First time system, what do you think?

[Fallschirmjager]

Mostly for gaming and work
For work I do ALOT of spreadsheets and usualy have Excell and Access open at the same time as well as a voice conference

CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 4000+ Processor (San Diego) Socket 939

MOBO:
ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16 ATX AMD

Video cards:
2x ASUS EN7800GTXTOP/2DHTV/256M Geforce 7800GTX 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 TOP Limited Edition

Memory:
Corsair XMS TWINX2048-3200C2PT 2GB Kit DDR400
Pulled from my old system. 2 GB should be enough...

HDD:
3x Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB Serial ATA II 7200RPM Hard Drive w/16MB Buffer
All three will run on Raid 5
750 total GB of space, right now I am using over 400 GB with various drives so the extra space will be nice

DVD:
A Samsung 16x DVD drive, I got it from someone for $25 and am using it on my current system. It is extremly quite and has fast read times.
No reason to upgrade

Case:
Thermaltake Xazer III
I don't know the model number. It is a metallic blue and has 7 fans. It had a 420w power supply but im going to remove that.
I got it for $35 from a friend
Weighs slightly less than some small cars

Power supply:
Thermaltake W0049RUC Silent PurePower 680W w/Active PFC
A good friend said it is worth the extra cash to get a power supply that is SLi ready. Is this true?

Sound:
Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum Sound Card
I was told these sound AMAZING with headphones and gain you FPS in games. I will see...

Headphones:
Sennheiser HDR65 wireless headphones
I got these when I lived in Germany. Sennheiser makes the very best head phones you can buy. Don't let anyone tell you differently

Heatsink and fan:
Zalman CNPS9500 LED CPU Cooler
120mm copper heatsink and fan
Was told this would shave 10 C off my cpu temp
Was also told it would sound like being inside a 737

PCI wirless network card:
Linksys WMP54GS Wireless-G PCI Adapter w/SpeedBooster
Picked this out at random, Linksys was the only brand I have ever heard of

Floppy drive:
A Sony drive I got for $12

Microsoft keyboard and mouse off my old system
Also a Saitek X52 joystick I paid $125 for since I am flight sim junkie


I think that is it and I didn't miss anything
If anyone has ANY suggestions or thoughts or sees a way I can save some money let me know.
Also if you see any potential conflicts or problems please let me know

Thanks

 

[pickxx]

If yu have 3 drives in RAID5 you wont have 750GB.....you would need 4 250GB drives in RAID 5 for 750GB.

But other then that you are good.

 

[Fallschirmjager]

Can you explain that? How does 250x3 not add up to 750?
Or does it not work like that?
How much space will I have?

 

[Teh_Catman]

3x 250 in a raid 5 setting wont be 750. But why would you want any kind of raid unless you never game?

3x 250 in einer Einstellung des Überfalls 5 ist nicht 750. Aber warum würden Sie irgendeine Art Überfall es sei denn Sie nie Spiel wünschen?

 

[pickxx]

RAID-0 will give you 750, but with one disk lost you are F*UCKED
RAID-5 will give you a 1 drive buffer, so you can lose one and still be alright.

EXAMPLE:

If you have a large file, or a bucn of files "ABCDE" this is what RAID-5 does.....X's are just to keep things spaced out

#1AXCDX
#2ABXDE
#3XBCXE


When you want to acess file "D" you can draw from two drives, drives 1&2. And when you lose a drive....Takeout any drive.....you will still have all data.

So it gives you speed and secutiry as a cost of one drive. If yu have a 10 Drive RAID-5 you will have 9 drives and one redundant drive. but you can set the number of redundant drives to anythign you want.


So you will have 750GB with 3 250GB drives....but you will only have room for 500GB space of UNIQUE data....


Personally i would use 5 250GB so i would have an even TB....


Also for RAID-5 you will need a RAID card, no mobo comes with it as an option.

 

[Fallschirmjager]

Is Raid 5 faster than Raid 0?
I have a 300 GB external HD that I use with firewire. So space is not a problem.
Having the added failure security is a good thing since I have alot of valuable work data on my machine and im not very good about backing up data.

Could you give me some examples of good Raid cards?

Is having three drives in Raid 0 faster than having just two?
I have read that three is the optimal number on Raid 0
Is this true?

 

[pickxx]

RAID-0....if any one of the drives fail....all your data is GONE FOREVER!!!

You should get a 3-5 drive RAID 5 system. That would give you the super speed of RAID-0 bu with the security you need.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16816115020 This is the one i am looking at getting for myslf when i can save up for 8 250-300GB SATA drives....lol I need some storage. 500GB just isn't doing it....lol

 

[fishmahn]

Raid 5 is slower than raid 0.

Speed (from fastest to slowest):
. Raid 0
. Good Raid 5 (good controller, 5+ drives)
. Raid 1 (almost equal to normal)
. Normal single hard drive
. Crappy Raid 5 (crappy controller and/or only 3 drives)
. Floppy disk. (threw that in for effect )

Raid 0 splits data across drives for speed; 2 x 250g = 500g.
Raid 1 mirrors (duplicates) your data on 2 drives for safety; 2 x 250g = 250g
Raid 5 splits data across 3 or more drives but uses 1 drive's worth of space for redundancy (1 drive can fail and you do not lose data); 3 x 250g = 500g
Other types of raid aren't worth using in desktop environment - and not supported 99% of time)

Mike.

 

[RichPLS]

RAID 0 is not really RAID, since there is no redundancy at all.
RAID 5 is the best bet, or RAID 3 might edge it out depending on your application used with the NetCell RAID controller

 

[Fallschirmjager]

Thanks for clearing that up for me

I think I will put all three on Raid 0 and then use my other drives for backup and the external in case something terrible happens to the system.


Any other comments on the system?

 

[fishmahn]

LOL exactly. That's why it's zero. :lol:

Good point about Raid3. I didn't include 2, 3, 6, etc., since they're not common. Guess I could have added 10, 50, 0+1, etc., but it seemed beyond the scope...

Mike.

PS: Your link is bad - need an L on the extension (...html).

 

[fishmahn]

Only thing I can think of is if you want quiet, get a Thermalright SI-120 and a quiet fan. Supposed to cool even better than the 9500 - but at this point we're talking fractions of a degree, so take it for what its worth.

Or, if you're not overclocking, use the stock HSF since its plenty good (even for mild OC - 10-15%) Both the Zalman and the Thermalright will lower your temps from there, but the A64 runs cool anyways.

Mike.

 

[Fallschirmjager]

Im not worried about quiet, 95% of the time I am at the computer I have headphones on or I am listening to my XM radio.
I was told by someone I trust that Zalmans can't be beat when it comes to heatsinks.

 

[fishmahn]

Sounds good enough to me.

Haven't seen benchies on the 9500, but the 7700 vs Thermalright XP-120 with a high capacity fan has the XP-120 ahead of the Zalman. Maybe the 9500 cools better than the 7700, but the SI-120 is marginally better than the XP-120, so it seems to me both are winners...

Mike.

 

[Fallschirmjager]

Is paying the price for the Asus 7800 GTX cards worth it?
Would a cheaper GTX work?
Or maybe a GT?

Are there any current benchmarks I could take a look at that compares the GTX to the GT?