Finally Bought It!

NumenorLord · Apr 25, 2006

I finally ordered the parts for my brother's PC. Here's how it stands (final):

A8N-E motherboard
Enermax 485 watt PSU
Opteron 165
eVGA 7900 GT (my brother will be using this for a multitude of games, and besides Oblivion/F.E.A.R., the 7900 GT generally seems to be better than the X1800XT)
X-Fi Xtreme Music
Dual NEC DVD Burners
2x1 GB Patriot DDR 400 2-3-2-5
80 GB Seagate SATA 3.0 GB/sec
250 GB WD Caviar SE16 SATA 3.0 GB/sec
ALPS Floppy Drive (because it's silver)

I also won a Centurion 534 case, so that's what I'll be using for my brother's build (stock fans and stuff with that). Comments? Total price came out to about $1350 after shipping.

uber_g · Apr 25, 2006

8O

angry_ducky · Apr 25, 2006

8O

Why do you always do that? The sytem looks very nice, BTW.

TheMaster · Apr 25, 2006

8O

Why do you always do that? The sytem looks very nice, BTW.

He's amazed. 8O

NumenorLord · Apr 25, 2006

I also chose the 7900 GT because it runs cooler and uses less power, both pluses in my book. The stock speeds are 450 MHz core 1320 MHz memory, and that eVGA runs at 500 MHz core and 1500 MHz memory, so I bet I can overclock it a nice bit more beyond that! Not only that, but it only takes up a single slot (not really a problem with the A8N-E, but I did realize that I couldn't do dual 7900 GTXs on an A8N32-SLI with 3 PCI slots taken up). I figure that he can use the 80 GB hard drive for the OS and games and the 250 GB hard drive for storage (he downloads a lot of stuff).

NumenorLord · Apr 25, 2006

No. The reviews seemed to rate it pretty highly, so what's another $50? He'll want games and the OS to load faster, and he can leave everything else on the 250 GB hard drive.

uber_g · Apr 25, 2006

i think it looks cool

8O <--- ROFL

haha oh man

Vile · Apr 25, 2006

No. The reviews seemed to rate it pretty highly, so what's another $50? He'll want games and the OS to load faster, and he can leave everything else on the 250 GB hard drive.

You were better off getting 2x160GB HDD and making RAID 0 if you wanted speed.

infornography42 · Apr 25, 2006

No. The reviews seemed to rate it pretty highly, so what's another $50? He'll want games and the OS to load faster, and he can leave everything else on the 250 GB hard drive.

You were better off getting 2x160GB HDD and making RAID 0 if you wanted speed.

Not quite. Keep in mind, he said his bro downloads a lot. In Raid 0 if one drive dies you lose the whole kit and kaboodle.

I only endorse Raid 0 for speeding up system and program drives, never EVER for storage. If you cannot afford to go Raid 5 or 1+0 then stick with the layout prescribed here. A decent sized system drive and a large storage drive.

angry_ducky · Apr 25, 2006

i think it looks cool

8O <--- ROFL

haha oh man

8O

:lol:

oy vey

Vile · Apr 25, 2006

No. The reviews seemed to rate it pretty highly, so what's another $50? He'll want games and the OS to load faster, and he can leave everything else on the 250 GB hard drive.

You were better off getting 2x160GB HDD and making RAID 0 if you wanted speed.

Not quite. Keep in mind, he said his bro downloads a lot. In Raid 0 if one drive dies you lose the whole kit and kaboodle.

I only endorse Raid 0 for speeding up system and program drives, never EVER for storage. If you cannot afford to go Raid 5 or 1+0 then stick with the layout prescribed here. A decent sized system drive and a large storage drive.

Well, you've got a point.

pat · Apr 26, 2006

No. The reviews seemed to rate it pretty highly, so what's another $50? He'll want games and the OS to load faster, and he can leave everything else on the 250 GB hard drive.

You were better off getting 2x160GB HDD and making RAID 0 if you wanted speed.

Not quite. Keep in mind, he said his bro downloads a lot. In Raid 0 if one drive dies you lose the whole kit and kaboodle.

I only endorse Raid 0 for speeding up system and program drives, never EVER for storage. If you cannot afford to go Raid 5 or 1+0 then stick with the layout prescribed here. A decent sized system drive and a large storage drive.

But it has to happen at first.. I've been using RAID0 array for 5 years and I still have to get one failure.

Obviously, I make sure that my drives are not too close together and the have proper airflow..

ThunderGodThor · Apr 26, 2006

Almost the same build i have other then im using a DFI lanparty expert. It is one hell of a system. Havent even pushed her yet either.

mdd1963 · Apr 26, 2006

Slap that new Zalman LED heat pipe/sink cooler on it!

42C full load temps!

Looks like a nice rig...enjoy!

infornography42 · Apr 26, 2006

But it has to happen at first.. I've been using RAID0 array for 5 years and I still have to get one failure.

You sir, are in a word, lucky.

I would say in my experience 20%-30% of hard drives fail in the first 5 years. Lots of fast moving parts does not typically result in long lifespans for the devices.

When I did tech support for Dell Hard drives were the number one failure if a replacement was needed. Number two was modems because nobody ever uses a phone line surge protector it seems.

If you don't particularly mind losing your data, go for it. Me personally, I'd rather not risk it all on a double point of failure.

My $.02 Take it or leave it.

ikjadoon · Apr 27, 2006

TuniqTower120 is good option, as well. Very overclockable, but the current rig looks beyond great! Have fun building the beast!

~Ibrahim~

pat · Apr 27, 2006

No. The reviews seemed to rate it pretty highly, so what's another $50? He'll want games and the OS to load faster, and he can leave everything else on the 250 GB hard drive.

You were better off getting 2x160GB HDD and making RAID 0 if you wanted speed.

Not quite. Keep in mind, he said his bro downloads a lot. In Raid 0 if one drive dies you lose the whole kit and kaboodle.

I only endorse Raid 0 for speeding up system and program drives, never EVER for storage. If you cannot afford to go Raid 5 or 1+0 then stick with the layout prescribed here. A decent sized system drive and a large storage drive.

how often do you put those hard drives to use? i'm guessing you don't do a lot of downloading or things that aren't hard drive intensive? i could be wrong but idk... if you do, then infornography42 would be right about being lucky.

My OS is on those drive, and I use them a lot.. anyhing that I do with my computer use them . I have this array for 2 years now, still going strong, doing lot of video editing, capturing, recording, digital pictures works..

sure enough, I put them at the bottom of the case, where there is less heat. and right in front of the front case fan. Fan is running half speed. there is at least 1 inch between drives and the next "obstacle" and as lon as there is airflow, they don't get too hot.

Problem happen when people mount the 2 drives real close together. Because maybe of limited cable lenght or mounting place. 2 HDD real close is spelling trouble.

But it has to happen at first.. I've been using RAID0 array for 5 years and I still have to get one failure.

Obviously, I make sure that my drives are not too close together and the have proper airflow..

I'm not lucky, I simply use common sense and good power supply. Peoples today are concerned about CPU heat and video card, but most of the time, and especially with recent A64 CPU, the HDD are running hotter than the CPU...

NumenorLord · Apr 27, 2006

Still waiting for the 7900 GT and 250 GB Barracuda hard drive. The bottom 3.5" bays have 3, and I'm filling the top and bottom with a hard drive while leaving the middle one open. They're also right in front of the case fan. Since this is my first build, I took 3 hours to make sure everything was hooked up properly. The scariest part was probably locking the cpu HSF down... it took a bit of force. :?

someguyy · Apr 27, 2006

One thing i notice when building on that motherboard is that if you have a really big graphics card (7800gt in my case) it can be hard to mount your RAM as the card tends to interfere with the retaining clips near it.
As far as overclocking goes, well i hope it goes well as the mem you have isn't the most overclockable. (but there is always the option of running the mem on a divider.) In any event congrats on the new system.

KingLoftusXII · Apr 27, 2006

When I did tech support for Dell Hard drives were the number one failure if a replacement was needed.

One word...Maxtor

chunkymonster · Apr 27, 2006

I finally ordered the parts for my brother's PC. Here's how it stands (final):

A8N-E motherboard
Enermax 485 watt PSU
Opteron 165
eVGA 7900 GT (my brother will be using this for a multitude of games, and besides Oblivion/F.E.A.R., the 7900 GT generally seems to be better than the X1800XT)
X-Fi Xtreme Music
Dual NEC DVD Burners
2x1 GB Patriot DDR 400 2-3-2-5
80 GB Seagate SATA 3.0 GB/sec
250 GB WD Caviar SE16 SATA 3.0 GB/sec
ALPS Floppy Drive (because it's silver)

I also won a Centurion 534 case, so that's what I'll be using for my brother's build (stock fans and stuff with that). Comments? Total price came out to about $1350 after shipping.

I remember your first post requesting input for this build, a graduation gift I believe. Dude, nice machine! The eVGA is an excellent choice. So is having 2 drives, one for the OS and the other for dl'ing. Good job! Good job, indeed!

Wanna be my brother?

Cheers!

pat · Apr 28, 2006

I often left my computer to compile video files at night.. since compiling/ rendering of larges video files use HDD a lot, combined to heat put out by the CPU, then this can cause much more stress du to heat than downloading.

That's why I make sure that I start every built with a good PSU and well vented case. I still have to have any hardware failure of any kind ..

Finally Bought It!

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