New i7 build questions

[sickure]

I've purchased most of what i need and strangely can't decide on a hardrive.

CM 1000 full case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119138


EVGA EVGA 132-BL-E758-A1 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel with

3 evga gtx 260's http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.149941

Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz (which I will oc)

COOLER MASTER V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler

CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145224

Thermaltake Toughpower W0133RU 1200W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153054


LITE-ON Black 4X Blu-ray DVD-ROM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106225

I'm open to any suggestions as to better deals or better hardware than what I've just listed above.

Now the hard drive.... I'm leaning towards G.SKILL FM-25S2S-128GB 2.5" 128GB SATA II Internal Solid state disk (SSD) - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231221

I'm not familiar with RAID or anything of the sort so any input on SSD vs anything is helpfull.

 

[mdma35]

o_0 nice.. real enthusiast! but what for you need 3x260 waste of money in my opinion not to mention the heat they gona produce you should have waited for 295 to come out soon,just my thoughts

 

[sickure]

I've heard that. Honestly I have a freind that wants one of the gpu's. I'll probably run dual sli being that the mobo only has 2 16x slots anyways. Do you really think I'll have heat issues with gpu's and the case i bought? Will I notice much of a difference running dual 260's vs tri 260's? Could i oc them in a dual format and keep the heat at a minimum?

 

[Shadow703793]

^May be. Depends on how you place fans,etc and ambient temps.

 

[roadrunner197069]

Dump a 260 and get these or the Other ocz 30G.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227359

I got 4 in raid 0 507MB/s writes, 350 reads.

18 sec Vista boot with all my apps installed and startup not optimized.

Load your OS and Apps, and put everything else on a bigger seperate drive.

The drives I posted go onsale for $69 quite often. I got mine for $69 each.

 

[sickure]

Roadrunner, Would i need any sort of Raid card? Say i wanted to just run 3 of them. How would that work?

 

[Liderc]

GTX295 comes out in 11 days, it's supposedly only going to be $499.00 US, I would suggest waiting until then instead of getting 3 gtx260s.

 

[mdma35]

3x260 or 2x260 not much difference realy check out some atricles but if you decide 3 way sli consider water cooling. You can flash the 260 bios to make the default fan speeds faster and it will reach 100% of fan speed faster on lower temperatures,it might help. Raid 5 is 2 disks that you use in stripped formation and the 3 goes for parity mathematical formula that in case of fail of one of the disks its restores the data after you replace the drive its 33% loss of storage place but safe.Raid 0 is the fastest Raid setup all disks combined in 1 physical disk in stripped formation. The write and read speeds are alot faster but no Fail Safe Redundancy if 1 disk fails all data is lost decide what best suits your needs.

 

[sickure]

Thanks for the input. Raid 0 is for me. This machine is for gaming preformance so the data isn't that critical. Also as far as heat goes, I considered moding my case but haven't thought of water cooling. Since i'm in near $2500+ now i guess i need not spare any expense that i haven't already. Is water cooling cost efficiant and would i need to water cool the cpu while I'm at it. Honestly I didn't know you could water cool gpu's = )

 

[mdma35]

check BFG site http://www.bfgtech.com/bfgegtx260896h2ocwe.aspx 260 water cooled but its rather expensive.

I think with V8 you can handle good overclock and see normal idle and load temperatures but there is not much about this combination on the web.It is still one of the best coolers out there so i trust Cooler Master.
Post some results if you gona overclock plz

 

[Akebono 98]

If you're concerned about heat and tri-SLI and can dispense with the combo deal when sparing no expense, I'd suggest that you switch to the Coolermaster 932 HAF case for better cooling, and substitute the new 55nm Core 216s instead (they will run cooler). The new video cards would only add about $200 to your cost when compared to the combo deal. If you are concerned about cost, then maybe just buy 2 of the new cards first and then add the third later. Tri-SLI scales very well on the i7 platform for Crysis, btw: article link

 

[sickure]

Thanks for all the input fellas. I got my 4 ssd's in and will have everything esle by 1-5-09. I'm sure I'll need some help. I've never used Vista nore have i ever built a machine of this caliber. Not to mention the last machine I built was 5+ years ago.

Roadrunner!! I was curious if you think I'll need a Raid card for the 4 SSD's or will my mobo's contoller suffice?

 

[wiz1]

Wow this sounds like what I am contemplating only with 1 GTX280 but Im interested in the ssd drives more info please,

 

[sickure]

SSD gives you much faster read and seek speeds and somewhat faster write speeds. More expensive for less space but worth it from what i've read. Not at all practical for storage.

 

[mdma35]

its a mistake to buy something that is not mature and only in development ppl tend to do that bcz of all the hype that the part creates and for that money you could easly buy copple of WD 10000 RPM Velociraptors

 

[sickure]

Personally i feel that SSD is the inevitible future of hard drives. I've read many reviews and its beyond the developmental stage to me. Lots of room to grow in the technology itself but I'm already sold on it and I haven't even built it yet. I haven't seen raptors getting 500+ mbs read and seek times. Maybe i haven't looked in the right places for that stat.

 

[mdma35]

ok you right.Another thought if you want Hardware Raid you gona need
PCI SATA controller if you gona go 3 way SLI setup you wont have any PCI slots availible if you gona go 2 way SLI you gona have 1 slot availible and you gona need 4 internal drives controller to support all 4 SSD drives
http://www.amazon.com/Internal-SATA-Ports-Controller-Card/dp/B0018TCB36

 

[sickure]

well crap....thats what i was asking Roadrunner. He said my onboard controller would work.

 

[mdma35]

it will ... :> but hardware raid is better

 

[sickure]

Mind elaborating? Raid in general is new to me.

 

[BrianX91]

I would definitely suggest a RAID, do a little research and there are different kinds. There is even one that will create a FULL backup of you original drive in case it decides to die on you.

And a couple of these are your best bet http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148288

 

[sickure]

A little late to the party but thanks Brian. I am running 4 SSD 30g in Raid 0. I'm anxious because today I sit at home all day waiting for UPS. Today is the big day....provided everything was shipped properly and ups tracking is accurate. This will be my first sober build as well being that i've quit the booze since last build. Watch me f up more than ever. = )

 

[mdma35]

If you are willing to Overclock

http://www.guru3d.com/article/evga-x58-sli-review/9

good one

 

[BrianX91]

My I ask how everything went?