Soooo im looking to buy a new machine within a month or 2

[Crixx_Creww]

oh come on

there is no real choice besides raptor for 10k rpm so drop that issue one time

still doh... 500 gig drive raid 0. its not impossible for both to fail
and backing up 500 gigs is a ludacrisly daunting task

i am in much greater favour for a raid 5 with smaller drives

[Netizen1]

still doh... 500 gig drive raid 0. its not impossible for both to fail
and backing up 500 gigs is a ludacrisly daunting task

i am in much greater favour for a raid 5 with smaller drives

well, that's why I suggested raid 1 (mirroring)

You'd have to be real bad lucky to have your both drives in a mirror set, go bad

[Saxito Pau]

Just elaborating a bit more on the 500GB hard drive scenario, I was thinking the 500GB be used intermittently for occasional backups. Hence why I'm optiing for e-sata. E-sata runs nearly as fast as standard sata and leaves USB/Firewire in the dust for data transfer speeds.

In fact, I intend to buy an E-sata/USB HD enclosure soon and then stick in a 500GB Seagate Barracuda drive in there. Drive only turns on when I want to backup, say once-a-week incremental of differential backup with a full backup each month. Less risk of failure due to less usage, but not impossible.

Voyd's setup would be best of one is paranoid about a large drive failing, but who wants to bear the cost of running two 500GB hard drives in RAID 1? Just for data? Bar LEVEL videos...

Shizz, exactly what storage plan ARE you going wtih?

[Prowl]

Until hdvd or bluray drops in price and decent esata tape drives appear, 2x320 drives in raid 1 is a very viable storage solution. Plus I know many people who simply pull out full drives and store them!

500 gig drives atm are not worth the price since they are 2x the cost of a 320!

now there are alot of other things for him to think about to!

[TriniXaeno]

I am liking Saxman's PC configuration.

For the Hard Drives, I'll have to agree with prowl though.

Two 320s internal and another two external for backup.

That is about a terrabyte of usable space and at a damn good cost per megabyte.

Wouldn't bother with the raptors.

[Saxito Pau]

Until hdvd or bluray drops in price and decent esata tape drives appear, 2x320 drives in raid 1 is a very viable storage solution. Plus I know many people who simply pull out full drives and store them!

500 gig drives atm are not worth the price since they are 2x the cost of a 320!

now there are alot of other things for him to think about to!

I'll have to look into that pricing on the 320GB vs 500GB. Post prices as well, Prowl, just to compare notes. Strictly SATA-II we going for here.

I'v seen a Seagate 500GB OEM for as low as US$190 and with a 5-year manufacturer warranty. Once I know customs ent go slap Vat/Duty on it, I'm importing forthwith

[TriniXaeno]

500GB OEM for $190 (38 cents per gigabyte)

320GB = $85-90 (26 - 28 cents per gigabyte)

That menas the 500GB drive is about 35% - 46% more expensive per gigabyte.

Hence the recommendation to throw the $$ behind 320GB drives instead.

Although not in contention, I just wanted to highlight another benefit of having two external 320s. One could be used for offsite backup. Left in a safe place by your mother's house or so. (in case your own house should burn down, with all your PC, CDs, DVDs and shizznit)

[W1nTry]

As I recently posted on the AMD chipset for Core 2 Duo and Core... it may be worth a mention that the DFI AMD X580 mobo could be an option for his new machine as well. If he's looking to go Crossfire as opposed to SLI that is... its a decent chipset (not as good as the 620 persay) but Overclocking wise is better (truly independent memory overclocking) and it could be a cheaper alternative. Its at least better than the 965 and would prolly end up cheaper than the 975 AND 620... just a thought. *W1nTry looks around for Crixxx to jump in at a moments notice and ramble some usual rubbish about it not being and option because the sky is blue and water in the gulf of paria is clean to drink*

[Prowl]

There are alot of options for MOBO's now, 975 while not cutting edge has proven maturity but commands a primium price for it. I would only stay away from amd's chip set due to it's newbie  the sceen unproven status. Nvidia chipsets have always been iffy for intel, good performance but alot of weird quirks. Alot now has to do with true purpose of the machine!

My choice in 975 was good performance but stability and linux compatability first and formost, my machine is mostly a video rendering/photo editing workstation with 1680x1050 rez gaming with all eye candy on. If his uses are lighter then less cpu would do and less need for a stable MOBO.

If stability is key, trust me nothing to date touches 975 for intel ( and BTW sli works on 975 as well as xfire WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ).

Now back to the HD thing! 2x 320's in raid 1 and your set!

Which reminds me I need to order a few more 320 drives for raid 5

[Netizen1]

500GB OEM for $190 (38 cents per gigabyte)

320GB = $85-90 (26 - 28 cents per gigabyte)

That means the 500GB drive is about 35% - 46% more expensive per gigabyte.

Hence the recommendation to throw the $$ behind 320GB drives instead.

If you looked at the link I posted, the 500GB is now $170 (with a $30 discount = $140)
using Baego's calculations, that places the price per GB about the same as the 320GB (28 cents per gigabyte)

[Prowl]

Drive prices vary all the time but never count rebates that you can't collect from here into prices. Later this year the 400 or 500 gig drives may fall into the $100us range  as the 320 did over the 200's over the 160's over the 80's etc.

Currently segate 500's run for $179 online before rebates, 320's are ~$90 , 320's still win cost per gig.

[SHiZZ]

I was looking at a couple 320 gigs and yes thinking of doing raid options (hope I saying the right thing) for better performance. I know I am doing nothing less than 2 gigs (ram) as for the other things Im still reading and appreciating the options being thrown out.

[Netizen1]

Drive prices vary all the time but never count rebates that you can't collect from here into prices. Later this year the 400 or 500 gig drives may fall into the $100us range  as the 320 did over the 200's over the 160's over the 80's etc.

Currently segate 500's run for $179 online before rebates, 320's are ~$90 , 320's still win cost per gig.

I said a $30 discount, not rebate... go to the site and read it for yourself (and it's still $170 b4 discount)

[W1nTry]

Just thought this might be helpful:

Geforce 8800 GTS 320MB on sale down under

Listed for Aussie $500

By Fuad Abazovic: Thursday 08 February 2007, 10:06
Click here to find out more!
READERS DOWN UNDER can already buy Nvidian 8800 GTS 320 MB graphics cards.

It seem you cannot stop the leakage prior to the launch of this card. In fact the Geforce 8800 GTS 320 MB is currently all over the web but we expect Nvidia to try to force all these links down.

The specification doesn’t say that much, just GeForce 8800GTS 320MB Dual DVI HDTV SLI PCI Express which is as basic as it can be. The Aussie card is listed for $499 Australian and that converts to $389 American. We learned before that graphic cards and other hardware ends up more expensive down under so this is the normal price for Australia.

Americans will enjoy this card for $300 American as of next week when Nvidia launches it.

So you will have this to ur options as of next week.

[krazykieous]

Shizzz my setup cost, after taxes $9000 TT not including the 21" monitor.

the what will be the shipping fees , cause the government is considring to put taxes on computer parts