Gonna start building my new machine today!! WOOHOOO!

[miston]

I've had the case, power supply, and the Plextor's for about a month, but I couldn't decide on a MOTHERBOARD.

I wanted SLI X16 (even though I probably want use it, but SLI X16 motherboards only cost abut $50 bucks more, so you might as well get it for the upgradebility. The Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe only has 5 internal sata ports, which wasn't enough (its enough ports, but I want each SATA controller run a RAID 0 array), and the audio on the Asus sucked.

The MSI is the perfect board, especially since I plan on moving it to an HTPC I plan on building in a few months (after AMD releases their new chipset)

Case: Cooler Master - CM Stacker - Black BTX Full Tower
Power Supply: OCZ OCZ600ADJSLI ATX12V 2.01 600watt SLI SATA
Motherboard: MSI K8N Diamond Plus SLI X16, Dual Sata 2, Soundblaster Audigy
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ OR 4400+ Toledo 1MB+1MB L2 Cache
Memory: OCZ Gold GX 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 500 (PC 4000)
Graphics: eVGA 256-P2-N529-AX Geforce 7800GTX 256MB
OS Hardrive #1: WD 10,000K RPM Raptor 74GB SATA150
OS Hardrive #2: WD 10,000K RPM Raptor 74GB SATA150
Hardrive #1: WD Caviar RE2 WD4000YR 400GB SATA150 RAID-specific
Hardrive #2: WD Caviar RE2 WD4000YR 400GB SATA150 RAID-specific
Optical Drive #1: Plextor slot load PX-716AL/SW IDE
Optical Drive #2: Plextor slot load PX-716AL/SW IDE
Monitor: NEC LCD1970GX-BK Black 19" 8ms LCD Monitor
Keyboard & Mouse: Logitech MX3100 Wireless Keyboard and Mouse
Card Reader: LINKSKEY LKA-CR15B 19-in-1 USB 2.0 Black Card Reader/Writer
OS: Microsoft XP Pro OEM
External HDD Encosure: Rosewill RX30-U2FAB BLACK Alm 3.5" USB2.0 Firewire 800
UPS: APC BACK-UPS RS 800VA 120V BLACK USB BR800BLK


Question: the CM Stacker comes with a 4 in 3 hardrive cage (4 3.5 drives that take up only 3 5.25 bays). I ordered another one because I wanted some space in between the drives. Due to the heat I don't want to cram 2 10,000 RPM drives next too 2 7200 drives. Is my thinking correct or am I being too cautious?

In anycase the 2nd hardrive cage won't be here for another week, am I okay putting all 4 drives in one cage right on top of the other? The cage has a fan.

 

[GoodNews101]

I can't answer your question per se, but as I was reading through - before I got to your question - I was thinking, "But what about cooling? I hope he has enough fans, etc. to keep that monster cool."

 

[HAVOC]

That's a pretty expensive system. What is your main purpose for it. Although you have a 7800GTX, it doesn't really look like a gaming system. It looks more mulitmedia to me...May-be some serious video editting going on?

As far as have (4) HDD's in one drive cage... It really depends on the airflow. As long as the drives have a good 1" in between them airflow should be good. I would certainly have a 120mm case fan blowing across them to keep the warm air moving.

WD Raptors get very, very hot... I've got a thermal sensor on mine and sometimes the top metal cover gets well over 40C.

 

[reggie_da_man]

Yea just have them one space apart and have your intake fan in the front blowing on them, that should keep it cool. BTW nice system ya got there.

 

[Ridlyn]

What would be a good ideo for you to do is put all of your hardrive in RAID 0+1, so you get the perfomance gain of RAID 0, and the fault tolerance of RAID 1. I dont know if you want to d othis but it's a good idea just in case if one of your raptors fail because of overheating.

 

[miston]

I've got tons of fans! I even got the crossflow fan for the CM stacker to blow air across the motherboard, though that, the 2nd HD cage, and the additional exhaust fans won't be here for another week, so I'll hold up on OC'ing.

I collect a lot of shows (music, dvds) of Widespread Panic, Phish, Greatful Dead, etc. so the main purpose is fast burning, fast decoding, fast encoding of video and audio. And I like to keep stuff on my hardrive so I can burn stuff for friends.

I also plan to do some gaming obviously. What made you think it wasn't a gaming rig? (just curious)

but your right it is an expensive system.....I haven't built a system for myself in 5 years, so I really wanted to put together something nice. I didn't really budget myself, but I didn't just go out and buy the most expensive stuff.

For example I thought about getting OCZ Platinum, but new it wasn't worth the money.

Obviously I could get by with a lot less money, but when I build a system I build it as fast!


There won't be any space I don't believe between the drives. Maybe I should hold up on adding the two 400GB drives until my 2nd hardrive cage comes in.

 

[reggie_da_man]

Lol yea, your talking about like a miror?

 

[miston]

What would be a good ideo for you to do is put all of your hardrive in RAID 0+1, so you get the perfomance gain of RAID 0, and the fault tolerance of RAID 1. I dont know if you want to d othis but it's a good idea just in case if one of your raptors fail because of overheating.

I thought about this, but I'm just gonna back up my important data on my other RAID, plus I'm gonna sync up "My Documents, Pics, etc" with my laptop, so I'll have a pretty good back up.

That is, all **** would have to break loose for me to lose my data. (apartment burn down, laptop and computer stolen, lightning strike while my computer is on AND my laptop is plugged up!)

But I might still do 0 + 1 down the road, but first I want to see how fast an all RAID 0 rig can be.

I can easily re-array the drives to 0+1 can't I?