build me a computer

H8R · Apr 14, 2005

narlus said:
i'm a little unclear about the "no sound in front" part...you mean speakers?

did that case have slots for internal cd/dvd drives?

i'd like to keep the cost under 1K if possible.

I meant no sound port. I figured with that much music data, you might want a frikken headphone jack...

:thumb:

The SLK 3700 has room for four CD drives, the TX640B above has space for three, but all the ports are in front, and it has more available power for the future.

I'll post a complete list of parts later on.

H8R · Apr 14, 2005

OK...

Antec TX640B case w/ 400w PSU

Sony floppy drive, black

1 X Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive

2 X Western Digital 250GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive

(yes, that's 574G total)

Geil Ultra Series Value Dual Channel Kit 184 Pin 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200 w/ Blue Heatspreader

ASUS A8N-SLI nForce4 SLI Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 939
(this board has EVERYTHING)

AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 512KB L2 Cache, Socket 939 64-bit Processor

Albatron PC5750 nVIDIA GeForce PCX 5750 Video Card, 128MB DDR, 128-bit, DVI/TV Out, PCI Express x16 (fast card, dual monitor support)

All in:

$1093 shipped to Mass. from New Egg.

I can probably find a few of these parts for a tad cheaper. I would suggest a brand new Dual layer DVD RW drive in addition to the above.

And yes, this WILL play games too.

binary visions · Apr 14, 2005

Recommend one 400GB drive vs. (2) 250GB drives, due to the excessive size of the music collection, in order to retain all media on one drive, and to improve future space upgrade options (if he needs more space over the 500gb, which sounds very possible given the enormous music collection, he doesn't want to have to have four drives to deal with).

Good spec, though. I'd hit it.

H8R · Apr 14, 2005

binary visions said:
Recommend one 400GB drive vs. (2) 250GB drives, due to the excessive size of the music collection, in order to retain all media on one drive, and to improve future space upgrade options (if he needs more space over the 500gb, which sounds very possible given the enormous music collection, he doesn't want to have to have four drives to deal with).

Good spec, though. I'd hit it.

Yeah, but 2 X 250GB drives are a tad cheaper, and that's 100GB more...hmm.

This case, about $40 more, will handle 4 X hdd, plus 4 X CD drives, and I think you can easily fit a water cool system in there too..

So yeah, start with 574GB on three drives, THEN add a 400GB later on...

:devil:

Antec TX1088AMG w/ 450w PSU (2 X 18A +12v rails!!)

H8R · Apr 14, 2005

narlus said:
i want the RED heat spreader.

i've got a practically brand new plextor 712 DVD writer i can re-use, so i don't think i'd need the dual layer writer. do i need a floppy drive?

i also wouldn't need a super-duper vid card, i don't think. can't imagine going dual monitor or needing TV outputs, so maybe i could save some $ there. as far as hard drives go, i'll have to take stock of my music inventory to see if i should use either a 400GB or 2x250GB hard drives. keep in mind that i've already got a 300GB external drive which i can use.

OK.

I've knocked it down a bit...

Antec SLK3000-B Solution Series Black (space for FIVE hard drives!)

Thermaltake W0070 TR2 430W power Supply, with 6-pin PCI Express connector, 24(20) pin main connector

1 X Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive
(keep in mind this is one of the fastest, if not THE fastest SATA drives out there)

2 X Western Digital 250GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive

Geil Ultra Series Value Dual Channel Kit 184 Pin 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200 w/ Blue Heatspreader (sorry, this is good memory for $99 per GB)

ASUSnForce4 Chipset Motherboard A8N-E
(This board has no on-board firewire, so you will have to use your card)

AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 512KB L2 Cache, Socket 939 64-bit Processor

Sapphire ATI RADEON X300 SE Video Card, 128MB DDR, 64-Bit, TV-Out, PCI Express (I'd go with a better card, but...meh)

All in:

$1017.00 shipped.

H8R · Apr 14, 2005

narlus said:
seems like there's ~$80 difference between the cards. what's the qualitative/quantitative difference? keep in mind i haven't gamed since playing quake 2 about 5 years ago. as far as cd drives go, would i use my existing DVD writer and CDRW drive? i kinda like my external SCSI plextor 40X drive as it's a good workhorse for ripping cds (not too loud, does a good fast job, and it's been reliable); you think that's a good idea? the external plextor cd writer i could retire (it's only 8x max speed and it's very loud).

there's no problem using my firewire card; is that only difference in the motherboard? how many USB 2.0 ports?

Not a huge difference in the cards besides the cheaper is 64bit memory and the other one is 128bit. You'd only notice it in high detail games. Titles like Half Life 2, etc will eat 64 bit cards for lunch.

I knocked off the floppy, saved some money in the MOBO, (4 rear USB ports on, with support for a total of 10), and picked a case that will hold a total of 4 CD drives, two external 3.5" drives (or panel devices, card readers, etc) and FIVE hard drives. Add to that a seperate purchase 420w power supply with all the bells and whistles.

One prob - this one has no ports in front besides USB. Argh.

It's your call, this has a ton of storage, the other has a little less, but firewire and sound out the front...

rvlacich · Apr 14, 2005

You've got a ton of good suggestions for parts here, but as for the assembly, I have a suggestion. A friend of mine is running a small, independent computer company. If you're interested, I could get you some contact info for him. He's got a website, but he's also great on the phone. He will get you anything that you want and his rates are more than reasonable. He really pays attentions to the details of every build. PM me tonight if you want his info (I'm going away for the weekend).

HypNoTic · Apr 19, 2005

For "home" use like that, i would suggest going with "lower end" disk drives and RAID them in software. If redundancy is not too important, you can set them in Dynamic mode and configure an array in JBOD (disk aggregation) or RAID 0 (data stripping) with Windows XP Pro. If you install the computer with Windows 2003 Server, Standard Edition, then you can also configure the array in RAID 5 mode, which add some redundancy. In JBOD mode (just a bunch of disk), you can array differently sized disks to add more space, but performance will remain as low as the slowest drive in the array. In RAID 0, the data write stream is stripped and write 1 "cluster" per disk alternatively, so performance is good but redundancy very poor. With both option, if you loose 1 drive, you lose everything. For added redundancy of the whole array, go for RAID 5. In this mode, N-1 drives are available, but it scale up nicely. If you have 3x250Gb disk, you have only 500Gb available. If you have 7x250Gb, you end up with 1.5Tb with redundancy, which is very nice. You can also add a Hot Spare disk to this kind of hardware setup, which will heal the array automatically if a drive happen to fail.

That was about the RAID course.

Now, for the system, I suggest you give a look at hardware RAID controler such as 3ware Escalade. You can find them pretty cheap on eBay. I found a 8 channel SATA with 128Mb cache for 78$ + shipping (to canada). Stick a bunch of 160 or 200Gb disks in a case such as the Antec Sonata (damn silent and beautiful). Add 1x 20 or 40Gb disk for the OS and applications. The array is for data storage. With 5x 200Gb in RAID 5, you end up with 800Gb RAW, so about 780Gb formated in NTFS.

For the motherboard, Asus offer the stability you're looking for.

For the RAM, I've always used Kingstom KVR (Kingston Value Ram) and never had an issue. Damn cheap and very efficient. Stick at least 1Gb in the new system, 2 if you have the cash. Hint : on modern system, always use ram in pair.

For CPU, any modern CPU will fit the bill, but AMD 64 have the brightest future and excellent performance.

Just my .02$ cdn.

binary visions · May 17, 2005

narlus said:
it lives.

Awesome. Glad it's working.

I'll check into the SCSI issue a little today and see if I can come up with an answer for you.

H8R · May 17, 2005

narlus said:
it lives.

no pics, but maybe i'll add one later.

big thanks to H8R (original spec), BV (initial build, great guided tutorial, and overall support getting it going), and Ciaran (software) for getting my machine from concept to proof. this thing is so much faster than my old one and is purring along nicely. only negatives so far is that it's much louder than the previous one, and i still can't get my external SCSI cd-rom drives to work (SCSI host controller looks like it is working properly, but i can't get the drives to appear, and i didn't change anything from how they were working...thinking of perhaps an OS issue but not sure).

thanks again guys!

COOLNESS!

Is it fan noise or drive noise?

Ciaran · May 17, 2005

Excellent! Way to go H8R and B.V.!
We now expect your post count to go up, Narlus. Heh, heh... did H8R set the browser home page to Ridemonkey? Did I inlcude the Bonus Cup CD with the mpegs and such?

Ciaran · May 17, 2005

narlus said:
definitely fan noise. the drives are silky quiet.

Oh, are we ready for WATER COOLING?

H8R · May 17, 2005

narlus said:
definitely fan noise. the drives are silky quiet.

Hmm...

Which case was it?

This one?

if so, it's probably alot like mine, where most of the fan noise is coming from the CPU fan and out of the ducted port on the side.

Two solutions:

1) Bigger/quieter CPU fan/heatsink combo. I have a 92mm CPU fan running at 50-60% of it's available speed. Cuts the noise ALOT. Bigger fan = more air at less RPMs = quiet. Something to consider down the road over the stock heatsink/fan.

2) Controlling fan speed - this might be possible in the BIOS, or try this little gem:
http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

H8R · May 17, 2005

Ciaran said:
Oh, are we ready for WATER COOLING?

You shush.

Let him get over the sticker shock already!

H8R · May 17, 2005

BTW:

That case has an Antec Tri-Cool fan on the back, it's has adjustable speed, so you should be able to get it down below 20db.

H8R · May 17, 2005

narlus said:
you're right; there's a LoMedHi setting, and i think it's on Hi. there's also a neat app which tells you what the CPU temperature is.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/

More info than I know what to do with about making a quiet PC.

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