Decent system? Working on finishing it off.

[grimsrazor]

i'm working on upgrading my machine currently.

specs now, are as follows:

Phenom 9950 (oc'd to 2.86)
8g's of DDR2@800Mhz
Asus M3N72-D
MSI N260GTXOC
Windows XP x64
500g Sata II HD

What i'm hoping to do with this machine is:

Phenom 9950 (Same OC, i'm new to OC'ing, figured 10% would be safe)
8g's of DDR2@800Mhz
Ass M3N72-D
RAID 0 of 2x WD 250gb Caviar Blue (16mb cache)
and using my 500g WD Caviar (32mb cache) as a storage drive
MSI N260GTXOC SLI'd with
Asus 260GTXTOP.

I'm going to be doing the raid this weekend, and the SLI sometime next month.

I know the machine's gonna definitely gonna go up in overall performance, gaming moreso than anything.

Just wondering if there's any suggestions / comments about the upgrades i'll be diving into (never done a raid before, never SLI'd anything before...Beginning a learning curve)

Trying to get some more experience under my belt for work (I'm currently working as a bench technician for a local computer shop), and overall hands on experience is something i'm lacking in, so i wanted to try something out on this machine (i've built 4 systems of my own now, and over a dozen for the company).

Hoping to get some feedback concerning the idea of doing a RAID 0 with a pair of 260 Video cards. Any comments or suggestions are welcome

 

[darkside_gamer7]

What games are you wanting play on this build exactly??? and what monitor are you using w/ this build? And may i ask...why the XP OS? You no fan of vista 64?

 

[darkside_gamer7]

What have you built so far that warrants a need for this further education? Wanting to know to get a feel of your knowledge so far.

 

[grimsrazor]

right now i'm only playing a few games, WoW, CoD 4. nothing too special.

at the moment i'm using an LG 20" TV as my monitor, max res on it is at 1360x768. 60hz refresh rate.
I'll be replacing it soon through work.

i've never built a raid system, never built an sli system.

i've been reading forums, scouring the net for information, and the next move i wanna do is a RAID 0 computer.

i've built machines with video cards (6 total, none at all fancy).
and then just generic "I want a computer to get me on the internet" machines with 2g's of ram, E5200's, and no name mobo's.

the most advanced system i've built so far is my own. and it'll continue to be that way. I'm just trying to get more experience so i dont look like such an idiot at work, i suppose.

Not sure if that answers your questions...but feel free to shoot some more

 

[grimsrazor]

And as for vista....

I'm not a huge fan of it. I dont mind it, but i'd prefer to stick with XP, especially since i just picked up 2 copies of it 2 months ago. i'll switch, and use it, but probably not at least for 6 months, in a dual boot system.

 

[grimsrazor]

i'll be looking into an LG 22" Monitor. (we're an LG dealer at this store, so its just easier). Hoping to get one with 1920x1200 resolution on it...And a few other specs.

i'm still debating on exactly which monitor i'm gonna pick up, and if i'm gonna pick it up before i pick up my second video card or not.

Cause i know for sure i'm doing the raid 0 first, then i'll be putting a V8 on my phenom.

And then its either gonna be a few hundred for a new monitor, or a few hundred for another video card. i cant be shelling out $700+ at a time on stuff...pretty much going to be getting things one at a time.