Can I do better than this build for $1000?

[NathanM]

Well, I have the MSI board, and it has caused me no problems. The only problem was the installation. I had to remove the backplate to put on an aftermarket backplate for the Zalman 7000... and the MSI's backplate was glued on, rather well. It was a pain to remove. That's a definite drawback if you plan on putting on a HSF with its own backplate, but other boards may have their backplates glued on too, I'm not sure.

Other than that, the board has been a great deal for the price. It's has enough overclocking features in the BIOS to satisfy me.

 

[macdawg]

yes raid 0 is a little more risky, in that you have two drives, if one goes bad you lose everything, opposed to only one drive that can go bad, chances are the drives won't go bad though.

I'd do RAID 0 in a modern performance machine and do regular backups to offset the risk.