***Final List of Computer Parts***

[Jrod]

Wow, EXTREMELY close to my build. I got a Seasonic 550w though, and a 7900gs instead of the 8800gts. I've read onboard sound is pretty good so unless you're a hardcore audiophile or gamer, you don't really need the x-fi. As for the dvd burner, the Pioneer 111D is supposedly really good. The newer version, 112D, is out too btw. Also be sure to get some thermal paste like Arctic Silver 5.

 

[Ronnie]

if your gaming in vista and you can afford it i would suggest do 2x2gb set

vista takes a **** load of ram, with 2gigs i find myself using almost 100% while playing games and about 50 when not

 

[Deathawk]

250+ for a sound card? really neccesary? I don't think so.. PSU... honestly, you'll be fine with a 450w fortron.. but if you're going to pay like 100 dollars for a PSU get this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817812004
I spread this one all over everywhere, because it's the most powerful for it's price, and it's made by a kickass brand. But seriously, the 450w fortron will suit your needs well. Don't get a Raptor, unless you don't like the idea of RAID 0 or something.. but RAID0 some barracuda's and you'll have better performance and size..

Get the RAM sora suggested. Video card, get the 8800gtx.

 

[Jrod]

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=373100

Good deal on a good psu.

 

[guitarplyrstevo]

Your ram is very expensive and XMS2 is a disappointing line from Corsair IMO. G.Skill is much better at Price/Performance these days and you can possibly get.

Get these as they are literally half the price and they are amazing chips, I should know as I own them.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231084

Get them and put that 150 bucks toward an 8800GTX.

Then get rid of the raptor and just run two seagate barracudas 7200.10 in RAID 0 and you will see pretty much the same performance for a lot cheaper.

That sound card is a really good one but are you an audiophile? I believe it's the best one you can get and there are others with pretty much the same quality for cheaper. It still might be a good idea though to go all the way since sound cards last fro a while so you can ignore me on that one.

Take the money saved from the ram and the raptor and upgrade yourself to a nice 8800GTX.

Ill look into the G. Skill but I think ill keep the raptor. I want windows to run off a 10,000 rpm drive so everything will boot up a lot faster. Also I kind of consider myself to be an audiophile but thats not the reason why I'm getting the x-fi elite. I'm going to be connecting my computer to a home theater receiver in the future so the box will come in handy. Also the set of speakers I am using does not come with volume controls so I am stuck adjusting the volume through the computer.

I really do not want to spend more than $350 on a video card because I'm not a gamer, though I still want to be able to play games without any limitations.

 

[Sora]

Then downgrade your HDD to a 160GB for RAID 0 as anymore on RAID 0 is a waste. If you didin't plan on going RAID 0 with the raptor and other drive then 2 7200.10 Barracudas on Raid 0 will offer better performance than 1 raptor and you can still keep the 500gb for storage.

 

[guitarplyrstevo]

Then downgrade your HDD to a 160GB for RAID 0 as anymore on RAID 0 is a waste. If you didin't plan on going RAID 0 with the raptor and other drive then 2 7200.10 Barracudas on Raid 0 will offer better performance than 1 raptor and you can still keep the 500gb for storage.

All this raid stuff is what I do not understand. From my understanding, I would get better performance if I install windows on the raptor (10,000rpm), and then have all my data on another bigger 7200rpm drive? correct me if I'm wrong. I really do not understand all this RAID stuff.

 

[Sora]

RAID 0 is where you take two disks and strip them better.

It's like how SLI works with a video card. You will get better performance by RAID 0ing two seagate barracudas.

Lets say you get two 160GB of the 7200.10's and you strip them together, the formula for space on RAID 0 is 2xminimum disk.

So if you take two 160GB. Size= 2*160=360GB on RAID 0.

RAID 0 with two of these will be faster and cheaper than having one Raptor at 10,000. Not to mention you will have more space.

Of coarse RAID 0 isn't good for backing up data so thats why you still go with a 320GB or a 500GB HD for storage of important files.

There are different types of RAID but "RAID 0" is the best one in terms of performance.

 

[Jrod]

Haven't seen a benchmark comparing a raptor against 2 7200rpm hd's in RAID 0 so there may be a slight performance increase. One raptor would be better reliability wise though because if you use two hd's in RAID 0 , if one fails the whole array fails. Meaning you have twice the chance of your OS drive failing on you.

 

[guitarplyrstevo]

Haven't seen a benchmark comparing a raptor against 2 7200rpm hd's in RAID 0 so there may be a slight performance increase. One raptor would be better reliability wise though because if you use two hd's in RAID 0 , if one fails the whole array fails. Meaning you have twice the chance of your OS drive failing on you.

Yeah, I'm cool on that. Even as rare as it is for a drive to fail, I wouldn't want to take the chance.