Help me build my new monster

I'm new to the forum & to Digital Storm. I'm a software developer who is also addicted to FlightSim. I'm replacing my ancient (2003) Gateway WinXP box. I'm trying to follow the marvelous guidelines offered by !ender_, please be patient with my newbie mistakes.

Budget: $2500 (soft) +/- 300 is ok, not including shipping.
I have my own monitor, mouse, keyboard, and sound system. My monitor is a recent SamSung 1600x1200. I also have a CH products usb yoke & pedals.

My Use:
- Every day: Run fsx. I want to run FSX at 20+ fps at full-screen (1600x1280). Heavy programming. I watch videos. Email/Web/Doc prep.
- Frequent: Image manipulation/graphic design
- Occasional: Video capture/edit

Special needs:
- Store 400-500G of videos. I generally acquire 150-200G/year
- Excessive dust (I have a cigar habit)
- Port and run extensive suite of 32bit XP apps
- Port and run old (2003) MS Office suite. I do NOT want the "new improved" versions.
- Reliability -- I value rock-hard reliability over an extra 10% of performance.
- HD backup -- I want raid1 for current failure protection. I want to be able to swap old files to removable HDs for offsite storage.

Questions:
I'm having trouble getting the configurator to let me say what I want (perhaps it isn't possible). Let my try it in English here:

1. I want to use the expansion bay to swap SDDs between Win and Linux system disks, one for win and one for linux (probably RHEL, but anything that uses yum will do). I think this means two 40G (intel) SDDs, one at a time.
2. I want two 1TB hitachi/seagates for my data storage, configured for raid 1. I need to R/W these from both win and linux, implying NTFS I think.
3. I want to be able to swap my own HDs in and out of the other two bays. I don't need fancy backup software -- I just want to swap 1TB drives in and out. I don't mind shutting down to do so, but hot swapping will be nice if the system can do it. Mostly I just want to avoid having to open up the case and muck around with cables all the time.

My current system (WinXP, 3 ghz cpu, 2GB ram, 500GB HD, nvidia AGP 4) runs FS9 at 15-20 fps with no problem. I can't get more than 3-5 fps out of FSX.

Now that my current system is finally dying, I want to stretch as far as I can when I replace it.

My initial pass at a configuration is at http://www.digitalstormonline.com/comploadsaved.asp?id=442158. I can't find the recommended "HAF932" chassis, I'm not sure which i7 to pick, and I'm not sure which MOBU to choose. I'm nervous about the 750W power supply, but I really won't need more than one graphics card. Someday, I may add my own Auzen sound card, but I'll try the onboard sound for now.

I invite your comments/suggestions, and thank you in advance for you patience and interest.

Thx,
Tom S.

Ah, this is very helpful. I hear you on the raid. Seems like a dual-boot is easier.

I think I still want the hot-swap bays on the front, though, so I can swap out the data drives. Is that possible with the 932?

Thanks for the configuration mods, this looks like a winner.

Got to agree when it comes to RAID just say no, there are so many better ways to do things without that complication.  Just get a large backup drive installed and back it all up to there on a very regular and strict schedule.




Edited by MagiK - 21 Sep 2010 at 1:34pm

looks great! i assume youre doing a partitioned 80 instead of 2 40s?

I've been promoted to stage 5. If anybody at DigitalStormOnline is watching, Zeenat is a *great* telephone sales agent.

BTW, DSO doesn't do Linux installs, so I asked to have the Win system installed in a 34G partition on the SDD, along with a 6G swap partition (the sys has 6G of RAM). I'll do the Linux install myself when I get the new box.

So far, I'm very happy.

I hear you on the swap partition, my choice is force-of-habit (from years of WinXP thrashing) more than anything else. I already have 6G of RAM, so I think I don't need to worry about swapping anyway.

I figure that I have to re-partition the SSD anyway when I do the CentOS dual-boot, so I can nuke the swap partition(s) then.

From your linux background, am I likely to run into any snags installing the CentOS? I'm still sort of hazy about what happens to the Win 7 install when I do this.

Originally posted by MagiK Swap is SLOOOOOOOOOW

Swap on an SSD isn't.

Not that mine barely gets used anyway with 6GB of memory. Plus, like you've mentioned before, some apps throw a fit if you don't have one, so I always leave mine on.

I'm still (4 October) waiting to be promoted from stage 5 (testing).

I've asked for a status update, two weeks of testing seems long. Perhaps I'm just impatient, though.

Thx,
Tom

Stage 6 just now, estimated shipment day tomorrow or Thur (10/6-10/7).

Hooray!

pretty much all you need to understand is you have a 3.9 ghz overclock! 4.0ghz is really fast 2ghz is pretty good. thats all i understand from it.

Yep it has been tweaked up I believe from 1.25..or I could be completely off  

Just to wrap this up, my new monster arrived on schedule. Setup was easy and clean, and this machine screams.

I'm still climbing the windows system 7 learning curve (I *hate* Microsoft), and it will take weeks to find and migrate or replace the gazillion tools and accessories I accumulated on the old WinXP box.

The system performance is simply awesome. This video card makes my monitor look fabulous, everything happens so quickly that it just feels "snappy".

In concrete quantitative terms, the best I could get out of FSX on the old box, even with a plane idling at the gate, was 5-8 FPS. On new box, it LOAFS at 33FPS, no matter WHAT I do.

Count me as a VERY satisfied Digital Storm customer, I am very much a happy camper.

Hi Tom,

Congratulations on your new system! I'd like to know how your Linux install goes. Please let us know when you have some time. Thanks.