[ril]

So, first I am going to upgrade my hard drive. My question is what would you all upgrade next? I don’t overclock anything and just have the cooling from the case and factory fans. Thanks for any replies.


CASE - THERMALTAKE Tsunami Dream

MB - ASUS A8N-SLI Premium NF4SLI 939

PS - ANTEC TR-550

CPU - AMD 64 |4400+ ATHLON X2 939P

MEM - 1Gx2|CORSAIR

MNTR - View Sonic VG920 19" 8MS LCD

HD - An old dell 7200rpm.... going to be upgrading to a 10,000rpm seagate

Speakers - Altec Lansing 5.1

SC - X-fi Xtremegamer

VC - ATI X1900 512MB

[peterhuang913]

10k drives are LOUD, why should you upgrade anything else?

[Vaanish]

Originally Posted by ril

HD - An old dell 7200rpm.... going to be upgrading to a 10,000rpm seagate

seagate dont make 10K RPm drives (except SCSI) and if you are planning to get an SCSI drive, why?

[b1gapl]

Don't get a 10k rpm hard drive. Just RAID 0 two Seagate 7200.10 320GBs. Cheaper than a 10k, and more space than a 10k.

[psp_crazy1]

they aren't that loud.... everyone thinks just because you can hear a little fan running its screaming loud... i should record what my rig sounds like, its as bad as my neighbors ford explorer (V8...) turning on, it's like an airport across my street... i heard them before, just as bad as some old ide drive... noise doesnt bother me though...

[ril]

Originally Posted by peterhuang913

10k drives are LOUD, why should you upgrade anything else?

Well I wanted feed back on the hard drive upgrade, and while at it I thought i would see what the experts (you guys) thought about the rest of the system?
Like what’s the weakest link so I can start looking in to a upgrade.

Originally Posted by Vaanish

seagate dont make 10K RPm drives (except SCSI) and if you are planning to get an SCSI drive, why?

Good to know, thanks. I don't even know what SCSI is lol.

Originally Posted by b1gapl

Don't get a 10k rpm hard drive. Just RAID 0 two Seagate 7200.10 320GBs. Cheaper than a 10k, and more space than a 10k.

Well I want better performance and never made a RAID system so thought it would be easier just to get a faster HD ie. 10k rpm. Is it easy? I did build this computer so I have a bit of experience and I have done a bit of overclocking, so i know my way around BIOS a little too. All I would need is the two HS's and don't you need a RAID card or controller or something? How much extra heat am I looking at with a RAID system? is that even something I should be worried about?


Thanks guys!

[b1gapl]

Originally Posted by ril

Good to know, thanks. I don't even know what SCSI is lol.

I'm not sure on this. But SCSI is a different type of interface, used with hard drives. They go from 10k-15k rpms. But you don't need this, because SCSI are really expensive, and is unnecessary.

Well I want better performance and never made a RAID system so thought it would be easier just to get a faster HD ie. 10k rpm. Is it easy? I did build this computer so I have a bit of experience and I have done a bit of overclocking, so i know my way around BIOS a little too. All I would need is the two HS's and don't you need a RAID card or controller or something? How much extra heat am I looking at with a RAID system? is that even something I should be worried about?


Thanks guys!

I'm going to try to explain this as best as I can, but I'm not a RAID expert. So saltynay....feel free to correct me.

From what I understand, you would only need a RAID card, if your motherboard doesn't have a RAID controller onboard. Or if you motherboard doesn't support the RAID feature. Setting up RAID is not hard to do. For RAID 0, it's best that you get two HDDs, of the same exact model and capacity. I don't think it's too much to worry about the heat, compared to running two graphic cards in SLI.

To setup RAID is something like this(again....Saltynay...feel free to correct me):
- You install your hard drives, that you plan to use in the RAID array.

- Go into the BIOS, and enable the RAID option. Save changes.

- Then reboot and press F10(for my setup anyway)? To go to the RAID menu setup.

- Select the HDDs you want to use in array, and select the type of RAID. Most popular one would be RAID 0 or 1.

- Then after you're done, I think you reboot, insert Windows CD, and wait for blue screen, with a prompt on the bottom saying to press F6 in order to install RAID drivers. Then just follow the instructions.

After that, the Windows installation should continue as usual. And I guess you're set.

P.S. - I think the RAID drivers are made beforehand. You should read your motherboard manual on how to make a RAID driver disk. I think it varies with different motherboards.

[ril]

Originally Posted by b1gapl

You should read your motherboard manual on how to make a RAID driver disk.

Haha! I never think of this. So if anyone stumbles on to this I want to ask, If I do what you recommend, then I should be able to have two new HD's RAID-0, with windows vista 64bit, while still running my old HD with XP and 32bit and all my old crap on it? Nothing on my old HD could effect performance of the new HD's right? or spam or spyware, or viruses? They would be completely independent right?

Originally Posted by b1gapl

Don't get a 10k rpm hard drive. Just RAID 0 two Seagate 7200.10 320GBs. Cheaper than a 10k, and more space than a 10k.

Any one you could recommend? I have money for a good one...


Is RAID really that good? If I were not to get RAID and I don't think I want a 10k anymore, what would be the best single HD out there? Looking more for speed then size, but atleast a 120GB.

[lancec2c30]

the hard drive would be first.

Then after that it is gonna cost some big $$$

new motherboard, new cpu, and new memory.

[Poizen22]

mine arent that loud and they only helps in older games like cs:s where the hard drive cant upload data as fast as the video card