Gaming PC critique my parts

[kentuckyser]

I am building a PC for gaming and workstation. Please critique these parts for compatibility issues, etc. Thanks!

Antec Sonata II w/450w PSU
Intel Pentium D 960 800mhz FSB, 3.6 Ghz Dual Core
2 GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2 675 PC2 5400
(2) Seagate Barracuda 320GB HDD's run in Raid 0
ASUS P5LD2 Deluxe
eVGA 7950GX2
Lite-On DVD-RW and DVD-ROM drives
Sony Floppy

Thanks again.

[minsonngo]

Looks good to me.

For the ASUS P5LD2 Deluxe board you may need a PSU with the 8-pin EPS12V connector though. I don't think the 450w Antec Smart Power 2.0 PSU that comes with the Sonata II has that.

[kentuckyser]

What connector is that?

Is that the PCI-E connector that plugs into the video card? If so, it does have it. But I think the one I'm talking about is 6 pin, not 8?

Nevertheless, I have confirmed that the Sonata II and the P5LD2 Deluxe work fine, I have been using these parts in another machine with a Pentium D 950 and 7900GT.

[minsonngo]

It is the 8-pin connector that goes into the motherboard near where the PS/2 ports on the motherboard is.

Look here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowIm...ard+%2D+Retail

[blue60007]

The P5LD2 doesn't have a EPS 8-pin connector. That connector is for some of the high end Intel's - provides extra power for the CPU (I think they are really recommended for one of the Extreme Editions that use an extreme amount of power.

The P5LD2 has a 4 pin connector (it's the 2x2 yellow and black plug by the CPU), and that's what the PSU is. Should be fine.

EDIT: Oops, the regular version is 4 pin. Looks like the Deluxe is 8 pin. Hard to tell in the picture.

EDIT: After looking at the pic on ASUS' website, it kinda looks like it'll take either a 4 pin or 8 pin. In the picture, 4 of the pins are covered. I guess you would remove that if you had an 8 pin PSU.

http://usa.asus.com/prog_content/mid...aspx?model=512

[kentuckyser]

Oh, ok I know what you're talking about. That connector on my P5LD2 Deluxe is a 4-pin connector.

[minsonngo]

On the deluxe it is 8-pin, you only see 4 because the other 4 is covered by a black plug cover.

But... I think you can just use the 4-pin square ATX12V connector in the motherboard. Just leave the other unused 4-pins covered.

[kentuckyser]

I've never setup Raid before. I read through the mobo manual and I'm still a bit confused. Can anyone elaborate on it?

[blue60007]

Why do you want to run RAID? RAID 0 offers very little, if any, performance boost. It also increases the chance of data loss greately (only takes one dead drive to lose your data).

[kentuckyser]

Well, I've got (2) 320GB HDD's,...I don't want to have 2 separate drives, I want to be able to see them as one full drive.

[minsonngo]

Its your choice to make buddy. If you want RAID and you willing to risk it, then go for it.

[kentuckyser]

Why does Raid 0 offer little to no performance boost? The way I understand it, data is written to each drive simultaneously,...so why wouldn't it be faster? Just wondering,...I don't know much about it.

Is the only real drawback losing all data if one drive fails? If so, I can live with that. I backup my data regularly.

[minsonngo]

It offers some performance boost, but in the real world, you won't notice the difference between a normal HDD setup and a RAID one. So overall, the risk is not worth it.

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by kentuckyser Why does Raid 0 offer little to no performance boost? The way I understand it, data is written to each drive simultaneously

Actually, it splits the data equally between the two drives so that each drive is handling half the data. Theoretically it means data should be written or read faster since each hard drive handles only half the data, but in the real world the performance increase is pretty minimal.

Originally Posted by kentuckyser Is the only real drawback losing all data if one drive fails?

Well, you do have to buy two identical hard drives instead of just one.

If you want to try RAID 0 and understand the risks, go ahead and try it. If anything, it'll be a good learning experience.

Cricket

[kentuckyser]

Originally Posted by Cricket Actually, it splits the data equally between the two drives so that each drive is handling half the data. Theoretically it means data should be written or read faster since each hard drive handles only half the data, but in the real world the performance increase is pretty minimal.Well, you do have to buy two identical hard drives instead of just one. Cricket

Yeah, that's what I meant. Splits the data up and writes simultaneously. Cool, thanks guys.

I would like to try it. Is there any walk throughs I can read to help set it up?

[jayb1234]

The motherboard manual should have pretty good instructions.

That would be the best place to look, because the process varies between different manufacturers and even between boards from the same maker with different chipsets or BIOS.

There is a pretty good chance you will have to load the raid drivers from a floppy disk.