my friend a new computer as my Crimmas present to him.
MSI Neo 2 mobo
Intel 2.8 GHz P4
1 gig PC3200 DRAM
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
Dual 36.7 GB WD Raptor SATA drives in a RAID 0 config
DVD ROM/CD-RW combo drive
CoolerMaster Centurion case w/ dual fan 430 watt power sup
The RAID config was a snap once I got the BIOS options set correctly. I haven't run any benchmarks, but it runs every game we've stuck on it smooth and fast at max resolution. Map load times in C&C Generals and WC3:TFT are super quick.
I need a new comput4r now
"There is at least as much need to curb the cruel greed and arrogance of part of the world of capital, to curb the cruel greed and violence of part of the world of labor, as to check a cruel and unhealthy militarism in international relationships." -Theodore Roosevelt
Hehe. He bought the parts, I just slapped them together. We're not THAT kinda friends...
"There is at least as much need to curb the cruel greed and arrogance of part of the world of capital, to curb the cruel greed and violence of part of the world of labor, as to check a cruel and unhealthy militarism in international relationships." -Theodore Roosevelt
masteen wrote:my friend a new computer as my Crimmas present to him.
MSI Neo 2 mobo
Intel 2.8 GHz P4
1 gig PC3200 DRAM
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
Dual 36.7 GB WD Raptor SATA drives in a RAID 0 config
DVD ROM/CD-RW combo drive
CoolerMaster Centurion case w/ dual fan 430 watt power sup
The RAID config was a snap once I got the BIOS options set correctly. I haven't run any benchmarks, but it runs every game we've stuck on it smooth and fast at max resolution. Map load times in C&C Generals and WC3:TFT are super quick.
I need a new comput4r now
For Christmas, I got:
Antec Sonata piano black case
Abit IC7 motherboard
P4 2.6GHz
Corsair XMS Low Latency 1GB DDR with Platinum Silver Heat Spreader
Sony DVD-RW/+RW Drive
ATI Radeon 9800xt
Western Digitial Raptor
It was the first computer I have built by hand, and it is silly that I waited this long. It took 2 hours to put together and it runs like a champ. It is such a pleasure to build PCs, I think I am going to buy another one just so I can put it together!
I really loved putting this PC together, mostly because the case was so damn friendly. I used look like I lost a fight with a cat after building a PC, but I couldn't find a sharp edge in the CoolerMaster.
All my friends are in awe of my leet skillz, if only they knew how easy it really was. I'm just excited to get to build my friends top end machines and then kick their asses online.
"There is at least as much need to curb the cruel greed and arrogance of part of the world of capital, to curb the cruel greed and violence of part of the world of labor, as to check a cruel and unhealthy militarism in international relationships." -Theodore Roosevelt
The case makes a big difference, but you really can't appreciate how much until you've had to bend the clips on gfx/sound cards, or cut the shit outta your hand on a razor sharp edge right near the drive cage.
"There is at least as much need to curb the cruel greed and arrogance of part of the world of capital, to curb the cruel greed and violence of part of the world of labor, as to check a cruel and unhealthy militarism in international relationships." -Theodore Roosevelt
masteen wrote:The case makes a big difference, but you really can't appreciate how much until you've had to bend the clips on gfx/sound cards, or cut the shit outta your hand on a razor sharp edge right near the drive cage.
Definitely! And you can reuse the thing over and over, good case is the most important aspect of a good build if you ask me.
I recently put together a machine using a Thermatake case with the see through side on it and 5 fans. I was hoping to make a nice quiet PC but after I bought the supposedly silent cpu fan from Thermaltake it was just as loud as before even on its lowest setting.
It didn't help matters that the company isn't user friendly for the most part. Most of the instructions are printed in a kind of pigeon english. I got this case so I could put pretty lights in it and use colored round cables. I got the case on sale but I think I should have spent the extra money and gotten an aluminum case. This fucker is heavy. Hell they have a door that covers the drive bays and I swear that thing alone weighs close to 5 pounds.
I did have fun getting all the parts and putting it all together though. I don't think I can afford to do that again any time soon though.
masteen wrote:
Dual 36.7 GB WD Raptor SATA drives in a RAID 0 config
The RAID config was a snap once I got the BIOS options set correctly. I haven't run any benchmarks, but it runs every game we've stuck on it smooth and fast at max resolution. Map load times in C&C Generals and WC3:TFT are super quick.
I need a new comput4r now
Raptors are great : ) You can't fit a lot of pr0n on them but you've got to like the speed that Windows, EQ, and other games load.
I went with Raptor for my OS and primary Apps and a 250GB Drive for all of my shenanigan material. I've got another 120gb as well. 400gb and I'm still running out of room! A lot of that has to do with fooling around making DVDs. It takes a bunch of space for that and 60gb of ps2 DVD images I can delete soon will free up some space.
masteen wrote:
Dual 36.7 GB WD Raptor SATA drives in a RAID 0 config
The RAID config was a snap once I got the BIOS options set correctly. I haven't run any benchmarks, but it runs every game we've stuck on it smooth and fast at max resolution. Map load times in C&C Generals and WC3:TFT are super quick.
I need a new comput4r now
Raptors are great : ) You can't fit a lot of pr0n on them but you've got to like the speed that Windows, EQ, and other games load.
I went with Raptor for my OS and primary Apps and a 250GB Drive for all of my shenanigan material. I've got another 120gb as well. 400gb and I'm still running out of room! A lot of that has to do with fooling around making DVDs. It takes a bunch of space for that and 60gb of ps2 DVD images I can delete soon will free up some space.
Raptor > All for speed though!
I am going with a WD USB drive for teh pr0n and other multimedia. I figure it will save me heartaches if I can just plug and play the bastard on whatever comp I want to.
For doinking around (starting windows) and such yes. If you're doing reads or writes from files larger than the disks cache, (like starting EQ and most other programs) low end SCSI still beats high end IDE consistantly. And doesn't cost that much more considering the rest of your system cost.
If you shop around a bit you can pick everything for a ~100 Gb SCSI RAID array up for around $150-200.
"Life is what happens while you're making plans for later."
The Neo2 came with the ICH5R southbridge and a Promise SATA RAID controller integrated. Why would I want to dick around with a SCSI rider card for like 5% faster load times (per Tom's)?
"There is at least as much need to curb the cruel greed and arrogance of part of the world of capital, to curb the cruel greed and violence of part of the world of labor, as to check a cruel and unhealthy militarism in international relationships." -Theodore Roosevelt
The WD Raptor drive is ok, not as reliable as the Seagate drive that is on the market, but it is faster. But given the fact that the Raptor is pretty much a hybrid of SCSI/SATA with a couple of PATA components thrown in for good measure, and all of the other SATA drives that are currently out are just PATA (normal IDE) drives running through a bridge chip, it isn't surprising that the Raptor is faster.
masteen wrote:Why would I want to dick around with a SCSI rider card for like 5% faster load times (per Tom's)?
So you could be pimptastic like me of course
A performance review I read a couple weeks ago read 30-40% faster between FW SCSI and SATA on prolonged reads or writes. Anything that was larger than the buffer on the drive and the IDE drives suffered horribly.
I haven't read compareing on both in RAID. I'd guess the difference would be less as you could use the buffers on the SATA drives more effectively, making up for the shitheads that developed the IDE bus.
"Life is what happens while you're making plans for later."
Well, you need to keep in mind that current SATA drives are not really SATA drives at all. They are all, with the exception of the Raptor, regular PATA drives running through a bridge chip. The speed potential of SATA is far greater than any of the drives currently on the market. In another generation or two it is possible that SATA will have reached SCSI speeds.
Compatibility: IDE
SCSI is reliable, but requires a little more thought to setup sometimes. SATA has problems - But it is still in its infancy - Once it is around for a while longer, it should be worth looking at.
Speed: SCSI
Hands down, SCSI. PATA and SATA have gotten awfully fast, but SCSI drives still have better mechanics & electronics under the hood. This gives them MUCH better transfer rates and access times more than twice as fast. Although SATA allows for more speed to be POSSIBLE, PATA and SATA are the same speed for now.
The general agreement seems to be you have any of them in a RAID configuration for best performance, and even then the PCI bus limits you.
"Life is what happens while you're making plans for later."
