I bought the parts, so...now what?

[Knghtmare]

Okay, not that bad really.

Suffice to say that I am an IT Professional and know my way around the guts of a computer, however I am by no means an A+ Guru. With that said I have built a few machines, many years ago and so I am am fairly confident that I can get this thing together, installed, and running in relative short order. However, I never approach a machine lightly even if something looks simple.

So.....here are the parts I purchased:

Case: Cooler Master HAF922 ATX Mid Tower Case
PSU: Cooler Master Silent Pro M850
MoBo: Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K
RAM: Patriot 8GB Divison 2 DDR3 1600MHz CL9
SSD: Crucial 128 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s
HDD: WD Caviar Black 1 TB SATA III 7200 RPM 64MB Cache WD1002FAEX
Video: Sapphire 11196-00-40G Radeon HD 7950 3GB DDR5
Optical: LG 24X DVDRW SATA OEM

I've never used a SSD before, much less used one in conjunction with a HDD. From what I understand, the most important thing I need to remember is to port my Users folder over to the HDD. I am wondering, though, whether or not it will be worth it to install (or detrimental) games and applications on the SSD as well. I play WoW, use Adobe Master Collection CS5.5, and also some 3D Rendering software. Obviously the files that those applications create will reside on the HDD, but is it worth it to have the apps themselves on the SSD?

As far as connecting them goes, I figure that the SSD and HDD can utilize both SATA 6gbs connectors and the optical can hang on one of the SATA 3gbs. There are not special cables for this are there? Normal SATA cables will work?

Those are the only issues I see myself having real questions about. Any thoughts will be appreciated.

 

[Chainzsaw]

For your SSD - you will want all your applications installed on it so they load lightning quick. That's the main benefit of SSD's (very fast access times).

For other stuff - like media files, music files etc, you should install them on your HDD. Anything that's compressed should be on your HDD, as SSD's don't like compressed information.

Normal SATA cables will work for your ODD.

 

[synthaside]

I would definately reccomend having you wow installed on the SSD makes a huge improvment to your loading times on zoning .

Just remember to respect the anti static rules , and read the assembly / quickstart guides for your bits and pieces you may need to tweak some settings to get the best from your SSD but these should covered in your manuals.

You will be fine with your standard SATA cables, If it were me i wouldn't even bother plugging my additional platter disk's sata cable into the machine until after my os nstall i'd add it as addition later however this may well be a personal hangup from never setting the RAID 5 on my servers builds until after the RAID 1 has the OS pushed out to it By PXE.

Oh an remember to turn off automatic fragmentaion on you SSD .... you dont want that burning through your write/read unessacarily

happy building

synth

 

[Rockdpm]

Ok the only thing you need to know is, when you install windows, only have the Optical and SSD (If its your SSD you want Windows on) once windows has been installed and after many updates and drivers updates and such. power off, and take your other SATA cable and plug your HDD into the next SATA port on your Mobo and power to it and all and then you should go into bios and make sure your SSD is your Primary boot driver (Or which ever Hard drive you want you OS to run through) then after your done with BIOS. Save and Exit and reboot. and your good to go. From my understand a SSD Widows install is not really any different than a HDD. other than the different Space integrity taken by the Operating System compared to the other. But 128 should do quite nicely. Your Mobo should have a Mouse User Interface, so good by to old fashioned Keyboard. hello Mouse. Good choice on parts. Mind if i steal your build plans and use then for my future build? haha. I have been using AMD for years and lately i am not impressed so i will be a Intel Guy within the next year or 2. If you are curious about anything involving setup, feel free to post your question, were always glad to help

And Welcome to the Forums!