New possibility!

[Skyler]

I am looking to buy a new PC in the near future, I know specs change fast, but I want to plan a rough price and such so I have something to work towards.

I bought my current machine almost 3 years ago now (its a bit dated), but the time I bought it was a "good" one. I spent a while waiting for the best time tho.

In the end I bought an Athy 600, GF256 DDR, 27gb hdd, cdrw 6x etc...

Anyway, I need a new monster machine to last me another 1-2 years

My rough list is: An athy XP something or other, mobo (no idea what one), 512 ram, gf3/4 price/performance i guess, fast cdrw, and a lian li pc60...

Thats my main priority list....

If I can afford it I'll get a 120gb hdd, audigy, and perhaps a new monitor as well...

But basically what exact stuff can I get for my money ?

You all seem to get l33t prices for things so give me a hand finding some decent things

I dunno what to buy! help me

 

[Embattle]

How much you got to spend?

 

[Wilier]

Would it be better to have 2 hdd's in a stiped raid array, than 1 huge one?

Jus wondering.

 

[Skyler]

Well I'm not sure about what I have to spend, I wanna see what I can get for how much before I figure out that, but itll prolly be about 1k - 1.2k I think.

I dont want a raid array if I can help it, unless its two 120's, I intend to use my existing 60 with the 120 to give me a total of 180.

 

[Summo]

Originally posted by Wilier
Would it be better to have 2 hdd's in a stiped raid array, than 1 huge one?

Jus wondering.

The only fault tolerance you could provide with two identical disks is RAID 1; Disk Mirroring (stiping can only be done with three or more disks), which halves the overall capacity. I suspect Skyler is more interested in capacity, and I imagine one fuck off disk is cheaper than two smaller ones with total capacity equal to the large one.

Blah blah blah.

 

[Embattle]

Erm Striping can be done with two discs but if one of them fooks up you've lost all of your data.

 

[Summo]

Okay, Mister Pedant. Striping with parity can only be done with three or more...

Striping with two offers many drawbacks and no benefits, unless for some reason you need one very large partition.

 

[Embattle]

Originally posted by SomeGuy
Okay, Mister Pedant. Striping with parity can only be done with three or more...

Striping with two offers many drawbacks and no benefits, unless for some reason you need one very large partition.

Wrong.....its faster.

 

[caLLous]

As far as I can tell, we're not really discussing fault tolerance here, just best usage of one or more hard disks. Striping with 2 disks is one helluva lot faster than no RAID array as it sends half the data to one disk and half to the other. As Embattle said, if one dies then you are pretty much stuck up the creek without a paddle. Hell, without a boat, even. I'm not sure if it actually doesn't work without 2 identical disks, but it's obviously highly recommended that you do use identical ones; same speed, capacity, seek times, etc...

 

[xane]

Right, if you use two IBMs the possibility is they'll seize up together and solve your problem that way

 

[Skyler]

Guys how about helping me instead of arguing over raid?

 

[S-Gray]

lol

 

[caLLous]

Hmm, if cost-cutting is the game you want to play, a Lian Li case is not the way to go.

 

[xane]

Well, I'd certainly opt for an Athlon, but TBH if you want to cut costs then go for the model two steps down from the top, the price increases are just not worth it for the extra Mhz otherwise.

The latest and greatest AMD chipset is the VIA KT333, however its just come out and both of VIA's previous AMD chipsets (KT133 and KT266) have been a bit dodgy to start with, eventually they get superceded by an "A" version that rocks, so you may want to stick with the KT266A.

PC2700 333Mhz DDR SDRAM is hitting the UK streets, £78 + VAT for a 256MB Crucial CAS2.5 stick (as opposed to £60 for a PC2100 266Mhz). I also recommend getting 2x 256MB sticks rather than one 512MB, if you get RAM failure its easy to detect and you can run on half-capacity, the costs are not that much different anyway.

Video cards are debateable, but you have to think clearly. The latest models are prohibitibly expensive, and you have to ask yourself if it really is worth it, many high end video cards need a big CPU to drive them. Also consider your monitor (you may be using your old one), its no use getting a video card that does 120 FPS at 1600x1200 when your monitor only runs at 70Hz at the same resolution.

Personally I wouldn't bother with RAID, and therefore don't bother getting a RAID version of the motherboard (might save you £10 or so). Stick with big disks, the 40Gb ones are good prices. I personally think two separate (non-RAID) 40Gb are better than one 80Gb, like the RAM, if you get a failure you can load up on one for a while.

Finally, if you are thinking of keeping your old machine rather than selling it, I would not bother getting a CDRW for the new one. I transferred my CDRW to my secondary machine and it can take all night ripping if need be because I can continue to play and surf on the other one, saves the expense of getting a super-duper fast CDRW that is considered slow again in six months time.

Natch on the Lian-Li case, get a Globalwin 802, best case ever and not expensive at all.

 

[Skyler]

Thanks camazotz... at least you talked some sense and provided what i asked for

I dont totally agree tho.


I am thinking,

xp1900, 512 ram, lian li pc60, 120gb hdd, gf3 ti500 (maybe gf4 price pending), a router of some sort and a better cdrw.

Basically I need a new cdrw because i cant wait 12 mins to burn a cd anymore, i want to burn them faster!

thanks for help again cama

 

[Wilier]

Originally posted by Embattle
Erm Striping can be done with two discs but if one of them fooks up you've lost all of your data.

But if you only have one hayooge disk, and that fooks, youve still lost your data, no?