If you're having trouble affording the monitor, you can save some decent cash just going with a traditional HDD or two. Raid isn't really going to do much for you (or at least that's my opinion) unless you need it for data security. It's more convenient than an external on a day-to-day basis, but if anything goes wrong, the external saves you the trouble of rebuilding an array. It's a wash, from my perspective. Don't take my thoughts to be gospel truth or anything - I'm just an average guy who likes to keep things simple and low maintenance. Since you're looking at raid 0, I'm guessing security really isn't an issue for you. I'd never use raid 0, but again, that's just me. A big enough SSD to cover everything you have may not cost much more. If you do go with the SSD, I'd stick with Crucial or Intel. Their failure rates and performance are significantly better than other brands.
I would highly discourage you from going raid 0 particularly with standard hard drives. If one of the drives break then you loose all your information on both. The small performance gain is not worth the risk IMO. You are a lot more likely to loose your information on a raid 0 than just a single drive.
a SSD will give you huge performance gains particularly with lightroom if installed as your primary disk. If your are going to buy two standard hard drives then buy one for your large files and an external disk for backup.
RAID 0 gave me a real world performance boost that I could feel. But that was a long time ago. I haven't researched SSD at all....so I don't know how an SSD would weigh up performance-wise and cost-wise to an SSD. I will tell you this - back then, I was overclocking and gaming, I didn't keep much of anything on my HDD that I would have been overly upset about losing, and I still kept meticulous backups. I personally wouldn't fool around with RAID 0 if I kept any semi-valuable data on it.
LOL. HDDs get bigger and bigger much faster than I've ever grown into them. I couldn't fathom needing a full TB of data storage. Do you do a lot of video editing or something?
I would highly discourage you from going raid 0 particularly with standard hard drives. If one of the drives break then you loose all your information on both. The small performance gain is not worth the risk IMO. You are a lot more likely to loose your information on a raid 0 than just a single drive.
a SSD will give you huge performance gains particularly with lightroom if installed as your primary disk. If your are going to buy two standard hard drives then buy one for your large files and an external disk for backup.
I never thought about RAID 0 that way, but it makes sense. If one drive fails, you lose all your data. And with 2 drives, that double the chances of a failure. Maybe I will just stay away from RAID, as it really is more than I'd need. Good advice, thanks!
RAID 0 gave me a real world performance boost that I could feel. But that was a long time ago. I haven't researched SSD at all....so I don't know how an SSD would weigh up performance-wise and cost-wise to an SSD. I will tell you this - back then, I was overclocking and gaming, I didn't keep much of anything on my HDD that I would have been overly upset about losing, and I still kept meticulous backups. I personally wouldn't fool around with RAID 0 if I kept any semi-valuable data on it.
LOL. HDDs get bigger and bigger much faster than I've ever grown into them. I couldn't fathom needing a full TB of data storage. Do you do a lot of video editing or something?
I will probably never use a full TB of storage either. But you pay a lot more per GB of storage with a 500gb than you do a 1TB, and you pay even less with a 2TB. I don't do any video editing now, maybe sometime in the future when I upgrade my DSLR though. I do however shoot RAW files, which average 12-18MB. A lot more than jpegs, but at an average of 15MB, it'd take about 70,000 to fill a 1TB drive.
So, I will probably forget about RAID, as I really don't think I'd need it and can't justify the extra cost and effort right now. Here's my thinking then:
256MB SSD ~$200 - primary disk.
500GB HDD ~$90 (a 1TB is $10 more).
1.5TB HDD - Already own, RAW file storage.
OR
Same 256GB SSD
1TB for RAW and other files.
Use the 1.5TB I have now to backup everything.
WOW. Yeah, I agree, at only $10 difference, it would be silly not to buy the 1 TB, especially if there's any remote possibility of filling up the 500 GB.
WOW. Yeah, I agree, at only $10 difference, it would be silly not to buy the 1 TB, especially if there's any remote possibility of filling up the 500 GB.
Plus as HDDs fill up performance degrades so a 1TB will prolong the time before that starts to happen. Also, the bigger HDDs have bigger caches so that will be a plus too. I went with a SATA II 1 TB WD just because it had a 64MB cache even though I don't have SATA II on my mobo.
It would seem that my second option above is the best right now considering my usage and budget.
I'll spending a lot more for the performance of the the SSD as my primary disk. Then a 7200RPM 64mb cache 1TB HDD (probably WD Caviar Black) as storage for my RAW files, music, videos, large games, etc. That will leave me the 1.5TB WD Caviar Green drive to use to back it all up. I think the Green is better suited as a backup anyways with the slower RPM.
Everything I need to finally finish this build up will be here Monday. My processor (Intel Core i5-3550) got here Friday, everything else I need is in the shipment on Monday: 200mm green LED fan, an aftermarket heatsink (probably not really needed though), DVD/CD burner, and a PCI Express wireless adapter.
I wish I could run an ethernet cable to my room on the second floor, but the router in on the opposite side of the house in the basement and that's a lot of cable and no where to hide it... So I'll have to deal with the slower wireless connection.
I just came across this thread, I have built all my machines. My current machine is a Core i7 2700k at 4Ghz, 8Gb DDR3, 3TB HDD, Asrock P67 Extreme, ATI 5770, Antec 750W PSU, Coolermaster Hyper 520 cooler, all in a modded Coolermaster 692 II case.
I just came across this thread, I have built all my machines. My current machine is a Core i7 2700k at 4Ghz, 8Gb DDR3, 3TB HDD, Asrock P67 Extreme, ATI 5770, Antec 750W PSU, Coolermaster Hyper 520 cooler, all in a modded Coolermaster 692 II case.
I got the CPU installed, then messed up the minute amount of thermal compound they give you with the aftermarket heatsink. :doh: I make a few calls and run to pick some up. Payed $10 for a $5 tube of it at the local computer shop, but I didn't want to wait another 3 days for it to come in. So I got the heatsink in then hooked up my little HDTV (temporary monitor) and spare peripherals. Turn on the PSU, hold my breath and hit the power button. Fans came on, LEDs lit up, but no signal to the monitor...
Turns out, the HDMI outputs on the motherboard turn off when you have a GPU installed. And my GPU uses mini HDMI, which I don't have a cable for... So I go digging around in a desk and dust off an old VGA cable. Got it plugged in and it came right up to the BIOS! Being my first build, I was nervous that something catastrophic was going to happen.
I'm still lacking the OS department, so I unplugged my SSD and pulled the HHD from my laptop. Once it was plugged in, I turned the computer back on and installed all my drivers. So, while not completely running on it's own yet, this is my first post from my new computer. I have to say, it feels good to be posting from a computer I built myself!
Thanks again to everybody in this thread! I really appreciate it!
Stumbling upon this thread was awesome.
What you guys got going is sick.
Congrats on the new build!
I haven't built a computer in like 7 years.
The last one was pretty me and the pops so I would have something to use during HS.
Definitely plan on building one once I get out of college and no longer have use for a laptop.
The last one was pretty me and the pops so I would have something to use during HS.
Definitely plan on building one once I get out of college and no longer have use for a laptop.
Needing a laptop for school was why I was hesitant about getting a good desktop for quite a while. My laptop has had a few problems, all fixed under Dell warranty, but my warranty has been up for 6 months now... and anything that breaks will cost me. I'll be keeping my laptop around for note taking and internet browsing (at least until it craps out on me). and use my new desktop for everything else.
Here it is done by the way:
One of the LED fans:
I'll snap some more pics of the internals tonight and the case with LEDs on in the dark.
Nice Phantom! I will be building a new rig after the wedding.. looking forward to it.. but i had to unsub to ncix and newegg deals.. too much of a tease lol
A forum community dedicated to cigar & pipe enthusiasts. Come join the discussions about collections, storage, care, reviews, accessories, classifieds, and more!