Re-building homebuilt PC due to catastrophic failure

[paulbelk]

Ok, I'm sure someone here can get me on track on what I need to do to prevent this catastrophic failure from happening again so i'm welcome to any and all opinions. Just not the negative ones.

What I have now:

XFX 680I LT SLI socket 775 Motherboard
Intel Quadcore Kentsfield 2.4Ghz Q6600 CPU
2 Corsair TWINX 2048MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz E.P.P.
4 500GB WD Caviar Blue Se 7200 RPM SATA 3.0 GB's/Sec16 MB cache HDD's - 1 with OS on it just died
2 ZOTAC GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Cards
1 x Hauppauge Dual TV Recorder Tuner Card with Media Center Remote Control WinTV-PVR-500MCE 253 PCI Interface
1 x LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model LH-20A1L-06 LightScribe Support
1 x SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S203B - OEM
1 x Microsoft Windows XP Media Center 2005 SP2B for System Builders - OEM
Ultra Aluminus Black Mid Tower with 700w XVS PSU
1 x ZALMAN MFC2 Muti Fan Controller with Zalman CPU Fan With 70mm Fan & 2 120MM Case Fans.

Ok, so here's the scoop. Recently my main hard drive with my OS on it failed. Not sure why as I have never had a WD HDD fail on me before but it's got the click-click-click of death right now. Haven't backed up since June. AAARRRGGGHHHH!

The MOBO above does have a RAID controller on it but I have heard on-board RAID controllers are very unreliable so I never set it up.

I am trying to prevent data loss again and don't want any more down time so here's what I was thinking about to re-build my system.

Scenario 1: RAID1 Config on MOBO controller with 2x 2TB HDD's and a program to do automatic backups for me.

Scenario 2: RAID1 Config on seperate card with 2x 2TB HDD's and a program to do automatic backups for me.

I don't have a tone of money to spend here but I can tackle what I need to if it's worth the $.

If I should go with the seperate RAID card, what's the one I should get.

I also want to know what is the best backup software for everything. I want it to backup for me automatically and I don't ever want to go through re-installing everything again.

I was also wondering if this could be a heat issue. Should I upgrade my system to a liquid cooling system with the fans still in place? If so what cooing system would be recommended? I would want it to cool at least my PSU and HDD's.

While I know this is a lot to ask but I trust no other site to ask questions on as I have gotten the best help from here in the past so please respond as soon as possible.

 

[paulbelk]

Don't get me wrong by any means. I HIGHLY value the opinion of the vets on this site. I was just hoping I could find some insight or be enlightened in the matter.

The PSU you recommend would be fine but I was hoping to future proof for a few extra dollars. I was hoping not to spend more than $150-$200 and get a modular PSU of 1000-1200 watts that's still going to be reliable. PSU problems can cause' a variety of PC problems that i'd really rather not deal with at all.

So anybody have any recommendations on a 1000-1200 watt modular PSU for $150-$200?

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

Maybe something like this one?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817190021

Check out the Thermaltakes, Antecs, see what you think. The one above is modular as far as I see, and has 6 12 v+ rails, 2 at 35 amps, and 4 at 20 amps. So should be decent. I would definitely go look on google. But if you want to stay around 150, that might be ok, however I'll let other guys chime in, as they may have better insight. I will say though, you might even look at some of the 800-1000 watt models from Antec, Corsair, etc, as sometimes good power supplies are very efficient and can save you a little cash.

 

[paulbelk]

Best answer selected by paulbelk.

 

[Maziar]

This topic has been closed by Maziar