So, sometime around December I'll be getting the components to build a computer to replace the shitty one I currently have, and I need a bit of help with a couple things.

This will be a gaming computer primarily, but will also have to put up with high-end graphics use(Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, Macromedia Flash, AutoCAD, 3DSMax or Maya if I can get and run them, but those are a big "if." High-end movie-editing software is likely, too). There will also be some low-demand use (low-end programming , internet, Microsoft Office, and such)

First off, RAID. Since my data isn't generally important enough to back up (I will use an external HDD or tape drive to back up the few important files), but speed and space are high-priority, I was planning on doing a RAID 0 configuration of 2 or 3 HDDs (7200 RPM IDE, 200GiB if it's 2 drives, 140GiB if it'll be 3 drives, Serial ATA 150 if there's a definite advantage, but most likely PATA). What I'd like to know is:

-Should I not do RAID and just stick with JBOD or a single, large disk?
-Is there any reason to do a software-controlled configuration over a hardware-controlled besides cost?
-If not, suggestions for a good hardware controller?
-Could somebody point me to a tutorial on installing and setting up a RAID 0 configuration?

Secondly, I'm thinking an AMD processor, but is there any reason to go with Intel for my intended uses? I also wanted to know what the difference is between the Athlon 64 cores. I've heard that Winchester cores are the first-generation, and Venice and San Diego are the second-gen and have fixed some problems. Is that about right? Is there any need to go with a higher processor than, say, the Athlon 64 3200+ Venice core?

Third, memory. Do the higher-pin-count chips have a definite advantage over the lower-count chips?

Finally, ATI or NVidia graphics card? Will I see a marked performance increase between 128mb video memory and 256?

Thanks for your help.

I don't know much about computers, but I do know that these guys doo...

For what you are using it for, an Intel CPU will be better unless you get an X2 AMD processor.  You are correct on the Winchester being 1st gen. and Venice/San Diago being 2nd gen.  Although, Winchester was 1st gen. for having the memory controller on the CPU itself, not 1st. gen A64 CPU.  That was the Clawhammer/Newcastle core which are older then the Winny.

For video/sound/image editing, an Intel CPU is better.  For gaming, AMD will rape an Intel.

Video is subjective.  ATI is personally my pick.

AMD X2 4000 or better, enough horsepower for anything,
Nividia SLi chipset motherboard, ASUS A8N-Sli is the best

Dual nvidia 7800gtx(about 600 bucks each) or other nvidia capaple sli cards

WD 10,000 RPM 78 Gig raptors SATA, blazing fast without the cost of SCSI

those pieces are gonna run u about 2000 but your computer will be exceptionally fast

ETA, those video cards should be able to handle anything you can throw at them,
I have a 6800 Ultra and it will run ProE, SOlidworks Maya etc, with a P4 2.4 now large assemblies do slow it down but so does my Pro workstation at work with a fireGL3 dual Xeon

ETA, about the 128 or 256 MB video cards, it depends on which cards your talking about,  for example a 256MB nvidia GF FX 5600 is gonna be a lot slower than say a radeon 9800 pro 128 MB


you can only compare Memory interfaces between cards of the same model line, 5600 128/256 etc

Quoted: K, AMD X2 4000 or better, enough horsepower for anything, Nividia SLi chipset motherboard, ASUS A8N-Sli is the best Dual nvidia 7800gtx(aboutt 600 bucks each) or other nvidia capaple sli cards WD 10,000 RPM 78 Gig raptors SATA, blazing fast without the cost of SCSI those pieces are gonna run u about 2000 but your computer will be exceptionally fast ETA, those video cards shouold be able to handle anything you can throw at them,

$2000 each, or all together? That seems like a lot... and it seems to me like I'd be paying a lot more for the HDDs for less space than I could get with just 7200rpm, high-capacity, and data striping.

no 2000 for all the pieces i just mentioned

buy 2 raptors, they are 186 dollars on newegg, if you need space buy a 50 dollar special (usually 120 gig or so) from bestbuy to compliment it. so now you have 300 gig, with tose raptors you will gain a alot of speed in your computer


HDD are the slowest pieces in a computer, DO NOT SCRIMP on HDD's, plus they wear out

What was your budget looking like, that is also a huge factor, those video card are expensive, so you could buy just 1, or downgrade to a 6800 Ultra, right now about 450 dollars, instead of 1200 for Dual

The ATI Radeon 256 MB XT800's or the XT850's are the shiznit in medium to low cost boards...for now!

By December almost everything here will be outdated and replaced!

I don't buy anything brand new as I try to get the 4-6 month old stuff to save the $$$ and let the bugs get worked out.

You should check out the "Urban Commando's" section here on ARFCOM where there is no shortage of opinions to be given.

BigDozer66

The AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice core and the ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe socket 939 are the building blocks of the one I am putting together now!

BigDozer66

Quoted: What was your budget looking like, that is also a huge factor, those video card are expensive, so you could buy just 1, or downgrade to a 6800 Ultra, right now about 450 dollars, instead of 1200 for Dual

Let's say a max of $2100 but try to keep costs down.

When you say to get 2 Raptors and an additional HDD, are you referring to putting them as a JBOD setup, or as seperate drives? If at all possible, I would like to avoid either of those options, and if I go multi-drive at all, I'd rather use it for a striped RAID.

Is the gain in speed from a Raptor actually worth the additional price ($2.51/GiB for the Raptors, as compared to $0.56/GiB for a Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM, 200GiB, that's almost 1/5 the price) and the loss of space? As in, while playing HL2 or running filters in Photoshop or rendering in AutoCAD, will I gain enough of a benefit to make it worth it?

sae057: when you say that for gaming, an AMD will rape an Intel, but that I should get an Intel, are you saying this keeping in mind that this is primarily a gaming rig?

amd are much better for games, intel for encoding, shuch as in photoshop, but the amd are a better buy in most hard core gamers mind.

i was saying to use the Raptors as a stripe then tack on a another drive for back up, remember with those raptors you have 160 gig, which is more than enough in my opinion.


for 2100 you could build an entire rig including monitor and nice surround sound minus the dual video card setup, but as dozer mentioned christmas is 4 months from now, so these prices will be outdated then and newer stuff will be out including ATI's next gen card

Check out Shuttle computer kits.  I think NewEgg sells them.  

Quoted: Check out Shuttle computer kits.  I think NewEgg sells them.

just built this..

1. Antec Sonata II case
2. Intel d955dx motherboard (look up exact board this is the full size ATX form)
3. ATI 850x Platinum Edition PCI-X vid card with 2 digital connectots
4. 2 gigs Balistix memory (2 sticks.. one meg per).
5. Pentium D 3.2 mghz 840 dual core cpu
6. 2 74 gig 10k rpm SATA western digial raptors

extra .. creative pro audio 4 with external module.
21 inch SONY LCD

I have some other stuuf (have a bucnch of systems). so I move external hardware around. I have  a firewire/USB external drive with 200 or so gigs. I use this to back up various dbs and configs on mulitple systems. I also have extra  firewire/USB external DVD/CDROM burners. So I back up critical stuff on the external drive (I can do a complete ASR recovery in about 45 minutes to a new drive). I have backup of critical data and stuff like pictures on DVDs.

So i don't RAID. I have been in the DP biz for 20+ years. I have been responsible for both PCs and minis and mainframes. I have had very few disk drive failures (I buy name brand stuff). So being able to recover from a disk and DVDs is good enough. I think peoiple are currently a little infatuated with RAID. not that its not great configured right. But for the money I would rather have the total space of all my drives.

I use this system for DB work (SQL server), photoshop, Adobe Premieir, games, music.

Photoshop flies (a good indicator of a workhorse system). Games a almost state of the art in performance (I dont overclock nor use two vid cards (SLI)).

this is a good name brand component system..

Opie: for dual video cards, what about something using the Geforce 6600GT? Will that be sufficient, or would I get better performance with a single higher-end card?