Am I headed in the right direction

[spurflhr]

I am building my first computer and dont know a lot about it. I am 50 years old and not really computer saavy like most of you seem to be. I wont be doing any gaming just typical business apps, video editing...just typical stuff. I am not a gamer. I dont really have a budget and usually go overkill with everything I do. Here is a list of what I currently plan to use, most of which I already have. Have made any mistakes so far? It may be too late because I have purchased some of the stuff, but I could sure use some advice. Here it is:
Lian Li PC-A10

ASUS P5B Deluxe

(2) Western Digital Raptor X WD1500AHFD 150GB 10,000 RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive (plan is to stripe these and run in RAID 0)

PC Power and Cooling Silencer 610 EPS12V

Kingston HyperX Dual Channel Memory Kit - KHX6400D2K2/2G, 2GB (2x1024MB) DDR2 800, CL5, 240-pin, Non-ECC, Unbuffered. Ds

(2) LG GSA-H22L 18X Super Multi DVD-RW -LightScribe (Blk)

Intel E6600 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, 1066FSB, LGA775, 24B, Retail, BX80557E6600

Western Digital 500 GB 7200 RPM 16 MB Cache Hard Drive WDG1U5000N (plan is to use to back up in case of RAID failure and to store files)

Gateway FPD2485W - 24" HD LCD Monitor

Spurflhr

[newbuilder14]

Your list looks good.

Hard Drives: Seagate 7200.10 drives are just about as fast and have a 5 year warranty. Look into a 250GB SATA 7200.10 drive.

Memory: Corsair XMS2 CL5 DDR2-800 is an alternative choice.

Optical Drives: See if you can get SATA optical drives, Lite-On is also a good brand. Try to get a retail version as they come with software.

[flanzig1]

You didn't list a video card and an OS. Since no gaming, look to a Nvidia 7600GS or in the ATI X1600 Pro. May actually go the next series lower in either.

[Disgrace]

If you're looking at a DVD-ReWritable, try avoiding Samsungs.

[spurflhr]

Thanks for advice so far. I did not list a video card because I have not read enough about them to try to make a decision yet. The OS is VISTA Ultimate.
Comments so far have been really helpful! Thanks a lot.
Spur

[bd1886]

Might sound silly but I use a card reader quite a bit. Just checked Newegg and found some new variations from average use ones to readers that hold and transfer huge capacity files. Just a thought

[Disgrace]

Originally Posted by bd1886 Why not Samsung?

Could've been a 1-off but my SATA one drove me mad and turned out to be the problem when I tried to diagnos the problem(s) with my PC...

[flanzig1]

A lot of people have had Samsung's DOA/die quicky/noisy/etc.

Since your going Vista, I'm thinking maybe go with an ATI X1950 Pro: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102061

[Mr.Ferrari]

The PCP&C 610w, while a GREAT psu, is a bit overpriced for what it offers. Its basically a Seasonic internally.

I would rather have this for 20 bucks less after rebate.
Corsair HX 620W

[glc]

Video editing and Vista Aero Glass does not require a high end video card. Any Radeon x1xxx or Nvidia 7xxx card with 256mb ram will be fine - just stay away from the Turbocache or Hypermemory models.

You DO realize that RAID 0 does not give you much of a performance increase over a single drive - and if ONE drive hiccups, the whole array crashes, bye bye data?

[spurflhr]

I dont understand enough about RAID. Why is RAID 0 not much faster with two WD Raptor X drives than one drive. Now that I have two what is the best configuration for making the system run faster?

[doubledragon5]

I have to raptor drives, not set up as a raid.. I find them a little slower than two regular IDE drives which I usually use.. Set them both up as you would a IDE set up.. You can have a dual boot system.. That way if one has trouble you can still access the other.. This is why I have both set up the same exact way with the same software on each...

[glc]

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2101

Western Digital's Raptors in RAID-0: Are two drives better than one?

Final Words
If you haven't gotten the hint by now, we'll spell it out for you: there is no place, and no need for a RAID-0 array on a desktop computer. The real world performance increases are negligible at best and the reduction in reliability, thanks to a halving of the mean time between failure, makes RAID-0 far from worth it on the desktop.

Bottom line: RAID-0 arrays will win you just about any benchmark, but they'll deliver virtually nothing more than that for real world desktop performance. That's just the cold hard truth.

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Set them up as independent drives and use the second one for storage. If you can send ONE back, do so and replace it with a Seagate 7200.10 drive - for less than you paid for that Raptor you can get a 500gb model.