i7 PC parts check

[Irishwhistle]

Please check these parts

Do you spot any problems with this music production rig my brother is planning on building?

CPU: Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202 $289

Mobo: Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128362 $288

PSU: Corsair 850W http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139009&Tpk=Corsair 850W $150

GPU: MSI 9600GT 512MB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127362

RAM: 2X OCZ 1333 6GB (total of 12GB) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227375 $240

HDD: 4x Western Digital Caviar 640GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136218 $300

ODD: LG 22X DVD Burner http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136152 $25

Case: XCLIO Windtunnel ATX Full Tower http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811103011 $90

OS: Windows XP Pro 64-bit http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116378 $140

Monitors: 2x Acer 22" Widescreen http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009145 $340

External Storage: WD My Book 1TB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136186 $95

Keyboard/Mouse: MS Curve http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823109156 $22

WiFi Adaptor: TRANDnet wireless G USB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833156152

Grand Total - $2,087 + S&H



Oh yeah, and he's gonna have a library of 710GB of virtual instrument files... would RAID be a good idea?

Thanks!

 

[CdnAudiophile]

I would go with these harddrives instead if you are going to Raid. They have a built in chip that makes them better for Raid: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136294

I would suggest Raid 5. It is Stripping with Parody, if one drive fails you can just throw a new one in and it would be like nothing happened. It will even run when you don't have the 4th harddrive in the array.

For the OS I would go with Vista 64bit. There are still alot of problems with Xp 64bit and you would be better off with Vista.

 

[just a noob]

i would put the 4 hdd's in raid 5, because if i remember, it would be like having two of them backing up the other two in raid zero, so you get backup, and capacity, can't remember how it works with three drives, i think its like two drives in raid zero, with redundancy, with no bonus capacity. anyway, i would say get an ati 4850/4870/gtx 260 core 216(theres one out there thats 219.99 before rebate, 199.99 after)

 

[Irishwhistle]

I would go with these harddrives instead if you are going to Raid. They have a built in chip that makes them better for Raid: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136294

I would suggest Raid 5. It is Stripping with Parody, if one drive fails you can just throw a new one in and it would be like nothing happened. It will even run when you don't have the 4th harddrive in the array.

For the OS I would go with Vista 64bit. There are still alot of problems with Xp 64bit and you would be better off with Vista.

i would put the 4 hdd's in raid 5, because if i remember, it would be like having two of them backing up the other two in raid zero, so you get backup, and capacity, can't remember how it works with three drives, i think its like two drives in raid zero, with redundancy, with no bonus capacity.

I've got a VERY limited knowledge of RAID... Fortunately I've got a friend who knows a bit more about it than I do (I think), I'll have to ask him about it.

As far as a 64-bit OS is concerned, what's wrong with XP 64-bit? Because my brother says he'd rather have XP.

I would go with these harddrives instead if you are going to Raid. They have a built in chip that makes them better for Raid: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136294

I would suggest Raid 5. It is Stripping with Parody, if one drive fails you can just throw a new one in and it would be like nothing happened. It will even run when you don't have the 4th harddrive in the array.

For the OS I would go with Vista 64bit. There are still alot of problems with Xp 64bit and you would be better off with Vista.

anyway, i would say get an ati 4850/4870/gtx 260 core 216(theres one out there thats 219.99 before rebate, 199.99 after)

He doesn't need a super powerful GPU as he's not into gaming (actually, he hates games), he just wants something for two monitors that won't slow things down. Will the 9600GT be sufficient for that?


Thanks guys!

 

[just a noob]

the one thing thats bad about xp 64 bit, is that there is almost zero driver support, vista 64 seems to have more driver support, but still less than 32 bit, and if he only wants to run two moniters, either the 9600gt, or the ati 4550(might throw off a bit less heat)

 

[CdnAudiophile]

i would put the 4 hdd's in raid 5, because if i remember, it would be like having two of them backing up the other two in raid zero, so you get backup, and capacity, can't remember how it works with three drives, i think its like two drives in raid zero, with redundancy, with no bonus capacity. anyway, i would say get an ati 4850/4870/gtx 260 core 216(theres one out there thats 219.99 before rebate, 199.99 after)

Well it's actually it's split across all 4 harddrives ( I don't know how it does it) But you would lose 1 harddrives amount of space (in a 4 hd setup). For example my 4 500's after formatting and in Raid 5 gave me 1.4tb's.