Building a computer? Need advice/suggestions? Come here!

[Cortexian]

And I'll drop this in here for the sake of adding more knowledge and experience to this thread:

So I've been running a RAID-0 that most of you know of for my OS/Programs drive. In addition to that I used to be running two separate RAID-1 (mirror) arrays using a total of four WD Caviar Black 1TB drives. That gave me a total storage space of 2TB because that's how two arrays with two HDD's in each array mirroring each other works.

I recently filled that 2TB of space and needed more, so instead of running out and spending money on more HDD's I just distributed the 2TB to other computers I have access to and combined the two RAID-1's into a single RAID-5. This gives me 3TB of storage and I still have data protection if one of the drives fails for some reason.

Read statistics:


I can't get write statistics because HD Tune only allows you to do a write benchmark when there are no partitions setup on the drive in question. I was eager to get my data back onto this new RAID-5 so I never performed the write test. However I can tell you this, a software RAID-5 is not the way to go. I only get about 13MB/s sustained write speeds for large file transfers, it bursts at around 110MB/s to start with but decreases to 13MB/s within 30 seconds.

In the future I won't both running RAID-5 or RAID-6 on a software RAID solution. There's a reason actual hardware RAID cards cost upwards of $200 when the support RAID-5 and RAID-6, they have their own processor to handle all the data striping and parity calculations. As a matter of fact I'm looking into setting up a 12TB RAID-6 using eight 2TB WD Caviar Black drives in the future here. I'm going to build a cheap system and then put in a quality hardware RAID card for the eight drives.

[Amit]

Might as well just invest in dedicated server, then.

[Warsaw]

I have three quad-CPU Pentium III servers for this kind of shit...

[Cortexian]

Haha yeah... When I originally built this rig though I planned for everything to be internal. This was because I wanted to be able to take everything with me to LAN parties and such. However I failed to realize that HD video really adds up in the storage department.

I just realized that I may be able to save some money by getting a PCI RAID card for the 12TB RAID-6 I mentioned in my second last post. Then I can use my Pentium 4 system that I have lying around instead of spending an extra $750 on a new system just for that.

[Cortexian]

Wait no, the above is silly. I'm going to wait to buy the good RAID card and 8 2TB hard drives until after I build my water cooled system early next year with Ivy Bridge! Then I can convert my current system into the file server as well as a practically-everything-else-home-server-related server! Genius! Can also sell off one of my GTX 285's if it's just going to be a home server, will help cover some of these costs:

Water cooling components I'm thinking of grabbing from Frozen CPU when the time comes:

• 3 x 2.5 Meter (8 feet) Feser Tube Active UV Hose - Retail Packed - 1/2" ID (3/4"OD) Anti-Kink Tubing - UV Acid Green
• Black Ice GTX Xtreme 480 Radiator - Black
  
  • 2 x 1/2 x 3/4 Compression Fittings-Black
  
  
• Black Ice GTX Xtreme 240 Radiator - Black
  
  • 2 x 1/2 x 3/4 Compression Fittings-Black
  
  
• Swiftech MCB-120 Revision 2 "Radbox"
• 12 x Scythe Gentle Typhoon 120mm x 25mm Fan - 1850 RPM
• EK Supreme HF Universal CPU Liquid Cooling Block - Rev 2 - Acetal
  
  • 2 x 1/2 x 3/4 Compression Fittings-Black
  
  
• 2 x EK GeForce 590 GTX VGA Liquid Cooling Block - Nickel
• EK FC Bridge Dual Parallel - SLI Connection
  
  • 2 x EK FC Link GeForce
  • 2 x 1/2 x 3/4 Compression Fittings-Black
  
  
• Koolance 4-Fan Radiator Shroud - Black
• Swiftech MCP355 12 VDC Pump

Total: $1,158.56
(I'm probably missing a few things like extra fittings/barbs but I'll figure all that out closer to the build)

And then I guess I'll order the XSPC Dual 5.25" Bay Reservoir for Single Laing DDC from performance-pcs.com since they don't seem to have them at Frozen CPU (only the dual/split res version).

Obviously if the CPU/GPU plan changes when I'm ready to build the blocks will change as well. But the rest of the water cooling components will likely stay the same.

[Pooky]

Dear Modacity:

I'm looking for a new dual core CPU to put in this PC in order to speed up gamecube emulation (I miss Metroid Prime since I sold my wii ) but I only want to spend about 100 dollars. I found this one here, and it seems like exactly what I want. Thoughts, advice?

I've got a 600 watt power supply with nothing overclocked, and I don't plan to do any overclocking. Is that enough? I'm kind of a newb at this stuff.

[Cortexian]

As long as your motherboard supports it and it's better than what you have I don't see any issues with that CPU.

[Pooky]

It's the same socket AM2+ as the other one, so it should work, right? Also, is there anything I'd need to do when installing it other than plug it in? Like, any software?

[Cortexian]

The CPU you linked to is socket AM3.

[Warsaw]

Socket AM3 CPUs can work in an AM2+ socket (with slower HT speeds), but the reverse is not true. AM3 has one less pin. Just check your motherboard to make sure it supports AM3 CPUs.