE was fantastic value at around £58-65 while it was still around. It's a struggle to find them these days.