Building around a new CPU and RAID1

[scott_p]

My six month old Seagate SATA drive died on Thursday night. From what I've discovered, the SATA controller on my A7N8X-DX seems to have gone out as well.

I went down to Fry's and bought another Seagate 300 GB drive (the same model number) of my damaged one. If I can get a replacement from Seagate, I'm going RAID1 for data mirroring. I don't want ot have to rely on data recovery places to get my data back.

While also at Fry's I did the wacky thing of buying a sale combo. I got a 939 Athlon64 3700+ and an ECS RS482-M motherboard for $220. It was very much an impulse buy as I usually am purchasing behind the curve. Until Thursday, I was running an AthlonXP 2500+ OC'd to almost a 3200+. Now that I have a nice CPU, I almost feel like I need to build up the rest of the sytem. I do have a gig of HyperX I was able to transfer.

This computer is my main computer for my business and play. Mundane office software and web surfing are its main tasks. I do like to play games and am most intertested in RTS over first person shooters.

I'm looking for a solid motherboard with solid RAID 1 controls and moderate (not complicated) overclocking capability. I also am thinking about a video card in the $100-$150 range. My current PSU is a Thermaltake 430W with 19A on the +12V rail. I assume that should be strong enough for a single video card and two STA drives?

Any suggestions? I have the 2 GB Corsair memory at Newegg ready to purchase. I was just thinking about adding a video card into the mix as well. I might just run with the functioning mainboard I have until I need to recycle into another computer for the business. (in about a month or so)

 

[mdd1963]

6800GS is at a decent price point for PCI-e cards.........

 

[shadowduck]

My six month old Seagate SATA drive died on Thursday night. From what I've discovered, the SATA controller on my A7N8X-DX seems to have gone out as well.

I went down to Fry's and bought another Seagate 300 GB drive (the same model number) of my damaged one. If I can get a replacement from Seagate, I'm going RAID1 for data mirroring. I don't want ot have to rely on data recovery places to get my data back.

While also at Fry's I did the wacky thing of buying a sale combo. I got a 939 Athlon64 3700+ and an ECS RS482-M motherboard for $220. It was very much an impulse buy as I usually am purchasing behind the curve. Until Thursday, I was running an AthlonXP 2500+ OC'd to almost a 3200+. Now that I have a nice CPU, I almost feel like I need to build up the rest of the sytem. I do have a gig of HyperX I was able to transfer.

This computer is my main computer for my business and play. Mundane office software and web surfing are its main tasks. I do like to play games and am most intertested in RTS over first person shooters.

I'm looking for a solid motherboard with solid RAID 1 controls and moderate (not complicated) overclocking capability. I also am thinking about a video card in the $100-$150 range. My current PSU is a Thermaltake 430W with 19A on the +12V rail. I assume that should be strong enough for a single video card and two STA drives?

Any suggestions? I have the 2 GB Corsair memory at Newegg ready to purchase. I was just thinking about adding a video card into the mix as well. I might just run with the functioning mainboard I have until I need to recycle into another computer for the business. (in about a month or so)

As far as the motherboard, DFI Lanparty boards are known for their ease of overclocking, and they have onboard RAID 0/1.
nF4 Ultra-Infinity Board $88
SLI version with more USB, dual LAN, and better sound:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136152- $122

As far as RAM if you want to overclock get OCZ RAM. It seems to overclock the best of any RAM Ih ave tried. 2GB of OCZ RAM (Gold) can be had for around $200 on Newwegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227063 $164 after MIR.

For a video card in the $150 range, check out a 6800GS. eVGA makes one for around $169 with an MIR.

 

[scott_p]

After playing around on New Egg, this is my current list. It is subject to change of course as I determine how much of my old computer to recycle.

Mobo:

*Asus A8N-E ($91)
-or-
DFI LANParty UT nF-4 Ultra D ($122)

Memory:

*OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) Platimum DDR400 ($159 after rebate)
-or-
OCZ 2 GB (2x1GB) Gold DDR500 ($169 after rebate)

Video Card:

*Sapphire X850XT $154 after rebate
-or-
eVGA GeForce 6800GS CO SE ($154 after rebate)

The asterisks indicate my current favorite in each category. I'll probably buy an Antec Sonata II case to stick everything in. The P180 is also being considered.

How does this look so far?

 

[rancor]

I would get the DFI Ultra-D without question. Not only is it a most excellent mobo built to OC, but the peeps over at DFI-STREET.com are incredibly helpful and knowledgeable.

I would get the ddr500. Not sure witch mem is better for overclocking your setup, as that will depend on your other final choices (particularly the mobo). The ddr500 will be better than the equivalent ddr400 for overclocking purpose, since you can get 250 vs 200 without touching the mem (my opinion).

eVGA GeForce 6800GS CO SE. This opinion my be slightly bias, as I have had and ATI Radeon 9600XT for many years and every time a new game came out or sometimes when a new patch came out for a previous game, I would be subject to driver incompatibility issues. I had to go as far as rolling back my drivers to play some games and then when I wanted to play anther game I may have to switch back to the most current. It just seemed the CATALAST software and driver set was so buggy for me. I just recently switched to NVIDIA based cards and purchased a XFX 7900GT.

Good luck.

 

[scott_p]

Ok, my art is full of stuf at New Egg. I just am tossing and turning on a couple items.

So far for certain:

DFI LANParty NF4 Ultra-D
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813136152

eVGA GeForce 6800GS CO SE
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814130271

Now the dumb decision part:

Which memory would function better?

OCZ Platinum DDR400
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820227210

or

OCZ Gold DDR500
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820227219

Also, will a Sonata II provide enough ventilation for this system? I plan on just a mild OC since I'm new to that scene. I really am looking for quiet and even at stock settings, the machine will probably be fast enough. But, I've got a Tim Taylor gene in me that thinks everything can run a bit faster...