Advise about my new pc I put together

[xerxesaria]

I recently asked a similar question, but have since updated some aspects of my build, so please advise me if you see that something is not fitting well in this scheme:

Bought items, will put together after I hear your opinions. Budget was C$1100, am already over, it's alright as long as I have a decent gaming rig that can last me for the next 3-4 years with games on high/maybe ultra settings (looking forward to Total War: Rome II, Company of Heroes 2, Lara Croft, etc)!!!

ps. I am not looking to overclock at all.....Thanks in advance:

- Intel Core i5-3570K BX806237i53570K Processor - Quad Core, 6MB L3 Cache, 3.40GHz (3.80GHz Max Turbo), Socket H2 (LGA1155), 95W, Fan, Unlocked

- GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD3H Intel 7 Series Motherboard - ATX, Socket H2 (LGA1155), Intel Z77 Express, 1600MHz DDR3, SATA III (6Gb/s), RAID, 8-Ch Audio, Gigabit LAN, USB 3.0, PCIe 3.0, CrossFireX/SLI

- Galaxy 56NGH6HS4IXZ GeForce GTX 560 Ti Video Card - 1GB, GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0 (x16), Dual DVI, HDMI, DirectX 11, SLI Ready

- Corsair CMZ4GX3M1A1600C9 Vengeance Desktop Memory Module - 4GB, PC3-12800, DDR3-1600MHz, 240-pin DIMM, 1.5V, CL9, Non-ECC, Unbuffered (two of these for total of 8GB)

- Western Digital WD1002FAEX 1TB Caviar Black Hard Drive - 1TB, 7200RPM, 64MB, SATA 6Gbs (two of these for a total of 2TB)

- Thermaltake TR2 TR-700 700W ATX 12V V2.3 & EPS 12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply

- Cooler Master SGC-1000-KWN1 Storm Enforcer ATX Mid Tower Case - ATX, Micro ATX, 4x Ext 5.25", 1x Ext 3.5", 6x Int 3.5", 1x 200mm Red LED Fan, 1x 120mm Fan, 2x USB 3.0 Ports, 2x USB 2.0 Ports, Black

- Samsung SH-224BB/BEBE Internal 24X DVD Burner -Tray, SATA, 1.5MB Buffer Memory, 16x DVD-R Read, 48x CD-R Write

- Windows 7 64Bit Home Premium Edition

- Peripherals:

- Cooler Master MegaFlow R4-MFJR-07FK-R1 200mm Silent Fan - High Air Flow, Quiet Operation, RoHS, 700RPM, Sleeve Bearing, Black (for the top exhaust in the case) (maybe should get the one with LED light?!)
- Antivirus (Norton-already using it for 4 years), Surge protector, and other stuff...

This build is also going to be my living room's entertainment centre with a connection to my 24" monitor (Samsung), 32" TV (Sharp aquos), and 5.1 HT surround sound (Sony).

Last question: After BIOS, and while installing Win 7, will I have to partition one of my HD's to save a recovery boot for Win 7 on it? If so, how much of it (250GB is ok?)? Can I use both HD's at the same time while my computer is up and running?

Thank you for all your help. This is a great community and I am a noob here. So thanks for your patience.

Peace.

 

[jay2tall]

So it sounds like the items are already purchased, correct? Just making sure before I tried to change anything. What site were they purchased from, or looking to purchase from?

There is no recovery boot partition for a home brew machine. This is something factory OEM's include instead of including a recovery disk. Your recovery is just to keep the Windows 7 disk around. Windows has it's own build in backup that you can backup to on an external drive or a 2nd internal drive. There is also windows recovery that lets you roll back to a previous point, however, I've not had much success with that. The easiest way is to just partition the entire drive and install Windows. Since you have 2 drives you have 2 options. You can either install them as separate drives and the system will see 2 separate 1TB drives. You would install Windows and apps on one and probably leave the other for storage. The second option is a RAID 1 which is a mirrored pair. This means both drives mirror one another and if one dies the other takes over. This is done in the RAID controller that pops up right after you boot, read your motherboard manual. The third option is a RAID 0 stripped set. This creates one large 2TB drive using both disks. It reads and writes to both disks at once, increasing performance. However, if you loose one drive, you loose all data on the RAID.

 

[xerxesaria]

So it sounds like the items are already purchased, correct? Just making sure before I tried to change anything. What site were they purchased from, or looking to purchase from?

There is no recovery boot partition for a home brew machine. This is something factory OEM's include instead of including a recovery disk. Your recovery is just to keep the Windows 7 disk around. Windows has it's own build in backup that you can backup to on an external drive or a 2nd internal drive. There is also windows recovery that lets you roll back to a previous point, however, I've not had much success with that. The easiest way is to just partition the entire drive and install Windows. Since you have 2 drives you have 2 options. You can either install them as separate drives and the system will see 2 separate 1TB drives. You would install Windows and apps on one and probably leave the other for storage. The second option is a RAID 1 which is a mirrored pair. This means both drives mirror one another and if one dies the other takes over. This is done in the RAID controller that pops up right after you boot, read your motherboard manual. The third option is a RAID 0 stripped set. This creates one large 2TB drive using both disks. It reads and writes to both disks at once, increasing performance. However, if you loose one drive, you loose all data on the RAID.

Yes. Items are already purchased, but unopened as of yet. I put them together by going physically to stores such as canadacomputers and tigerdirect. No websites!

Thank you for explaining the whole Win 7 installation process and partitioning of HD's. I think I will return the two 1TB Hd's and purchase a 2TB HD instead (Same brand, only $25 cheaper: 1TB are each C$99.99=$199.98, 2TB is only $174.99!). So that way I don't even have to deal with RAID etc. Perhaps later on I will purchase an external HD for backing up data etc.

 

[smorizio]

most people use nortons ghost or drive clone. they install windows the drivers and there main games and apps then do a back up. most times the ghost will fit on 2-4 dvd disks. myself i have a back up drive and online backup that i only store my music and photos and personal stuff. if my main drive fails i use full version of windows and install it on the new drive and all the drivers.

 

[jay2tall]

I always prefer to have 2 separate drives. Once for OS and apps and another for data. 9 times out of 10 your OS and Apps drive take a crap before your data drive does. It is also much faster and easier to do a ghost backup from an internal drive to another internal drive.

Honestly, I'd keep both 1TB and install them separately.

 

[xerxesaria]

Ok. So would a 32-64gb ssd be sufficient just for windows?

 

[manofchalk]

128GB is what is recommended. 64GB gets used up pretty quickly, as formatting and Windows itself will easily consume half that.

 

[jay2tall]

Ok. So would a 32-64gb ssd be sufficient just for windows?

32GB would probably be just enough for windows ONLY with no apps. 64GB will get you a few apps. I would recommend a minimum of 120/128GB. I have a 240GB SSD and it's at about 150GB full. I have about a dozen games installed plus Office 2010. Games are VERY large today. Max Payne 3 was 30GB Batman Arkham City is 20. BF3 is somewhere around there.

 

[xerxesaria]

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