Geting my ducks are in a row before I bust out the tools (software)

[pubworx]

Its happening this weekend. My old AMD Thunderbird 1.4ghz (remember that one?) with 512mb of ram is being replaced by a Q6600 and 8gb of ram.

So here is my question.

I was thinks that I would use the new hard drive a western digital caviar black 640gb for multiboot by breaking it into four 160gb partitions. How should I do this?

1) let windows make one partition during install
2) Use a partition magic boot disk do it all at once then install windows
3) Alternative method?

Thanks for your help.

 

[DiscoDuck]

I would let windows make the first during install, and finish off on the disk management tool in wondows when its all done. What other OS's are you putting on it?

 

[pubworx]

Thanks DiscoDuck. I will be using Linux and if I ever get the time I might try out the whole osX86 thing I also like to leave a partition open for beta testing.

I know that the Q6600 is getting a little old I looked into the i7 line the extra $80 isnt the big deal it all the other componets are still way more pricy Im not a gamer and couldnt see any real advantage for the extra $$

I gave my self a budget of $600 and I almost did it here is what I went for

Q6600 $185
Arctic freezer 7 pro $ 30
Gigabyte ga-ep45-ud3p $115
G.Skill PI DDR2 1000 8gb$105
sparkle 1gb 9500 gt v/c $ 60
WD Caviar Black $ 80

TOTAL $575 + tax
Reusing Case, power supply, ect
So I should be set to get this contraption over 3.0ghz
The only thing I worry about is my old Enermax 465 watt power supply

 

[aevm]

You're probably better off with a Q9550 and only 4 GB of RAM, and it wouldn't cost much more than Q6600 + 8 GB. For one thing, only 64-bit systems will see more than 4 GB.

 

[aevm]

Thanks DiscoDuck. I will be using Linux and if I ever get the time I might try out the whole osX86 thing I also like to leave a partition open for beta testing.

I know that the Q6600 is getting a little old I looked into the i7 line the extra $80 isnt the big deal it all the other componets are still way more pricy Im not a gamer and couldnt see any real advantage for the extra $$

I gave my self a budget of $600 and I almost did it here is what I went for

Q6600 $185
Arctic freezer 7 pro $ 30
Gigabyte ga-ep45-ud3p $115
G.Skill PI DDR2 1000 8gb$105
sparkle 1gb 9500 gt v/c $ 60
WD Caviar Black $ 80

TOTAL $575 + tax
Reusing Case, power supply, ect
So I should be set to get this contraption over 3.0ghz
The only thing I worry about is my old Enermax 465 watt power supply

Stop worrying, it's fine. That PSU would even support the same system with a 9800GT instead of 9500GT.

 

[pubworx]

Thanks aevm. Do you think I can get a 3 drive raid 5 array in there with that PSU + a modest overclock?

 

[aevm]

Yes.

The eVGA 9500GT has a recommendation of 18A on the 12V. That's for a system very much like yours, with no overclocking and a single HDD. With 2 extra HDDs and overclocking add another 2*10W+100W i.e. 10A*12V, so you need 28A. Your Enermax 465W has 33A. It should be fine.

 

[pubworx]

I was meaning in addition to the HDD already there + an overclock to maybe 3.2ghz. So thats 4 HDD + overclock.

 

[aevm]

Still OK, even if you end up with 6 or 7 hard drives. A hard drive consumes very little. For example my favorite these days, the WD 640GB Black (WD6401AALS), consumes 8.3 W when used and 1W when idle.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

You could save a little by going with the GA-EP45-UD3R since the UD3P is a crossfire board and you're getting an Nvidia GPU. You also don't need DDR2 1000 RAM since the Q6600 won't overclock anywhere near 500 FSB. I'd pick up some quality DDR2 800 RAM that runs at 1.8v for maximum compatibility.

G.SKILL PI Black 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231209&Tpk=pi%20black%20800 $49.99

 

[pubworx]

Yeah I think that the Q6600 will max out somewhere around 450 FSB so I wanted at least DDR2 900. Plus I think the PI series looks cooler in white anyway. Hey extra 5 bucks who's counting.

I fancied using the other video slot for a dedicated home theater video card. Who knows pipe dream probably.

Oh yeah 1 warning for the people on the west side of the U.S. about that G.Skill ram from newegg. It is shipped from New Jersey so it takes about a week from order to your hands not the usual newegg 2-3 days. So no system build for me this weekend