Need help with parts and purchase???

[refractoryman]

I cancelled my order with "ewiz" after reading a couple of responses on my build shown below. So I am in the market again and want to to build a computer/workstation that will give me performance, data security and somewhat future proof. I want to do it right. So as one individual asked " come here first before you buy and build" here I am. Can I do better than what I have below from a price and component outlook? Thanks


Intel Core i7 Processor i7-920 2.66GHz 8MB LGA1366 CPU, Retail $277.88

*Asus P6TSE Core i7 / Intel X58/ DDR3/ CrossFireX/ A&GbE/ ATX Motherboard*
*Combo Price $287.00
*Super Talent Gold Series DDR3-1600 6GB (3x2GB) CL9 Triple Channel Memory Kit*

Super Talent Gold Series DDR3-1600 6GB (3x2GB) CL9 Triple Channel Memory Kit $104.99
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD4890 1GB DDR5 2DVI PCI-Express Video Card, Retail $199.99
[FR] Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit w/ SP1, Windows 7 Upgrade Coupon (1-Pack DVD), OEM $195.00
Antec P183 No Power Supply ATX Mid Tower Case $133.99
Antec TruePower New TP-650 650W Power Supply $99.99
(3) Western Digital WD5002ABYS 500GB SATA2 7200rpm 16MB RAID Hard Drive $78.99 Ea. x 3 = $236.97
LG Electronics GH22LS50 22X SATA LightScribe DVD+/-RW Internal Drive (Black), Bulk w/ Software $24.99
(3) Antec TriCool 120mm Clear Case Fan $7.99 x3 = 23.97
Microsoft Multimedia Optical Value Pack (1-Pack) (Mouse & Keyboard) $17.99

Total $1602.76 - $15.00 Coupon + $63.32 Shipping = $1651.08

The (3) hard drives are for OS, Apps and OS and file back ups and file storage.

 

[kufan64]

Instead of those HDD's, grab some WD Caviar Black with a 32MB cache. They come in 500GB, 640GB, 750GB, and 1TB sizes I think. They aren't much more expensive, if at all.

You don't need to buy case fans unless you want to replace the stock ones. The fans in my Antec P182 work great.

You could save some cash by just getting Vista Home Premium unless you want some of the bonus features of Ultimate, but then again I don't know if they offer an upgrade coupon with Home Premium.

From what it looks like, you plan on getting 6 sticks of RAM for 12GB. That's quite a bit of overkill. Stick with the 3 sticks from the combo deal. 6GB is more than enough.

If you have a Microcenter in your area, compare prices there. They're the cheapest 90% of the time IMO.

Thats just my 2 cents.

 

[refractoryman]

So is the the WD Caviar Black a better drive than the Western Digital WD5002ABYS 500GB SATA2 7200rpm 16MB RAID Hard Drive ? What about the memory? is a 7-7-7 better tha a 9-9-9? The ones I had on order were 9-9-9. I'd like to know so next time I can order the better memory. What would be the ideal hard drive set up? (1) smaller for the OS and APPS and one or two for back-up? Or One large for everything? Than again thats setting me up for data loss. I do use ghost and have had to restore a few times, so maybe multiple drives, but what size?

 

[kufan64]

It's a complicated, but everything effects how fast a HDD operates. Rotational speed, cache size, and storage space all effect the performance. The only difference b/w the drives you've selected and the caviar black ones I recommended is the cache size. I'd also recommend increasing the storage capacity of the drives though, even if you don't need the extra space. The extra "space" will improve performance. Bigger drives will have either (or both) A) more platters which increases read/write speed; or B) tighter data compression which decreases seek time.

Setting up the HDD's is all about what you are looking for. RAID 0 provides the best performance, but with 0 fault tolerance. (lose one drive, and you cannot recover any data) RAID 1 makes a mirror image of one drive on another. You basically get 2 copies of the same drive in case 1 fails. RAID 5 is a combination of RAID 0 and RAID 1 which takes 3+ drives and has them work as a team. If any drive fails, the other 2+ can rebuild the lost data so you don't lose anything. RAID 10 works the same way (I think), and has fault tolerance for 2 drives, but requires at least 4 HDD's. (I think) You may also want your OS to be on it's own independant drive away from your data so you can re-install your OS without having to wipe your data. Some research on your part should be done to get exactly what you want.

The 7-7-7 and 9-9-9 are timings for your RAM... Generally, the lower the numbers, the faster the RAM operates.

Hope that answers some questions.