Check out my first computer rig in 12 years, thoughts?

From what I've read, SSD have about the same failure rate as hard drives. http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/french_retailer_data_offers_ssd_failure_rates/

SSD will feel much snappier than any spinning drives. HDD in RAID 0 will have throughput that's comparable to an SSD, but the main advantage of an SSD (even cheap ones) is it's random seek time. Spinning hard drives has random seek time 5-10ms while SSD has seek times in the order of 0.1ms. Everything just feels smoother and quicker. The lack of noise is a plus as well. I moved from a Samsung F3 (a very good HDD) to a gskill 60gb SSD and I will never look back. I initially started with 2 60gb ssd in RAID0, but I really couldn't tell a difference in day to day use between RAID0 and non-RAID SSD. The transfer rate is incredible at >400MB/s, but I don't think the addition risk of RAID0 is worth it. Since data is striped acrossed multiple discs in RAID 0, if one of the disc fail, you lose all of the data.

For a $3000 computer to not have a SSD is just crazy IMO. An 120gb SSD to hold your OS and often used program along with automated disc image backup to a spinning drive would be my setup of choice.

I think you could've done better with the memory and power supply selection. That memory is really expensive for 4gb. You can get the Gskill Ripjaws 8gb kit that runs at lower voltage and have better timing for the same amount of money after coupon code 'DM15A0111US'. You could've gotten a Corsair 850AX for less money. PP&C makes solid powersupplies (even after being bought out by OCZ), but the Corsair AX series is just a newer design that's quieter and more efficient. I've heard great things about Corsair's customer service as well.

 

1155 boards and their BIOS/UEFI are an adventure right now. Lots of people are having compatibility problems and lots are having problems with the Marvell controllers and SSD drives on these mobos. I bought a i7 2600k CPU and am still trying to decide what mobo to buy with all the problems I'm seeing. Gigabytes are still using the "old school" BIOS. That motherboard is a ripoff aimed at overclockers that don't need it, btw. You can save about $50 (+ tax) on that CPU by buying it at MicroCenter and can save a bit more if you don't plan on overlocking by buying a non-K version of the chip. You can also get that HAF case for about $20 cheaper at least.

 

solid state drive, my best recommendation

 

Most people are staying away from Marvell from what I've been reading. I can't comment since I'm still looking and don't have first-hand experience. :grin: On-board RAID has always scared me as it is.

The P67 boards will allow you to overclock. If you bought an i7 2600K, then you should buy a P67 board. The K chips are "overclockable" and in order to overlock them as far as possible, you will need the P67. If you don't want to overclock, the H67 and an i7 2600 (non-K) is a better and cheaper combination. Also, the P67 does not support the CPU's on-board graphics, whereas the H67 does. But if you're using a high-end video card, you won't care.

BTW, Z68 boards which should be out in a few months (2-4?) will somewhat be the best of P67's and H67's combined.

 

I'm not sure about using any compatibility modes being a problem. There are people I've read who had problems with their machines that seemed to go away when they just blew everything away and did a clean install instead of bringing over their old OS installation and attempting to "upgrade".

The Gigabyte boards seem to have presented fewer problems than the Asus and MSI P67 boards, but Asrock boards seem to be the ones that have caused the least problems.

 

THIS.
I've had his exact setup. Two 10k raptors. Just got me an OCZ SSD and it is noticeable faster. Love it.

 

You could, but an easier way I found would be to back up the entire disc image.

Windows 7 has a built-in 'back up and restore' program. You can set it to create an image of your disc/partition weekly and save it on another drive. So in this case, you can have a automated weekly backup of your OS/SSD drive and save the image on another hard drive. Then if the OS/SSD partition ever crashes, you can reboot with your OS DVD and image the backup data onto the replacement drive. Then the computer will be exactly as when you created the backup.

I find this way to be easier than finding all the important files and back them up one by one.

Of course this also works if you have two HDD and want to back up one to the other one.

 

good stuff, i'm glad you bought a 6870.

 

Nice system! Get that thing built and run some benchmarks. Let's battle

 

I believe your mobo is triple channel, not dual. You'd be better off getting 3x2gigs of Ram for 6 gigs total if so.

 

1. Assuming a 64-bit OS, I would upgrade to 6GB of RAM or more.
2. Get a solid state drive to run your OS.

Sick rig overall, though.