Sennadar Forums

So, given all the advice I've received, critique my choices:

--Intel i5 CPU around 3GHz with suitable MB that has decent cache. Must be 64 bit. (brand name suggestions welcomed)
--NVidia GForce 660 video card (someone suggest optimum onboard RAM that won't make the card cost more than the rest of the box)
--7200RPM 1TB hard drive (sorry, the fail rate on SSDs makes me pass on these til they're more reliable)
--16GB of RAM (NO compromise here)
--DVD combo writer and secondary read-only DVD drive
--I intend to utilize MB onboard sound, which is usually just as good as a sound card, unless someone can prove this is a bad idea.

That look good? Any other suggestions for possible peripherals I forgot?

First question would be what are you intending to use it for and PC or Laptop? Amount of RAM would suggest PC

Next thought would be to get two hard disks, one smaller quick one for OS and programs and large slow one for data storage

What's your backup strategy? Additional HD onboard, external HD, cloud, what? Seriously don't want to hear about losing all your story files due to HD failure. Something to look into, yes? You are archiving your finished stories to CD or some such, yes?

I would suggest either burning dvd/blu-ray for back up or what I do is use an external hard drive enclosure and throw a regular HDD in it and only turn it on when I need it. Nice thing is these are eSATA connections and FAST!!!

I personally have used the first one for over 4 years.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817173042

One of my co workers has this one, you can shuffle hard drives in and out of it like cards. Just drop a drive in plugs down and bada boom bada bing.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817153112

my advice ? get an BluRay writer if you can afford it. and replace the second dvd reader with a writer if the price difference isnt too great.

what is your budget ?

here is a part suggestion from me :
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/gnume/saved/2cfy

For mechanical drives, a reasonable backup solution is to just buy 2 drives and use them in raid 1 (and a mbo that supports raid1, as a software raid is more likely to die in a crash.

this a) increases read speed, b) provides good protection against single disk failure.
I would still suggest a secondary backup do an external drive, but that can be done on a casual basis without as much pressure to not-loose data on a disk failure.

Fel wrote:So, given all the advice I've received, critique my choices:
--DVD combo writer and secondary read-only DVD drive

Just curious why you'd want two drives when one will do everything? I know it's a small cost, but still?

I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with gnume's parts picker suggestion list as the parts look overspec with the overclockable CPU & MB. Dropping in this MB: ASRock Fatal1ty H87, this CPU: Item Core i5-4430 and this GFX card: Asus GTX660 Ti 2GB (Model: TI-DC2O-2GD5), drop the price a fair bit, with nothing lost (that Fel wants).

On and one last thing for everyone, repeat with me, RAID is not a backup (although I will admit to using RAID 1 for speed/redundancy in addition to backups).
http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3rsnut/

Greymist wrote:

Fel wrote:So, given all the advice I've received, critique my choices:
--DVD combo writer and secondary read-only DVD drive

Just curious why you'd want two drives when one will do everything? I know it's a small cost, but still?

I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with gnume's parts picker suggestion list as the parts look overspec with the overclockable CPU & MB. Dropping in this MB: ASRock Fatal1ty H87, this CPU: Item Core i5-4430 and this GFX card: Asus GTX660 Ti 2GB (Model: TI-DC2O-2GD5), drop the price a fair bit, with nothing lost (that Fel wants).

On and one last thing for everyone, repeat with me, RAID is not a backup (although I will admit to using RAID 1 for speed/redundancy in addition to backups).
http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3rsnut/

ya i gone over board a bit.
but i need batter requirements to work from !

and here is graymists suggestion laid up : http://pcpartpicker.com/user/gnume/saved/2cjG

here the two suggestions :
mine :

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($199.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 OC Formula EATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($264.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Gaming Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($110.50 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($85.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 660 Ti 3GB Video Card ($224.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Phantom (White) ATX Full Tower Case ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($64.98 @ Outlet PC)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($124.00 @ Amazon)
Total: $1265.41
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-08-18 15:03 EDT-0400)

and Greymist's modification of it :

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4430 3.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($174.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock H87 Performance ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($112.86 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Gaming Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($110.50 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($85.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB Video Card ($216.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: NZXT Phantom (White) ATX Full Tower Case ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($64.98 @ Outlet PC)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($124.00 @ Amazon)
Total: $1035.27
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-08-18 15:04 EDT-0400)

and to Greymist :

Greymist wrote:

Fel wrote:So, given all the advice I've received, critique my choices:
--DVD combo writer and secondary read-only DVD drive

Just curious why you'd want two drives when one will do everything? I know it's a small cost, but still?

it is used when you are doing dvd copy operation (dvd backup renewal) or if there is a long process burn and you want to paly a game or watch a dvd in the same time

Greymist wrote: Just curious why you'd want two drives when one will do everything? I know it's a small cost, but still?

I have six hard drives in my main/gaming system a Blu-ray and a DVD burner.

1) WD Velociraptor 10k rpm 500GB , Winders 7
2) SanDisc 240 SSD , Winders cache / swap
3) Hitachi 7200rpm 3TB , My Documents
4) Hitachi 7200rpm 2TB , Videos (DVD / Blu-ray rips and mp4/mv4 videos)
5) WD Caviar Black 1TB , Install files (ISO's, Game downloads, & Drivers (I still have some install files for an old 32mb Creative Labs video card with nVidia Riva TNT chip set from 2001))
6) WD Caviar Black 1TB , ePub backup and pron (nuff said)

If something goes wrong with one of those drives, I will not loose everything. I had that problem back in the nineties when using fdisk. I deleted the wrong partition/drive once too often. So... ever since then I REALLY believe in separating everything. Especially the OS. If the OS craps out, too many times I have had to reformat the whole partition/drive.

Yes, I know that using the 240SSD as a cache drive is a bit excessive. But, I had used it for my OS drive for about nine months until I realized that it was too small (when a game installs tells you not enough room, its too small). I really wish that I could install tell windows install to place the Program Files & Program Files (x86) on a separate drive. Then I could still use the 240 for the OS and maybe get another 240 for the 'Program Files'. ( /me drools over that thought, OS running on two 400+ Mb/s drives ) Anyone have any ideas if winders7 install can do that?

As for motherboards, I really like ASUS boards. I have used ASUS since the turn of the century and they have always been good quality for me. (turn of the century... that makes me feel kind of old. )

Fawks wrote:

Greymist wrote: Just curious why you'd want two drives when one will do everything? I know it's a small cost, but still?

I have six hard drives in my main/gaming system a Blu-ray and a DVD burner.
...

I was specifically referring to to the two optical media drives.

did you read my comment above ?