Few basic questions

[Dark Comet]

Hi,
I am slowly going to update my PC (Part by part until its a completely different PC) I have a few questons to ask before I do it. Instead of making multiple threads I decided to make just one.

1. I am thinking of buying Windows Vista Home premium. I have heard that if I wanted to go 64-bit in the future I can just pay a small fee to Microsoft and they will send me the disk. Is this true?

2. For RAM I have a choice of 4 GIG DDR2 1066mhz (CL5) or 2 GIG DDR3 1800mhz (CL7). Now I understand that DDR3 does not normally give much of a performance increase because of latency but this is a 744mhz speed increase. Which one would be better?

3. I am going to configure RAID 0 for my system. Because I am using Windows Vista will I need to use a floppy drive at boot up?

4. I have no idea what case to get. For about £100 budget whats the best case I can get in terms of build quality and airflow.

5. I was also thinking of buying a 8800 GT Graphics card. What would be the best make to go for? I have been looking at the Zotac GeForce 8800GT AMP! Edition for £179.99.
Thats all the questions I can think of now although i'm sure I will ask more in the future. Thanks for any help.

 

[nhobo]

A 64 bit OS has no advantages over 32 bit, since there is no practical 64 bit software available. Vista will reduce performance on a given machine. Aside from that doesn't Gates have enough of your money yet?

A 32 bit system can use up to 4GB ram. DDR3 is way overpriced. DDR2 1066 is only good for radical overclocks. Get 800, or even 667 if you are not going to OC.

Forget RAID unless you are running a critical server or something that absolutely must have redundancy, in which case you don't want RAID0. JBOD (just a bunch of drives) is basically as fast as RAID, is more fault tolerant and is much cheaper to implement.

 

[Dark Comet]

Thanks, yeah thats why I just want the option to go to 64bit in the future and not now. What is JBOD?

 

[rgeist554]

1. Yes. I believe they are still offering the 64 bit upgrade package for like $10-20 US.

2. Honestly, I don't even think you need 1066 Mhz RAM. You would probably do just fine with 800Mhz modules. Yes, DDR3 is overpriced for the performance it offers. (Just as nhobo said)

3. nhobo covered this pretty well. If you do use RAID, then yes, you will need a floppy disk or flash drive with the drivers required for the RAID controller.

4. Antec 900 or Cooler Master Stacker are both great. (I like the Antec more for durability, airflow, and space) The Stacker is lighter though since it's aluminum, so it makes a better LAN case.

5. The 8800GTS 512MB (not the 320 or 640) is currently one of the best units out there, beating the GTX in some benchmarks. The GT is a little more affordable and offers better performance per dollar (or pound ) spent. (Make sure you get the 512MB version since the 256MB version starts to take a huge performance hit when you go over 1280x1024)

*edit*

JBOD basically lets you combine a bunch of HDD's into one logical drive. You can also combine different sized HDD's w/o wasting space.

 

[Dark Comet]

I just thought for gaming and multitasking faster RAM would be alot better and so would RAID 0. I take it that JBOD is just like raid then?

 

[rgeist554]

I just thought for gaming and multitasking faster RAM would be alot better...

Not likely. RAM is probably the area where you need not worry about a bottleneck or increased performance. DDR2 vs. DDR3 is like spending $200 more for a %1-2 increase in performance, except that it's not even a guaranteed increase. : / *edit* Having a faster processor w/ more cores would help you more than anything. RAM would help you more if you went from like 1GB to 2GB instead of 1GB @ 667Mhz to 1GB @ 800Mhz.

On the other hand, faster HDD's (or RAID 0) would make for faster load / seek times, but doesn't provide much beyond that.


As for JBOD:

Sort off... it doesn't stripe the disks though. It just depends on how your OS handles it. Also, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but JBOD requires a controller and software just like RAID does. I personally don't see the advantages over RAID 0 (if you're not concerned about redundancy), but maybe nhobo or someone else can elaborate on the advantages. /shrug

 

[Dark Comet]

Hmm, yes I might as well go with the 4 gig of DDR2 then. Yes as far as processors go i'm just waiting to see what turns up in the near future. Well I might as well use raid instead of JBOD because I know nothing about JBOD at all. I was thinking about getting the 150 GIG 10,000 RPM Raptor ones. I know thats not much storage but its enough for me anyway.

 

[grieve]

-RAID 0 with two Raptors will have blazing load times.
-PC2-6400 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-800 is the way to go..if you can.
-If you already have a 32 bit OS... no harm in dual booting the 64 one as well (best of both worlds)
-Antec 900 is nice... spacious/lots of fans.
-make sure the Vid card is DDR3

 

[Dark Comet]

Yes it is GDDR3. I was just worried about the make because I have never heard of it before (Zotac). Is there no performance increase going with faster DDR2?

 

[apence]

Almost ALL current motherboards come with a built in RAID controller that can handle RAID 0 or Raid 1. How is Raid more expensive than JBOD? The way I see it, Raid is free if you are going to have more than one drive anyway. Isn't that right?

 

[tmike]

JBOD ("just a bunch of disks") simply means "no RAID"... whether you have them connected to a RAID controller, or to non-RAID controller(s), or using two cans & a string. if you are talking to a sysadmin or similar propellerhead, say JBOD (pronounced jaybod, not j-b-o-d) if you want to sound like a peer.

if disks are connected to a RAID controller as JBOD, some controllers will allow volume aggregation, a feature also available in virtual disk management software (such as the LVM on real Unix, Linux, and Windows [XP and later]), that allows spindles to be logically combined so that multiple physical spindles appear to be one spindle of the aggregate size.

How is Raid more expensive than JBOD?

'cos RAID (assuming a RAID level other than 0) results in a moderate to severe (in the case of mirroring) loss of usable space due to data overhead or (for mirroring) duplicate storage. Ignoring controller costs, RAID 1 costs twice as much as non-raid or RAID0 because it requires twice the number spindles to result in the same amount of storage.

 

[Dark Comet]

Anyone else recommend any other cases so I have more options? Is the graphics card I picked the best for its price? (Zotac GeForce 8800GT AMP! Edition 512MB GDDR3) £179.99

 

[tonymarcus]

Anyone else recommend any other cases so I have more options? Is the graphics card I picked the best for its price? (Zotac GeForce 8800GT AMP! Edition 512MB GDDR3) £179.99

The Antec P182 is worth a look, thats the case I'm probably going to buy, gets good reviews and is Quiet.

 

[Dark Comet]

I read a review that the Cooler Master Cosmos 1000 is really good. What do you think about that case?

 

[uberman]

I've heard of Zotac. I think I read an article recently about them trying to break into new markets and increase thier visibility.Thier website says they have been making cards for 10 years and the contact adress is Hong Kong.Worth a shot if you have some kind of warranty.

 

[Dark Comet]

Maybe they are worth a shot but I don't know if they will compare to the other more well known brands.

 

[nhobo]

JBOD does not require a RAID controller. Just plug in the drives, put your OS on the first one and your data on the other(s). Presto! Multiple simultaneous volume access.

RAID

 

[Dark Comet]

What, so just do that and that will be as good as raid 0.