Help Me To Build One Heck Of A System Please

[Virtualbody1234]

Why so much for harddisks?

[adamp2p]

Originally posted by Virtualbody1234@18 March 2004 - 18:55
Why so much for harddisks?

Yeah, what is up with 400 euros for hard drives? Let's say you want a super hardcore performance setup, okay, and you go all out and buy two WD Raptor drive and stick them in a RAID. That would cost you all of $300 euros max.

[james_bond_rulez]

nothing would beat some friends working at the kickass hardware store.......

get it all for only 1 dollar....

[FlyingDutchman]

Originally posted by BigBoo+19 March 2004 - 01:41--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (BigBoo &#064; 19 March 2004 - 01:41)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>€80 for a graphics card? are you mad?[/b]

Originally posted by kaiweiler@19 March 2004 - 02:01
&nbsp; &nbsp;
80 won&#39;t get you a very good card at all
boost that up to 1500 lol

I&#39;m running a 55 Euro card now, and I&#39;m not complaining.
Hardly play any games, apart from some Risk, Warcraft or Catan.

Besides, one of the easiest upgrades when I&#39;m bothered by its performance is the graphics card.

Originally posted by adamp2p@19 March 2004 - 06:55
<!--QuoteBegin-Virtualbody1234

@18 March 2004 - 18:55
Why so much for harddisks?

Yeah, what is up with 400 euros for hard drives? Let&#39;s say you want a super hardcore performance setup, okay, and you go all out and buy two WD Raptor drive and stick them in a RAID. That would cost you all of &#036;300 euros max.

[/quote]

2 internal Sata 160-Gigs, and 2 external 160-Gigs for Ghost images and backups.
External as those disks don&#39;t produce sound or heat when disconnected.

Might change the internals to 1 x 80 Gigs (single platter) for OS + 1 x 160 Gigs for data. Having the swap-file on a USB ram-key might be a good idea too.
Or define a RAM-disk on startup and have the swap-file on that one.
The single platter disk will be more quiet and produce less heat than a 160G disk.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey, I&#39;m trying to have a thread here where I learn from your insights and choices, and others can learn why I chose certain components.
I set out my goals: Silence, Speed(AMD64), Capacity, Dependability; now I have to find out how to fill in that picture.

I want to be able to look back in 2 years, and say "It wasn&#39;t a stupid move to build that rig."
In 2 years time any new PC will be more powerfull than this one. It has been like this for the last 20 years. What remained more or less constant: A new PC would cost you about 1500 euro, or &#036; 1500. Everything else has multiplied over the years: Speed, Capacity, computing power.

[Virtualbody1234]

Well, I wouldn&#39;t build with 64 bit yet.

Having the swap-file on a USB ram-key might be a good idea too.
Or define a RAM-disk on startup and have the swap-file on that one.

Why not add more RAM and do away with the swapfile?

[FlyingDutchman]

Originally posted by Virtualbody1234@19 March 2004 - 11:39
Well, I wouldn&#39;t build with 64 bit yet.

Having the swap-file on a USB ram-key might be a good idea too.
Or define a RAM-disk on startup and have the swap-file on that one.

Why not add more RAM and do away with the swapfile?

Doesn&#39;t Windows insist on having a swapfile?

I know you can define it on having a fixed size, and you can set to size to zero.
Setting the size to zero would probably disable the swapfile mechanism.


What happens when you do?
Performance wise?
more frequent lockups?


Well the AMD64 is the reason for the whole excersice.
I have a decent rig now (AMD2400+/512MB RAM/1x120G + 1x 160G)
It just that I would love to build around the AMD64. A bit of &#39;geekness&#39;.

I think you&#39;re right, when money is tight another should go for a Barton.

[JunkBarMan]

I just want to say for the record that I like your way of thinking FlyingDutchman. You have a badass system and your still making another one. Just one question, what does your wife/girlfriend think of this whole spendature? or are you just a youngin?

[FlyingDutchman]

Originally posted by JunkBarMan@20 March 2004 - 01:00
I just want to say for the record that I like your way of thinking FlyingDutchman. You have a badass system and your still making another one. Just one question, what does your wife/girlfriend think of this whole spendature? or are you just a youngin?&nbsp;

The wife?

You don&#39;t think she asks my opinion on what I think of her buying clothes, shoes and stuff huh



No, It&#39;s so much easier to select & buy when you have time to wait. And I don&#39;t want to do without a PC like Funky C. had to do.
Besides, when the new rig is finished, the current one will still be easy to sell, and it can earn it&#39;s living in the meantime by "folding some more proteins" untill it&#39;s sold. I really need to kick Lamsey&#39;s *ss.
Some spend their money and time on cars or sports. I spend it on PCs.


And no, not a youngster anymore. 50+

[FlyingDutchman]

The story continues.

I decided to go for socket 754, based on prices and availability of parts.
Based on the reviews I choose the MSI K8T Neo FIS2R board
As any CPU is being degraded by new and faster CPU&#39;s in the coming months I&#39;ll buy the AMD64 3000+, and it will be cooled by the Zalman 7000A (the soupbowl)

Prices in Euro

        Estimated   +/-   Price paid
        ---------  -----  ---------- 
Case        65     0      65  3R Systems Design R101
PSU        60     0      60  AO350-12APNF
RAM        120    94      214  2 x 512 MB Corsair PC4000 TwinX
Board       140    - 4      136  MSI K8T Neo FIS2R (socket 754)
harddisks     440
DVD writer    130
Graphics card   80    67      147  MSI FX5200 (128MB) 
CPU        200
CPUcooler          43      43  Zalman CNPS 7000 A-CU 
Floppy drive
         ------ +  ----- +   ------- +
          1235    200      665

The RAM was more expensive than estimated as I doubled the amount to 1 Gig.
It still might be that the website carried the wrong price as this is very fast and
expensive memory usually. We&#39;ll have to wait and see if the shop will send me the RAM for this price.

The graphics card is a model with a TV-tuner included, and it is passively cooled.

The Zalman cooler will have the fan removed, and be ducted to the 120mm case fan.
I have to guess here, but I think that fan can provide enough cooling when running @ 6 volts.

[DWk]

You shoulda got a better vid card with that rig