Re: Building my own PC -- hardware advice needed
From: SSDD (anonymous_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 06/13/04
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Date: Sat, 12 Jun 2004 21:32:21 -0700
What RAID is, is taking 2 or more hard drives, and
basically linking them together so Windows sees it as one
large drive. The benefit of this comes from striping data
across both drives, meaning, half of the data is on one
drive, half on the other. Meaning together, both drives
have to write less and read less, and data is sent back
and forth over more channels.
Take SATA for example. A single SATA drive has a max
transfer speed of 1.5 GB/s. If you set them up as RAID,
the maximum transfer speed jumps to 3.0 GB/s. Granted, we
don't have the technology yet to actually get to 3.0
GB/s, but it will at least double the performance of a
single drive.
The MoBo I described and I'm assuming the ASUS too, have
a built in controller for S-ATA RAID only. To do this for
EIDE, there are PCI controllers you can buy with all the
software to set them up. Granted, that's extra money, but
the performance speaks for itself.
What you could do is run your two drives for a while. If
you decide to go to S-ATA RAID for the performance gain,
you could load your OS and your photoshop/pictures/etc
onto your SATA drives, and ALSO keep your IDE drives
connected for extra storage. There are a lot of
possibilities.
As far as RAM...
There are a lot of good companies out there. I'm not
completely sure about the HyperX RAM. I'm not sure what
benefit it brings except a larger price tag. Ultra,
Kingston, Corsair are all good manufacturers. A wise
investment is to make sure you get Dual Channel RAM. It
is on the same thought process as S-ATA. Dual Channel
theoretically doubles your max memory bandwidth for
better performance. This works best with RDRAM, but that
stuff is really expensive.
Nice thing is that Dual Channel isn't usually more
expensive than regular RAM. Dual channel RAM is basically
tested to make sure that the 2 sticks are more closely
matched in performance, but any 2 sticks of the same size
and same type will work.
As far as the comments on which processors to get...
Don't read too much into that right now. I forsee a lot
of things happening with processors in the near future. I
can't imagine Intel staying out of the 64 bit processor
world for much longer. In actuality, tests proved that
the Intel P4 extreme edition wiped the floor with the AMD
64.
Good luck, and I hope I've helped a bit.
>-----Original Message-----
>SSDD,
>
>Thanks for the comments.
>
>I'm leaning towards an ASUS vs. Intel MoBo because my
current ASUS PIII MoBo
>has worked so well. In addition, I read a comment on
either ExtremeTech.com
>or Tomshardware.com suggesting that ASUS boards are
better than Intel's. I
>have to confess that basing my decision on one negative
comment is pretty
>lame! I'll look at the board you mention on the Intel
site. In either
>case, I will stick with the 875 chipset.
>
>Regarding the hard drives -- to be honest, I don't know
what RAID is! I've
>seen that mentioned repeatedly, but I'm not sure what it
means. Can my
>WD1200JB drives be connected to the MoBo via RAID, or
would I need new
>drives? I know that there is either EIDE or SATA, but
I'm not clear whether
>RAID only works with SATA drives? Perhaps you can
explain this.
>
>I do understand that my current drives may not be the
fastest, but for the
>moment at least, I want to use them on my new system
since I already have
>them. I certainly agree with you that my EIDE drives
won't load and save
>large Photoshop files as fast as the SATA drives, but
the main improvement
>I'm looking for is how the PC processes Photoshop files
once they are open.
>
>By the way, can you comment on my questions about how
much I should spend on
>RAM?
>
>Again, thanks for your time and comments.
>
>John
>
>
>"SSDD" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message
>news:1bde101c450f5$644cc960$a001280a@phx.gbl...
>> Building your own PC is fun and you'll be better off in
>> the long run. Good luck!
>>
>> As far as hardware goes, you've got a pretty decent
>> selection going. ASUS is a good Motherboard.
>>
>> However...(my favorite word) Intel makes their own
>> motherboard, supporting their own chipsets, supporting
>> their own processors. You don't get any more rock-solid
>> stability than that. Also cheaper. TigerDirect is
selling
>> the Intel DB875PBZLK for 139 I believe. That MoBo is
>> actually on my wishlist. It also has applications built
>> into BIOS to improve throughput of data. All for
cheaper
>> than your ASUS selections. The 875 Chipset is an
>> improvement over the 865 and well worth the money. I
>> can't list everything to you right now, but go to
>> Intel.com and you can find all sorts of info on it.
>>
>> You've picked a good processor, have your own video
card.
>> The only other suggestion I'd make are your hard
drives.
>> You have 2, do you use them for RAID?
>>
>> The Motherboard I described above also has it's own
RAID
>> controller and S-ATA interface.
>>
>> S-ATA with it's 1.5 GB/s interface set up on RAID 0
would
>> give you an incredible boost in performance when
loading
>> pictures. Western Digital makes some great S-ATA
drives.
>> I have 2 WD Raptors (74 gig S-ATA) on the way as I
write
>> this. A note: if you make this your choice, buy
directly
>> from Western Digital. Buying from newegg or tigerdirect
>> will be considerably more expensive.
>>
>> Other than that, you've got yourself a good system
plan.
>> Good luck to you putting this together. It's exciting
>> building your own system. Especially when you fire it
up
>> the first time.
>> >-----Original Message-----
>> >Hi,
>> >
>> >I'm not sure this is the right place to be asking
about
>> hardware selection,
>> >but if it isn't, perhaps someone will point me in the
>> right direction. If
>> >it is the right place to ask, I'll appreciate any
>> comments anyone is willing
>> >to share.
>> >
>> >I am going to build my own PC -- first time I've done
>> this. My main use of
>> >the PC that requires power and speed is Photoshop
CS. I
>> will not do any
>> >gaming or anything else that requires 3D graphics.
>> >
>> >Having had two PCs with ASUS motherboards that worked
>> very well, I will
>> >stick with ASUS.
>> >
>> >Here's what I'm planning:
>> >
>> >Intel P4 3.0 Ghz CPU
>> >Matrox G450 graphic card (perfect for Photoshop)
>> >2 -- Western Digital WD1200JB EIDE drives (I have
these
>> already)
>> >1 -- Plextor CD/DVD burner (I have this already)
>> >Floppy drive
>> >Faxmodem
>> >LAN and Audio built into MB
>> >USB and Firewire ports
>> >Antec case w/350w power supply
>> >
>> >My questions concern choice of motherboard and RAM.
>> >
>> >The motherboards I'm considering are:
>> >
>> >ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe -- 875C chipset -- $169 (at
>> newegg.com)
>> >ASUS P4C800 Deluxe -- 875C chipset -- $163
>> >ASUS P4P800-E Deluxe -- 865PE chipset -- $116
>> >
>> >The specs of these three MBs seem almost identical, so
>> I'm wondering if
>> >anyone has experience with these boards who could give
>> me a reason to select
>> >one versus another. I'm not clear on what I'd get
with
>> the $169 board that
>> >the $116 board wouldn't give me. In other words, is
the
>> extra money worth
>> >spending? (I don't need WiFi which the P4P800-E
Deluxe
>> has included.) I am
>> >not clear about the differences between the 875C and
>> 865PE chipsets, and
>> >what those differences, if any, will mean to me as the
>> end user. Also, I
>> >can't tell the difference between the P4C800-E Deluxe
>> and the P4C800 Deluxe.
>> >
>> >RAM:
>> >I will buy PC3200 RAM, 1GB or 2GB of RAM -- all of the
>> MBs above will hold 4
>> >DIMMS. Checking Kingston RAM prices on newegg.com,
>> there are several
>> >choices of 1GB (2x512) packages, ranging from ValueRAM
>> at $194 to HyperX at
>> >$282. I know I need to buy matched pairs of DIMMS.
I'm
>> not clear on the
>> >difference between the ValueRAM and the HyperX, other
>> than the price. Both
>> >have very similar specs. I want good, fast, stable
RAM,
>> but I don't want to
>> >spend any more than I need to. Any help or
>> recommendations?? (I used
>> >Kingston as my example, but Crucial and Corsair have
the
>> same range. These
>> >three brands have been recommended to me.)
>> >
>> >Thanks for any help, recommendations and comments.
>> >
>> >John
>> >
>> >
>> >.
>> >
>
>
>.
>
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