Guess my new build will have to wait! (Velociraptor)

Just get a crummy HD for next to nothing and when it's out, get the HD you really want. There's no way in hell I'd let an HD delay me getting a new rig... a CPU or GPU maybe... but an HD??? That's crazy.

Delay is a strong word - I'm still trying to figure out the mobo/memory combo as that has had me in stitches lately as I've flopped about a million times.

Something tells me I'm not alone in this regard when it comes to building systems. Sometimes I wish we just had 3 of everything and then picking would be easy!

Also, I was thinking I could get it with what was to be my storage drive but since I have a Windows Home Server I set up already, I dont need as much local storage.

So part of me started thinking sick thoughts of how well two of these would do in raid0 and using no storage drive.

So in essence, I don't want to waste a cheap drive just to get everything else tested.

But more than likely I can't rob banks to get $600 for 2 drives so I will probably get a storage drive and start...but that leaves me in a position where I know I'll be refronting the box once the velociraptors comes out in May.

If it is early May, well I might be able to order it all together as I can wait 2 weeks...

It's the first thing on the WD site...

http://www.westerndigital.com/en/

So it cannot be that far from mainstream release. Getting one (like the E8400) is another story  

No, no... you're definitely not, in fact I'm having the same discussion about the same HD in my "new build" thread http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/250494-31-system-buil... here, saying how I don't want to wait for the VelociRaptor, heh.

Just think, if you wait for two weeks (maybe a bit more), you can save up a few extra dollars, sell a pint or two more blood, and get a slightly crazed look in your eyes that will make the Fed Ex guy nervous as he hands you the boxes. Just try not to drool to much as you open it all up and start to put it together.

Heh, well the thing is these things really are awesome.

Every single review I can read about them makes you feel these things are not revolutionary by any means, but highly evolutionary.

I'm particularly interested in the cooling aspect of the big heatsink it effectively sits in as well as the sick metrics.

I've seen many benchmarks for it now on many sites and some are simply mind-boggling.

So for me, I can wait a few weeks and spend the $300.

I might still order everything seperate and get what was going to be my storage drive just to test the stability of components, etc. knowing ill refront my machine with this as my main drive...

But also I want to be sure that the mobo, bios, etc. is all ok with the velociraptor and dont want the 30-day return period to expire.

Hard drives are still bottlenecks in many things we use our systems for so this one upgrade is that important to me  

*dreams of the next MMORPG with constant hard drive loading/access*

Heh, well I'm excited but also scared. Probably since this is my first build in the modern PC era and after reading enough NewEgg reviews for research, it seems every single mobo/memory/PSU combo will have nothing but problems  

I know most who post do so because they are having problems and the majority don't have any and don't post.

But I will dread that my first post attempt is teh kaka and then I'm stuck trying to figure out which component is the issue. I have nothing available to swap with since I donated all my stuff before I got the Dell (which i returned and hence am now building).

Sure, I can run to Fry's and 'rent' a replacement part temporarily but I really hate doing that.

But yes, I'll still be excited!

Hmmm, I don't know if I would wait for the new drive. I am thinking two 15k sas drives in raid 0, it will cost more at about $450 compared to the $300 for the VR but should be much faster. Just use the drives for the OS and ghost the image to a larger storage HD for easy back up.

Below are the parts for the set up I was thinking.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?Product... x2

Any opinions on this?

I couldn't think of a WORSE source of information.

I was thinking the same thing...It's usually best to trust an official review site (i.e. Anandtech, THG...).

Newegg reviews are often unreliable. Often you see a lot of negative reviews that looks like they were written by the same person. Other times they are written by people who don't own the product. But they do offer a general idea of a product. If you see a couple hundred reviews and they are 909% good or 90% bad, then the product will probably reflect the quality or lack thereof. Also, if you see that problems relate to using the product with Vista, but its ok with XP, then there is something to think about.

As others have said, look to professional reviews sites, but still remember that they are professionals, and they know how to fix or get around problems that you don't. PSUs can be researched both in tier listings and on jonnyguru. Get a PSU that tested good and you'll most likely be happy. Mobo problems most often are caused by the user screwing something up and then either not realizing it or not wanting to admit it. Ram problems are more common now because some ram runs at a non-standard voltage, while the BIOS loads a standard voltage, which causes failure. Buy high quality ram, install one stick at a time, adjust voltage in BIOS as necessary, and I'd guess that 90% of the ram problems would disappear.

tank_atlantis IMPORTANT

i have two sas seagate cheetah 15k SAS drives in a Raid 0, and i can honestly say that i dont believe anything is faster than these

oh yeah, i would get a better controller card than that. i have that exact one and it is holding up my drives, according to HD tach results. i am getting 320mb/s burst speed and 210 mb/s read with a 5.7ms randon access time, but the way it is displaying the results, it means the card is actually suppressing some of the power of the drives.

i had to spend 250 on raid controller card (lsi 8204 elp) that supports SAS and 250 for each drive (147gb x2).

and the performance for example; i am always the first into a gaming server, unless there is a person hosting it (then they are)
there is no waiting for files to pop up, unless you are trying to open up your playlist on windows media player ( i dont know why it has trouble with that, but thats about it)

Raptorxt,

Thanks for the reply, so a different controller. Do you have any recommendations? I was actually looking to get a cheaper one for about 139, but just because it said it got the same speeds as the card I posted. Even though I was looking at the lower cost controller I do not mind spending more for one that is going to maximize my performance.

TANK_ATLANTIS

maybe the
Adaptec 2252400-R 8-lane PCI-E SATA / SAS RAID 31205 or
PROMISE STEX8650 PCI Express SATA / SAS Controller

but i have no experience with either of these cards, i have just heard that more memory could produce better results.

just member the lsi 8204ELP is the lowest of the LOW
on one hand, i am happy with it because i dont need my drives to be any faster or perform any better for my needs, but, on the other hand, knowing that they could be faster just eats at you.

you also should know that in a few years they will be coming out with a 6GB/s controller card. it is already avalaible to "select" companies, but not to the general public. (http://www.analogzone.com/iop_061107.htm)

in this situation, unlike most, YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR (not joking) let me just repeat that
YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR

those cards are a lot more expensive, though ($200-400)
dont take my advice only get information from someone a lot more intelligent than me in this area.

all i can tell you is the performance i am getting with the 8204elp controller and 2x147gb seagate cheetah sas drives.

i am happy to try and answer your questions, though

Thanks for answering with what you could. I know what you mean by it eating at you, I would not want that. Spending the extra cash to begin with is not a problem. I am not saying that I have money to burn, but if I am going to do something I am going to do it right. About the 6gb coming out in a few years, by that time I hope solid state has dropped to a reasonable level. I mean for $600 you can buy a 64gb solid state drive, but the drive is ide, slowing the system down by the little bits that matter. All the sata or sata 2 are all above 1k.

TANK_ATLANTIS

you do know that the SAS seagate cheetah drives are faster than any SSD drive out, right?

the ssds are not for transfering large files, but only for quick access times

and with the access time i am getting, 5.7ms, there is no need to be faster

No, I did not know that, I never truly looked at the speeds or anything, I was just going by what others had said and they were saying solid state was the fastest. Guess I should reread the rules of the internet because I seem to have forgot them. Thanks for pointing that out though, now I am going to do that for my new build for sure.