Second (3rd, 4th...?) opinions.

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I'm a Marine currently in Iraq, I'm looking to have a DS computer waiting for me (or on the way to me) when I return to the states in about a month.  I've done a good bit of reading via Google and in these forums, but I want to make sure I'm doing this right. 

(Using !ender_'s template.)

Any suggestions are helpful, not just that it's a decent build, but ways to improve it without a crazy price tag.  Mostly I'm thinking of changing the Hard Drives, but I'm not sure what a better solution would be (my main reason for posting).

That said, budget is $4000ish (preferably on the lower end of 'ish')

Building a Gaming Computer for newer and future games.  Although right now I'm playing mostly World of Warcraft, but I do like FPS and RTS and play them a good bit.

And the monitor is one thing I could use some help with, currently I'm going with a relatively cheap one with the order, would a larger/better would make a big difference?

I have gone for no over clocking to lessen the strain on the parts, hopefully last longer.

Ticket Number: 191081

Specifications:

Chassis: Cooler Master HAF 932

Power Supply: 1000W Corsair HX (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible)

Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 3.0GHz (1333MHz FSB) (12MB Cache)

Motherboard: nVidia 790i Ultra Core 2 Quad (nForce 790i Ultra SLI) (DDR3 Only)

System Memory: 4GB DDR3 1600MHz Corsair DHX (High-Performance)

Hard Drive 1: 500GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA)

Hard Drive 2: 500GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA)

Raid Option: Setup hard drive 1 and hard drive 2 in a Raid 0 Stripe Configuration (Expert)

Hard Drive 3: - No Thanks

Optical Drive 1: DVD-ROM/CD-ROM (DVD Reader 16x / CD Reader 40x)

Optical Drive 2: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 20x / CD-Writer 48x)

Wireless Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)

Video Card: 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 896MB (Includes PhysX Technology)

TV Tuner: Pinnacle PCTV HD Card (HDTV, Video Recording, Video Capture, FM Audio)

Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer (CLEARANCE PRICED)

Extreme Cooling: Air Cooled Stage 3 WindTunnel (Copper Heatpipe Heatsink & Additional Case Fans)

Modifications: LCD Temperature Display & Fan Controller

Windows OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium

LCD Display: Acer 19 inch (Widescreen) (Black Edition) (High-Value Display)

Total Price: $3,717.00

Edited by Midevildle - 06 Oct 2008 at 2:38am

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Midevildle Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 06 Oct 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 4	Quote Reply Topic: Second (3rd, 4th...?) opinions. Posted: 06 Oct 2008 at 2:36am
	I'm a Marine currently in Iraq, I'm looking to have a DS computer waiting for me (or on the way to me) when I return to the states in about a month. I've done a good bit of reading via Google and in these forums, but I want to make sure I'm doing this right. (Using !ender_'s template.) Any suggestions are helpful, not just that it's a decent build, but ways to improve it without a crazy price tag. Mostly I'm thinking of changing the Hard Drives, but I'm not sure what a better solution would be (my main reason for posting). That said, budget is $4000ish (preferably on the lower end of 'ish') Building a Gaming Computer for newer and future games. Although right now I'm playing mostly World of Warcraft, but I do like FPS and RTS and play them a good bit. And the monitor is one thing I could use some help with, currently I'm going with a relatively cheap one with the order, would a larger/better would make a big difference? I have gone for no over clocking to lessen the strain on the parts, hopefully last longer. Ticket Number: 191081 Specifications: Chassis: Cooler Master HAF 932 Power Supply: 1000W Corsair HX (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible) Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 3.0GHz (1333MHz FSB) (12MB Cache) Motherboard: nVidia 790i Ultra Core 2 Quad (nForce 790i Ultra SLI) (DDR3 Only) System Memory: 4GB DDR3 1600MHz Corsair DHX (High-Performance) Hard Drive 1: 500GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA) Hard Drive 2: 500GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA) Raid Option: Setup hard drive 1 and hard drive 2 in a Raid 0 Stripe Configuration (Expert) Hard Drive 3: - No Thanks Optical Drive 1: DVD-ROM/CD-ROM (DVD Reader 16x / CD Reader 40x) Optical Drive 2: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 20x / CD-Writer 48x) Wireless Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections) Video Card: 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 896MB (Includes PhysX Technology) TV Tuner: Pinnacle PCTV HD Card (HDTV, Video Recording, Video Capture, FM Audio) Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer (CLEARANCE PRICED) Extreme Cooling: Air Cooled Stage 3 WindTunnel (Copper Heatpipe Heatsink & Additional Case Fans) Modifications: LCD Temperature Display & Fan Controller Windows OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium LCD Display: Acer 19 inch (Widescreen) (Black Edition) (High-Value Display) Total Price: $3,717.00 Edited by Midevildle - 06 Oct 2008 at 2:38am

DST4ME Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List DS ELITE Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 36758	Quote Reply Posted: 06 Oct 2008 at 3:30am
	your parts are under warranty and the OC is fine on the parts, they don't bleed your system when they are OCing so you don't have to worry about the strain. this is more like it, do you need the TV tuner, game, LCD fan controller and all that? what ever you see is not in my list, is because you should search and find a better place some place else like newegg here you go Ticket# 191091 --- Price: $3509 (To see this build click here) Copy of Specifications: Chassis: Cooler Master HAF 932 Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish Interior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish Power Supply: 1000W Corsair HX (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible) Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 3.0GHz (1333MHz FSB) (12MB Cache) Motherboard: nVidia 790i Ultra Core 2 Quad (nForce 790i Ultra SLI) (DDR3 Only) System Memory: 4GB DDR3 1333MHz OCZ Card Reader: - No Thanks Hard Drive 1: 300GB Western Digital VelociRaptor (10K RPM) (16MB Cache) (Extreme Speed) Hard Drive 2: 500GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA) Raid Option: - No Thanks Hard Drive 3: - No Thanks Optical Drive 1: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 20x / CD-Writer 48x) (LightScribe Edition) Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks Wireless Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections) Video Card: 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 896MB (Includes PhysX Technology) TV Tuner: Pinnacle PCTV HD Card (HDTV, Video Recording, Video Capture, FM Audio) Sound Card: Razer Barracuda AC-1 (Recommended) Extreme Cooling: Air Cooled Stage 2 (Silent Artic Cooling Heat-sink Upgrade (Copper Heatpipes) Internal Lighting: - No Thanks Modifications: LCD Temperature Display & Fan Controller Boost Processor: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my processor Boost Video Card: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s) Boost Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory Tweak Windows: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system Windows OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64-Bit Edition) (For Enthusiasts) Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based) Protection: - No Thanks Office: - No Thanks Benchmarking: - No Thanks Install/Test Game: Crysis: Warhead (Pre-Install, apply updates, and test gameplay with my system) LCD Display: - No Thanks Surge Shield: - No Thanks Speakers: - No Thanks Keyboard: - No Thanks Mouse: - No Thanks External Storage: - No Thanks Warranty: 3 Year Platinum Care Extended Parts & Labor Warranty also 2 x 260 GTX is recommended for monitor with resolution higher then 1680 x 1050 Edited by DST4ME - 06 Oct 2008 at 3:33am
	Nvidia Drivers----AMD Drivers

Tyler Lowe Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 14 May 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 0	Quote Reply Posted: 07 Oct 2008 at 1:40am
	Suggested adjustments: http://www.digitalstormonline.com/comploadsaved.asp?id=191879 and then order this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001280 The monitor has a built in TV tuner. I used the money saved on a couple of items in your configuration to put towards a larger monitor with a built in tuner. Given the graphics cards you selected, a 24" screen is really the best way to get the most of those. The Razer soundcard has been a better performer without the driver issues the Creative cards have had. The drop to 1333MHz RAM was an easy choice since you don't plan on overclocking. The air circulation in the HAF is good enough to do stage 2 and still have great system temps, so this was another place I cut some cost to get you a better display. Edited by Tyler Lowe - 07 Oct 2008 at 11:24am

DST4ME Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List DS ELITE Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 36758	Quote Reply Posted: 07 Oct 2008 at 5:37am
	I can't say enough bad things about raid
	Nvidia Drivers----AMD Drivers

Midevildle Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 06 Oct 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 4	Quote Reply Posted: 07 Oct 2008 at 12:37pm
	Thanks for the help, very informative. Now I've heard the same about RAID from different people. Whats wrong with it, I've read about it and it sounds good in theory. Does it cause the drives to fail more often?

Tyler Lowe Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 14 May 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 0	Quote Reply Posted: 07 Oct 2008 at 1:30pm
	RAID basically turns two drives into one drive with two heads. Both drives have to stay functional in order for that single two-headed drive to stay functional, so you just increased your chances of failure by a factor of 2. They also have to remain synchronized or a drive will drop from the array. Unless you're going to run a RAID array with hard drives designed for it using a dedicated RAID controller, the performance gains simply do not outweigh the headaches IMO.

gdhart Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 21 Sep 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 131	Quote Reply Posted: 07 Oct 2008 at 2:27pm
	That RAID that Tyler is talking about is RAID-0 also called Striped as it writes half the data of a file to each drive. RAID-1 also called Mirrored writes the entire file to both drives. If one drive fails in a RAID-0 you lose everything unless you are lucky enough to have an HD recovery company salvage the files. (Which happened to me on a 2x500 GB HD RAID-0 and I was lucky that a local company was able to recover my files) If one drive fails in a RAID-1 you do not lose anything as all of the files exist on the other drive. You simply replace the bad drive and the RAID-1 will be rebuilt. In the case of a RAID-0 it is faster than a single drive or a RAID-1 as both drives are writing at the same time. A RAID-1 is about the same speed as a single drive. 2x500 GB drives in RAID-0 results in 1 TB of space. 2x500GB drives in a RAID-1 results in 500 GB of space. So which way you go should be based on how important your files are. If you have important documents, home videos, pictures, you may want to go the RAID-1 route. If you have just the OS and game software a RAID-0 will be fasters and provide more space. Or you can do a combination like I have now. I use a 500 GB single drive for my system and software drive. I then use a pair of 500 GB drives in a RAID-1 to store my email, pictures, videos and documents. Edited by gdhart - 07 Oct 2008 at 2:30pm
	850W PSU/Pro Case Q6600-G0 2.7GHz nVidia 680i A1 Revision 4GB 800MHz XMS2 1x500 GB WD, 2x500GB WD RAID-1 2x500GB Ext nVidia GeForce 8800GTX 768MB ATI TV Wonder 650 Air Cooled Stage 3

DST4ME Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List DS ELITE Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 36758	Quote Reply Posted: 07 Oct 2008 at 5:18pm
	like I said I can't say enough bad things about raid, data loss, will take for ever to scan for anti virus, backup is a nightmare, its just not worth the little speed it offers, you would get much better results using my setup. If not, then go ahead and get raid and learn the hardway. with raid is something goes wrong with your OS then you lose all your data.
	Nvidia Drivers----AMD Drivers

Midevildle Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 06 Oct 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 4	Quote Reply Posted: 08 Oct 2008 at 5:55am
	Thanks again, all I found on RAID when I was researching it is what it does, not anything about how detrimental it might be. Based on help I've been receiving I'm looking at... System Configuration: Chassis: Cooler Master HAF 932 Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish Interior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish Power Supply: 1000W Corsair HX (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible) Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 3.0GHz (1333MHz FSB) (12MB Cache) Motherboard: nVidia 790i Ultra Core 2 Quad (nForce 790i Ultra SLI) (DDR3 Only) System Memory: 4GB DDR3 1333MHz OCZ Card Reader: - No Thanks Hard Drive 1: 300GB Western Digital VelociRaptor (10K RPM) (16MB Cache) (Extreme Speed) Hard Drive 2: 500GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA) Raid Option: - No Thanks Hard Drive 3: - No Thanks Optical Drive 1: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 20x / CD-Writer 48x) Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks Wireless Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections) Video Card(s): 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 896MB (Includes PhysX Technology) TV Tuner: - No Thanks Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer (CLEARANCE PRICED) Extreme Cooling: Air Cooled Stage 2 Internal Lighting: - No Thanks Modifications: - No Thanks CPU Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my processor Graphics Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s) Memory Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory Windows Boost: Yes, Disable and tweak all of the non-crucial services on the operating system Windows OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64-Bit Edition) (For Enthusiasts) Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based) Protection: McAfee Internet Security (Includes: AntiVirus, FireWall and AntiSpyware) Office: - No Thanks Benchmarking: - No Thanks Pre-Install Game: - No Thanks LCD Display: Acer 22 inch (Widescreen) (Black) (High-Performance Gaming Display) Surge Shield: APC SurgeArrest Personal PER7 (7 Outlet) 120V Surge Protector Speakers: Logitech 2 Piece (Black Edition) Amplified Speaker Set Keyboard: - No Thanks Mouse: - No Thanks External Storage: - No Thanks Warranty: 3 Year Platinum Care Extended Parts & Labor Warranty

DST4ME Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List DS ELITE Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 36758	Quote Reply Posted: 08 Oct 2008 at 6:08am
	Midevildle, you can drop the: Windows Boost: Yes, Disable and tweak all of the non-crucial services on the operating system and save your money, I can help you disable the annoyances checkout newegg, you could get a better price for that monitor, surge shield and speakers. drop mccafee its the worst, instead go with ESET Smart Security one the top if not the top anti viruses, it comes with a firewall, its very light, its very quick and its very good, works great with vista 64 bit. worth every dime. It has a free 30 full trial, check it out for 30 day and fall in love with it yourself Edited by DST4ME - 08 Oct 2008 at 6:26am
	Nvidia Drivers----AMD Drivers

Second (3rd, 4th...?) opinions.

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