buildin a com for first time need input and amd or intel??

[PostCode]

Redundant Array of Independent Disks

RAID provides a method of accessing multiple individual disks as if the array were one larger disk, spreading data access out over these multiple disks, thereby reducing the risk of losing all data if one drive fails, and improving access time.


RAID 0: Also known as "Disk Striping", this is technically not a RAID level since it provides no fault tolerance. Data is written in blocks across multiple drives, so one drive can be writing or reading a block while the next is seeking the next block.

The advantages of striping are the higher access rate, and full utilization of the array capacity. The disadvantage is there is no fault tolerance - if one drive fails, the entire contents of the array become inaccessible.

RAID 1: Known as "Disk Mirroring" provides redundancy by writing twice - once to each drive. If one drive fails, the other contains an exact duplicate of the data and the RAID can switch to using the mirror drive with no lapse in user accessibility. The disadvantages of mirroring are no improvement in data access speed, and higher cost, since twice the number of drives is required. However, it provides the best protection of data since the array management software will simply direct all application requests to the surviving disk members when a member of disk fails.

RAID 3: RAID level 3 stripes data across multiple drives, with an additional drive dedicated to parity, for error correction/recovery.

RAID 5: RAID level 5 is the most popular configuration, providing striping as well as parity for error recovery. In RAID 5, the parity block is distributed among the drives of array, giving a more balanced access load across the drives. The parity information is used to recovery data if one drive fails, and is the reason this method is the most popular. The disadvantage is a relatively slow write cycle (2 reads and 2 writes are required for each block written). The array capacity is N-1, with a minimum of 3 drives required.

RAID 0+1: This is stripping and mirroring combined, without parity. The advantages are fast data access (like RAID 0), and single ¡V drive fault tolerance (like RAID 1). RAID 0+1 still requires twice the number of disks (like RAID 1).

 

[LiViNtOoLiVe]

so i guess if im just a regular user that doesnt need the data to be protected with guardsand guns i dont need raid? and im not gonna spend that musch on a second drive. how much faster is raid?? thanks

 

[PostCode]

At least twice, and in some cases more than that, the disk access speeds your system would have with one drive. Playing high end games can be a big plus....that and it's cool.

Also, it's a great way to just learn. You don't have to have two of the latest and greatest drives. You could pick yourself up a few smaller drives and learn how to use it. Raid 0 is a good way method for a home box. The other raid level would require additional drives and expense.

Say you setup a ftp server at your home for friends. RAID 1 would be nice here becuase if one drive fails, then the other is an exact duplicate of the other. It's slower but it's fail safe.

There is a difference between hardware and software RAID. Hardware, which is what the Abit board has runs the drives from the hardware level, whereas software is controlled by the OS. Because of this, software is not nearly as fast.

 

[LiViNtOoLiVe]

i decided raid isnt the thin fer me. sorry. but i dint wanna stick a crappy drive in my nice new com!!!!! well im stumped wit the mobo and case so if anybody has any suggestions pleas help. thanks alot evry1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! especially the person who explained raid sorry cant see ur name from here!!!! u deserve some good karma fer thaT!!!!!!!!!

 

[fury]

It looks like most of your questions have been answered, so I'll finish the other ones:

why would the amd's be so much cheaper than the intel

The main factor here is that AMD walks the walk without talking any more than is needed. Intel can walk the walk, but they throw all kinds of marketing crap at you along the way. It costs Intel money to throw that crap at you, so they increase the price of their processors to make the consumer pay for their excessive marketing.

wuts the athlon XP im a noob to amd. and wuts up wit the weird model numbers?

The Athlon XP is based on a processor core that was improved over the previous generation of Athlons. It has 20% lower power consumption and thus 20% lower heat production, and it has some enhancements like SSE instructions (the same ones from the P3 with a new name, 3dnow Professional), and hardware auto data pre-fetch (it predicts what data it will need next in order to improve performance).

The model numbers are a stupid mistake on AMD's part to try to get the average joe to realize that while Pentium 4's have higher clock frequencies, Athlons perform just as well at lower clock frequencies. But they just end up confusing them more.

ne1 suggest any or ne mobos or cases??

For mobos, since you prefer Abit or Asus, I suggest looking into Abit KR7A or Asus A7M266. However, I also recommend checking into the Soltek SL-75DRV4, as it is a very stable board, and also provides excellent overclocking options, when you feel up to risking frying your CPU.

Then for a case, I strongly suggest an Antec SX1240. It's big, but it's well worth the space it takes up. It has 3 80mm fan mounts in the front, 2 80mm and 1 92mm in the back, there are 4 3.5" bays and 6 5.25" bays, and it comes with a 400w power supply. I use this case, and it is absolutely wonderful. The construction is very strong, and it's just.... beautiful...

Ahem... where was I?

Oh yeah... As for RAID, you don't have to stick crappy drives in your computer for it to work. You could stick 2 new drives in it just as easily, or 2 cheaper-but-still-fast drives.

 

[s4]

After looking at the deals on barebones, it appears that adding an Asus board rather than one of the cheaper ones will add approximately $100 onto the price. The cheapest barebones that has an Asus board is about $300.

Having a second hard drive is cool. You can do things like backup your system on the second drive or dual boot with different os's. I have 2 maxtor 20 GB's in my old Athlon system. I hardly have any data on them, but I use the second one for backing up my first drive.

 

[fury]

Often, the point of using 2 drives in a RAID configuration is more for the performance than for the backup, at least that is usually what speed hungry freaks use it for. Most of the time, these speed hungry freaks either don't care if the risk of total and complete failure of the entire RAID array is heightened with the addition of each disk, they just want the speeeeeed.

That's most likely what I'll go for too, when I decide to hop on the RAID bandwagon. Fast hard drives are becoming cheaper and cheaper.

 

[gotfrag]

for a motherboard i suggest an asus A7N266-C

If you get this board make sure to get two seperate sticks of DDR SDram because it has 128 bit memory bus so it accesses 2 sticks faster than it would 1. This motherboard is based on the nforce 415-D chipset. It comes with GREAT sound onboard (6 channel dolby digital decoding and EAX 2.0). The 415-D Nforce doesn't come with a built in video card, unlike the 420-D which comes with a crappy MX. That's why I recommend this board. It's really nice and fast.

 

[LiViNtOoLiVe]

i guess im gonna go fer the asus A7N266-C mobo since ppl seem to be recomendin it and it has what i need. i was thinkin about gettin an audigy wit my new com but io guess ill live wit on board sound until i cab afford the upgrade. thanks you guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[LiViNtOoLiVe]

what do u guys think bout this case its like 40 bucks cheaper, has good reviews and its a good size fer me too! antec 80830, its only $100 compared to $140 fer the Antec SX1240. Thanks.

P.S. it seems to have enough room (8 bays) and its 300 watts which should be enough fer me! thanks!!!!!!!

 

[s4]

If money is no object, then by all means go with it.

 

[fury]

300 watts will probably do. What's the link to where you'll be buying it?

 

[LiViNtOoLiVe]

its at www.bestbuy.com so ill be savin on shipping too saying theres a best buy near me.but with all of the new athlon horror stories ive been hearing about not being compatable and the chips breaking im back to step 1 cant decide over athlon or intel. i think im gonna go with an intel 4 1.6a barebone.

 

[s4]

The case and power supply are included in the barebones price at pricewatch. The barebone consists usually of case, power supply, motherboard and cpu. On some deals the heatsink and cpu fan are included too.

Most likely they are assembled. You might think putting the system together is fun, but if you look in the hardware forum, you will find a thread about alex (member of xi) that fried their Athlon XP that was a new one: http://www.xibase.com/vB/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3736

 

[LiViNtOoLiVe]

thanks i decided to go wit a barebone p4 1.6a. sorry but it overclockls like it got dry ice coolin it. well im llookin fer barebones so if nebody got suggestiuons please post!!!!

 

[s4]

Good luck!

 

[gotfrag]

booooo, booO!!!! p4 wh0re :P

 

[fury]

Well, I'm out of suggestions. If superior performance doesn't convert ya, I dunno what will

 

[LiViNtOoLiVe]

superior performance at a lower speerd sounds perfect huh?
well since its my first build i guess im gonna try and go wit strong parts. i dont wanna mess up the first time. plus if its incompatible i dont kno what i would do if i wanted to put somethin in there and i couldn't sorry. anyone out there supprt me?? ne1 at all????

 

[s4]

If you want to go with a Pentium 4, there is nothing wrong with that. My last Intel computer that I built was a Celeron 300A a few years ago. I haven't had a Intel based computer since, but it was perfectly good for what I used it for.

I bought an AMD Athlon Classic back in the beginning of 2001 and have had no problems with it. This year I built an Athlon XP system because I liked my Athlon.

As for the choice of processor, it doesn't matter if you go Intel or AMD, just avoid Cyrix if they even make 'em yet. You will be ok if you go for a Pentium 4. Many of us like our Athlons and you will always hear it from AMD people, but there are just as many Intel faithful.