Building a PC

[xSGxSamurai]

I would make sure you have IE and Windows Vista

 

[0xChase]

Yes, IMO it would be much easier (not to mention more cost-efficient) for someone with little computer knowledge to just buy one or two HDDs and not bother with RAID at all. If redundancy is really a big deal for you, then just do backups of your drives to a large external HDD (1-3TB) every once in a while, like Aerokii said. However, I wouldn't even bother with that. My advice would be to get a small 300GB drive that is 10k RPM - put all your games and your OS on that one. Then, get another, larger drive (500GB+) for all your other programs and media (vids/music/pics etc.). Optionally you could also get an SSD and install your OS onto that—while that would be nice, it isn't really necessary at all, and will put a big dent in your budget.

 

[jwplayer0]

I would make sure you have IE and Windows Vista

I was going to report this post but decided against it , we need a dislike button

 

[Thoth]

Funny I was just studying raid 6 anyway... you're much safer with raid 6 when you get right down to it. Though honestly you're probably going to be safe just doing regular backups on an external drive.

You really don't even need raid for a small home computers.

 

[xSGxSamurai]

@jwplayer0 I was obv. Just jokin around, Was not trying to be serious. Sorry. Besides im sorry i cant afford Win. 7 or another Web browser that doesnt crash my comp. Money isnt falling in my lap like some others, Its hard enough to play minecraft but i get along.

 

[0xChase]

I was going to report this post but decided against it , we need a dislike button

Why would you report someone just because they aren't as knowledgeable about a certain field as you are? He is trying to offer some helpful advice. Seems kind of like a dick move to me... if there is something wrong with his post then explain why in another, don't just report him...

 

[jwplayer0]

@jwplayer0 I was obv. Just jokin around, Was not trying to be serious. Sorry.

i was too

 

[Thoth]

I was going to report this post but decided against it , we need a dislike button

Just because they don't use the same software as you doesn't make them wrong. Why would say something like this?

 

[jwplayer0]

Why would you report someone just because they aren't as knowledgeable about a certain field as you are? He is trying to offer some helpful advice. Seems kind of like a dick move to me... if there is something wrong with his post then explain why in another, don't just report him...

i was joking, but if you know anything about the windows world, both that program and version of the OS are shit and need to be erased from Microsoft's history

 

[Thoth]

0x clan represent!

Stormtroopers unite!

 

[0xChase]

i was joking, but if you know anything about the windows world, both that program and version of the OS are shit and need to be erased from Microsoft's history

Yes, I understand that. Just wasn't sure you were joking or not and thought you were overreacting a little bit... sorry.

 

[Thoth]

Yes, I understand that. Just wasn't sure you were joking or not and thought you were overreacting a little bit... sorry

I dont like your tone here Chase.

 

[Thoth]

I dont like your tone here Chase.

I don't like your tone here Thoth.

 

[xSGxSamurai]

Thoth can you please calm down? I am trying to learn how to up my comp

 

[Thoth]

Thoth can you please calm down? I am trying to learn how to up my comp

I'm sorry samurai, good thing your in the 0xstormtrooper clan or I would come to ur town and pilage your booty(treasure...what were u thinking)

 

[kperkins1982]

Just because you're running 6 drives doesn't mean you know (a lot)* about the area. Anyone with a computer and internet can do raid 1 and 0, anyways why would you use raid 1 or 0 when 0 is just as bad as using one large hdd. You do know what raid 0 actually is, right? Also raid 1 is a waste of space as it uses half of ur total disk space for redundancy.

Better to go with raid 5 or 6 by means of striping your drives as to get the most usable space as well as good data protection from failed drives. While these raid levels may be slightly system intensive if you don't have a raid card, it's well worth the it for the space efficiency.

I don't doubt you know about this field, using drives is pretty widespread when you own a computer. Using your drives effectively is another thing you have to consider, in this case I'm not sure you did.
Back to the OP topic, you would be fine getting a 10000rpm drive rather than a sdd, it will give you speed and it wont be as expensive.

You are making quite a few assumptions here...

I use them for different things.

The raid 0 setup is two 10k rpm drives running the OS, between the fast drives and the performance of raid 0 I get pretty good results. I do alot of benchmarking and it is good for that.

Having said that, raid 0 is risky because if one drive fails you lose data on both drives. The chance of this is about 5% over 3 years given average drive failure rates. That is too high for me to put photos or something I'm worried about losing on there. I keep a norton ghost image of my OS, and keep nothing valuable on those drives. I even have a drive on standby with an updated OS just in case.

I use the raid 1 for things that I really don't want to lose. The safety gained from data being mirrored over 2 drives is awesome. If you have a bunch of extra drives laying around and aren't clamoring for hard drive space this is a win win. Additionally I have online backup.

As for raid 5 and 6, they are ideal, but take so many drives. I'm not gonna use 3 or 4+ drives just for one raid setup. I'm always screwing around with different things, recently I up and decided to put ubuntu linux on a drive just for the hell of it. I don't want to be tied down on that many drives.

So I'm not saying that those raids are the best over any other configurations, I'm saying that you should use whatever works best for your particular situation.

 

[Dazureus]

-wades through morass-

Yeah, I think I'll probably be making backups.
So if I get a good 800w supply I don't need to worry about wasting power in the meantime?

 

[Dazureus]

So this is what I've got so far for an immediate setup-

Case: $140- NZXT Phantom
Mobo: $150- Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3
CPU: $210- Intel Core i5-2500k
RAM: $50- Corsair Vengeance 4GB 1600MHz (2x)
Power: $130- Corsair GS800 800w
Graphics: $180- Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 1GB
Optical: $65- Samsung B123L
Storage: $190- OCZ Vertex 3 120GB
----------
$1115

Plans for the future including more RAM, another storage drive, and perhaps another graphics card for making use of Crossfire. Am I doing it right?

 

[0xChase]

So this is what I've got so far for an immediate setup-

Case: $140- NZXT Phantom
Mobo: $150- Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3
CPU: $210- Intel Core i5-2500k
RAM: $50- Corsair Vengeance 4GB 1600MHz (2x)
Power: $130- Corsair GS800 800w
Graphics: $180- Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 1GB
Optical: $65- Samsung B123L
Storage: $190- OCZ Vertex 3 120GB
----------
$1115

Plans for the future including more RAM, another storage drive, and perhaps another graphics card for making use of Crossfire. Am I doing it right?

Looks pretty good, just a few recommendations:

1. You don't need 360GB worth of SSD storage, that is just way overkill. You can get a 10k RPM (which is plenty fast) drive that is 300GB for $250. If you really want an SSD, I would get one of those 10k RPM drives, and one SSD for your OS and some games - you will save a lot of money, or you could put that money towards more storage space (360GB is pretty slim by today's standards, especially with the size of modern games, if you are a big gamer).

2. 800W Power Supply is also a little overkill, but that's really NBD if you are planning on seriously upgrading your GPU anytime soon, or especially if you are going to add another one and use SLI/Crossfire. Up to you really, but you could save some money here.

3. You can find an optical drive for much less than $65 that will work just fine. Just make sure it isn't a TSSTCorp drive, as those are really shitty and will break incredibly fast.

4. nVidia > ATI, their distributors tend to have much better customer support (evga ftw) and their cards are generally more advanced, as well as have better tech (PhysX ftw). That's mostly personal opinion though, ATI is fine if you are dead set on it.

For the most part, looks good. Nice job.

 

[Thoth]

You are making quite a few assumptions here...

I use them for different things.

The raid 0 setup is two 10k rpm drives running the OS, between the fast drives and the performance of raid 0 I get pretty good results. I do alot of benchmarking and it is good for that.

Having said that, raid 0 is risky because if one drive fails you lose data on both drives. The chance of this is about 5% over 3 years given average drive failure rates. That is too high for me to put photos or something I'm worried about losing on there. I keep a norton ghost image of my OS, and keep nothing valuable on those drives. I even have a drive on standby with an updated OS just in case.

I use the raid 1 for things that I really don't want to lose. The safety gained from data being mirrored over 2 drives is awesome. If you have a bunch of extra drives laying around and aren't clamoring for hard drive space this is a win win. Additionally I have online backup.

As for raid 5 and 6, they are ideal, but take so many drives. I'm not gonna use 3 or 4+ drives just for one raid setup. I'm always screwing around with different things, recently I up and decided to put ubuntu linux on a drive just for the hell of it. I don't want to be tied down on that many drives.

So I'm not saying that those raids are the best over any other configurations, I'm saying that you should use whatever works best for your particular situation.

Since we are simply trying to help out the OP, I don't think your 6 drive setup matters in the context of the OP's problem.

Thanks anyways!