Couple of questions about RAIDs and CPU coolers

Kodiak

Kodiak

Kodiak

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17 Oct 2002
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Its been a while since I did an upgrade, so I decided to do a moderate upgrade.

From
802 case
Core 2 2.4ghz
8800GTS 320

to
Thermaltake V9 Case
PhenomII 955
AMD HD4870


Now, its all gone together nice and smoothly. And Windows 7 64bit is behaving itself.

But I have 2 questions.

1. The stock CPU cooler is quite noisy and Im looking to replace it at some point. Thing is Im not too sure which CPU cooler to go for. I would love to have one of these coolers with the vertical 120mm fans, but Im not too sure if I have the space for them.
Has anyone got this case with one of these tall coolers (160mm high IIRC)?
Any recommendations?
Looking to spend about (£30-£40)

2. Windows7 is a bit sluggish on loading. I think its due to the HDD i have installed it onto (The new 1.5TB 5400rpm Segate drive). Im wondering what 2 drives would be best for a RAID 0. Also, would this require a fresh install of Win7 or can that be copied over?
 
1./ Pass...
2./ A 5400rpm drive for operating system is indeed likely to make the system feel slow. The ideal at present is an ssd with the operating system on, and a drive very like that seagate for storing data. This is what I recommend, but I'm occasionally told that operating systems won't fit on even 120gb drives so your call. I've got three on my 30gb and it's doing just fine.

If avoiding ssds, the WD black or samsung F1 seem to be the favourites. I'm using the latter. An ssd is quicker than either in raid 0, but not even close to the capacity. I guess I don't need to warn you that raid 0 without backups will end badly.

Windows 7 can be copied over onto a raid, by various means. They're basically all more effort than installing a fresh copy though. Changing the registry settings and installing raid drivers, then imaging the drive, setting up raid and copying the image back is the process. After which there's a reasonably good chance it'll work. Id suggest just installing a new copy. I hope someone else can offer help on which cooler fits in your case
 
As for a cooler, im not 100% sure of AMD so i cant recommend a lot, but a TRUE fits AM i think, so that would be a very good choice.
But i dunno if it fits :)

And for the harddrive RAID 0 will defintely speed it up, but you really need a 7200rpm + drive, i have a standard 600gb 16mb cache western digital and windows 7 runs like a dream.

Windows 7 is only 4gb once stripped of his useless programs, so a very small SSD would do you fine, and you would defintely notice the speed increase.
 
Thanks for the responces.

Ok, I dont think my budget can stretch to an SSD and I may have to lump it with a re-install with Win7. Not something I wanted, since I got Win7 how I wanted it. Working ;)

Looks like I'll have to get out the ruler tonight and see how much head room I have on the case.
 
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