Speaking of RAID, I was considering going in for a RAID 1 setup myself but felt it would just mean buying more hardware and bumping up the price. Would you recommend going in for RAID? And what would be your reasons for or against it?
I had a crude RAID 0 setup made up of 2 drives with 2 other drives as backup and storage – it was a half hearted effort really I should have really setup RAID 5 or ghosted the RAID 0 set up…
RAID 1 is, obviously, one of the safest options but if you can stretch the budget RAID 5 is a nice compromise for both speed and safety – trouble is you need a minimum of 3 drives for this and so becomes expensive – but it’s always something you could do at a later date when you’re comfortable with your new rig.
I can’t really think of anything against using RAID 1 other than financial constraints. It’s added security for your DATA plus if one drive dies – you'e up and running again within a few minutes.
Good luck with the SSD, that's going to be ripper
Hehe, if I hadn’t already noticed you were antipodean from your location tag – the ‘ripper’ euphemism would have given it away for sure.
Is there anyone at all you know of who's got a large size SSD? I read somewhere that those things are super fast to begin with but as they fill up they do become slower - slower infact compared to standard spindle based HDDs actually!
No I don’t and, your right, this seems to be the case – especially as frequent defragging is not advised. That coupled with the price is why most ppl are opting for the 30gig vertex – as it has software which can apparently restructure the drive to run at optimal speed again – something along those lines anyway. Some ppl on these forums have 3 or more set up in RAID0/5 and are having great results/fun.
The monitor indeed seems really really good, numerous input sources and great picture quality. I'd go for it too if it wasn't for its killer price tag (nearly 3 times the cost of the one I'm intending to buy - Viewsonic VX2433WM).
Yes, I want one but I’m going to content myself with either the DELL utrasharp 22” or the DELL 24” TN panel as I’ve seen it in the flesh and it’s a great panel for the money. (I buy DELL as their pixel/returns policy takes the hassle out of buying a TFT.) Having said that, I’m typing this up through my aging but very capable Viewsonic while working on my other screen.
I haven’t read any reviews of Viewsonic VX2433WM – but I’ve just googled the spec. It reads like a gaming panel (2ms response) is that what you’ll be primarily using it for?
Yes the G19 is kind of overkill. I'd concur with you regarding the diNovo Edge, although I chose the Illuminated Keyboard for simplicity lol.
If you mean this one –
link – this is the other one I tried to persuade him to get as it would be in keeping with the clean lines of the rest of his build – but my tastes shouldn’t really take over his build (although I insisted on the Silverstone Fortress.)
As for the sound setup, I'm choosing to go with Logitech X-540. Read around a bit and turns out they are a pretty decent set of speakers. What do you think?
Sound is very subjective and is very dependent on your room and system setup. But, you can get too caught up in that malarkey – and if you have the room to set up the 5.1 speakers correctly - i.e. and not stacked on top of each other - then the Logitech X-540 are great quality for the price – and will serve you well for all round entertainment usage.
Personally, I wouldn't bother with a sound card either really. The integrated sound chips are pretty decent now a days. Also a proper deck is all you need to get serious sound. Oh and rip your music at high bitrates
I too use the onboard as I find them adequate for my needs – they’ve come a long way and do the job.
Haha, I have a long way to go till I have kids, but, would I be right in drawing up an analogy along the lines of: kids = upgrades just about every single day?
Your analogy may be proved right in a few years time – although they won’t be touching my systems. At the moment they absorb money through – clothes, toys, nappies, furniture, decorating – redecorating that which you just decorated because they’ve trashed it again – I could go on…
hope it helps..
Thing is intending to use the 500GB to dual boot Windows 7 and OSX 10.5 and have all the installed apps on it. The first 1TB is dedicated for the VMs (which would be work and uni related) and the second 1TB is for storing all my music, movies, games, softwares etc.
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