First time build and I have some questions

[Mugen_the_lion]

So this is my first attempt at building my own rig. I want to go for my comptia A+ in the near future so this is a logical learning step. I dont play pc games really or any design work, so the comp will only be my right-hand digital man. Mostly for web surfing, music downloads/playback, school work(ms office), and our home network monitoring (so I can learn more networking/dignostics).My pockets can let go no more then $1000 (with room for shipping). I want a solid quick system that will let me upgrade easily in the future. As my experence grows overclocking is something I want to try, but not a need right now. After much reading of product reviews heres my build idea:

mobo: GIGABYTE GA-880GA-UD3H AM3 AMD 880G HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX
I like the future proofing of this board, sata3 and usb3. Its features extra power to usb ports(mp3/phone charging), dual bios, and oc options. Lots of rear i/o ports and pci slots.
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-880GA-UD3H AM3 AMD 880G HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

cpu: AMD Athlon II X4 640 Propus 3.0GHz
I wanted something mid range that was under $100, and would handle anything I needed. I want AMD b/c of price. Is this a good choice?
http://http://www.newegg.com/Product...82E16819103871

ram: A-DATA Gaming Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600
4gb seems to be a good range. I read alot of other people using 4gb, should I go to 8?
Newegg.com - A-DATA Gaming Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model AX3U1600GB2G9-2G

ssd: Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC
I want to set up the ssd as a fast daul-boot for windows and linux(so I can learn linux). Along with a hand full of applications is 64gb good?
Newegg.com - Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

psu: CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-520HX 520W ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Compatible
I dont know if this is over or under kill at 520w. I read good reviews on corsair hx. Plus its modular.
Newegg.com - CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-520HX 520W ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply

case: Antec Lanboy air Yellow Black / Yellow Computer Modular Case
I may get some words on this choice but it looks like an autobot, gives me many config options, and I like the idea of all mesh airflow. Comes
with 5 fans(supports up to 15), 3 front usb ports, and has handles (this build wont have its own desk for a while). So the factors justify the price for me.
Newegg.com - Antec Lanboy air Yellow Black / Yellow Computer Modular Case

dvd drive: Lite-On 24 X iHAS424-98 DVD RW
dvd, burns, cheapish, sata, has light scrib, and has good reviews. Suggestions?
Newegg.com - LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 24X DVD Writer LightScribe Support

wireless card: ASUS PCE-N13 IEEE 802.11b/g/n PCI Express Wireless Adapter Up to 300Mbps Wireless
I wanted an internal wireless nic so there is no dongle to mess up. I want something fast, reliable, and internal. Suggestions?
Newegg.com - ASUS PCE-N13 IEEE 802.11b/g/n PCI Express Wireless Adapter Up to 300Mbps Wireless Data Rates 64-bit/128-bit WEP, TKIP, and AES WI-Fi alliance WPA, WPA2

fan control: NZXT Sentry-2 5.25" Touch Screen fan controller
The case I picked comes with 5 fans, so I would like a fan controller. This one is touch screen, runs 5 fans, saves settings, under $30, and will look so freakin clean in the case. I dont mind the cost for it.
Newegg.com - NZXT Sentry-2 5.25" Touch Screen fan controller

I do have a few thoughts:
-I want to use vista b/c I heard of driver issues with win7. Should I just go for win7 or can I wait?
-The mobo has built in gpu and I have a 17in lcd "tv" that I want to use as a monitor. I dont think I need a gpu card, so will the onboard graphics handle this?
-Along with the daul-boot ssd, in the future I want to add 2x500gb(1tb) hdd in a raid 1 config for fast storage (music, school work, pics, and my documents). So is it possible to have an ssd boot drive with 2 hdd in a raid config?
-Also the case comes with led fans which I my change out. Do they effect how they work with the fan controler?

[flanzig1]

Actually Win7 has been pretty good with the drivers, so would go with 7 .
The 64gig SSD may be a bit small for a dual boot. A RAID 1 with 2 500g HDs will be a 500g RAID. The HDs are mirrored in a RAID 1. Would just get a WD in a Tb for storage and skip the RAID.

[Jbc223456]

I can't comment on AMD, as I don't have any experience in that department. I'm mainly an Intel guy. However, I can respond a bit on component choice.

RAM: Good choice. A-Data is a very good brand, along with Corsair, Crucial, and Kingston. However, I don't think you will need to get 1600 speed ram unless you plan on overclocking. Go with the 1333 speed version as well. You really won't see any difference except for a few percentage points here and there on benchmarks.
A-DATA Gaming Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333G (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model AX3U1333GB2G8-2G

SSD: They are nice for fast boot-ups, but I know many around here try to stay away from them due to the newness of them as well as them being a little problematic. If you were to still go for an SSD, I think there are only a few brands which many of the masters around here would trust (Intel SSD's being one of the trusted brands). Even with an SSD for your OS, you will still need a storage device for media, etc... A Western Digital Caviar black (of your choice of size) should be okay. Many also stay away from putting HDDs in RAID. Why not just use one drive for a secondary? I'd follow flanzig and skip the RAID altogether.

PSU: Good choice on brand. Corsair is a good brand (except for their 'builder' series). Other good brands are Antec and SeaSonic.

CASE: It's all personal preference on that one.

[Nikon]

SSDs are great for OS and programs you use alot, but be warry of using them for files that will be edited alot, as this severely shortens the life of these drives due to the limited number of times a cell can be overwritten. i suggest getting a regular HDD for main data storage and files that may be edited frequently. also, 64gb will fill up very fast, especially with windows 7 taking up 15gb on its own.

as the resident amd freak(with an intel CPU in his pride and joy no less...) the athlon 640 is a great cpu for what you want to do. i think you will be very happy with it.

[Mugen_the_lion]

With the ssd should I go with 80-100 gb. Until the build gets a permenent hd I have an external hd.
So I ment raid 0 for the hdd config, which would be 2x500gb. This way I get to work with hard drives and raid arrays. I want to use this build for trying out different things.

[glc]

I would not put anything on a RAID 0 without a sound backup strategy. It's the worst thing you can use for a primary storage drive.

[Mugen_the_lion]

Fair enough. No raid, so WD black 1tb for storage:
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Whats the deal with raid?
Does any know a good wireless adapter?

[Mugen_the_lion]

For ssd how about: intel 80gb sata2
Newegg.com - Intel X25-M SSDSA2MH080G2K5 2.5" 80GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Is there a 80gb drive in sata3?

[glc]

Nope.

Newegg.com - Computer Hardware,Hard Drives,SSD,SATA III

[Mugen_the_lion]

So I searched the forums a bit and read what glc said to someone else about raid0. If I wanted to set up a 1tb drive with a backup drive, how big should that backup drive be? Should that backup include the ssd?
Now with the ssd I really want to use sata3, but I guess unless I want to spend over $200 I'm stuck with 64gb. If Win7 is 15gb, and I dont plan to install games, that leaves me with 49gb. That sounds like it should hold a good amount of basic software, or no?

[Nikon]

there is a freeware program called drive image xml. it is an imaging backup system, so you will need backup drives large enough to cover all other drives... ehhh.... example...

you have 2 500gb drives you want to backup
you will need atleast a 1tb drive to store the backups on.

in my setup i have several computers being backed up, so i use 2x2tb hdds to store the backups.

this program also has the nessecary tools to restore the backups to the origional PC. it can store the backups on any hdd accessible on your home network, in mycase i have the storeage drives shared/mapped on each pc to be backed up, and i simply select those drives when i do a backup.

the biggest downside to this is it is a lengthy process (few hours depending on hdd size.)
it can also be set to run automaticly (although this requires a little extra work in setting up the windows task scheduler)

at this point im not sure if it can overwrite exsisting backups or edit them rather than only create new ones. ill look into this more.

[Mugen_the_lion]

With the 80gb ssd can this build run windows 64bit? Should I go to 64bit?

[David M]

Originally Posted by Mugen_the_lion So I searched the forums a bit and read what glc said to someone else about raid0. If I wanted to set up a 1tb drive with a backup drive, how big should that backup drive be? Should that backup include the ssd? Now with the ssd I really want to use sata3, but I guess unless I want to spend over $200 I'm stuck with 64gb. If Win7 is 15gb, and I dont plan to install games, that leaves me with 49gb. That sounds like it should hold a good amount of basic software, or no?

No, go JBOD. Just a Bunch Of Disks....no RAID of any sort.

Load your OS and the applications that you want to boot, read and write really fast on your SSD....what will be your C: drive. Load the bulk of your big files, apps and data that take a lot of space on your 1 TB Black. Then get yourself an external backup drive and use that to backup everything on your SSD and WD Black.

Stop worrying about your WD Black not being fast enough...it kicks ass.

Yes, you can run most anything with 64 bit Windows 7. It can also run 32 bit apps.

[Mugen_the_lion]

Im not worried about the HD speed, just the SSD size. I want an SSD with sata3 but dont want to spend over $200 for more then 64gb. Is the sata3 worth it or is a SSD in sata2 still crazy fast?

Originally Posted by David M Yes, you can run most anything with 64 bit Windows 7. It can also run 32 bit apps.

My bad. I ment can this rig handle the 64bit windows 7? Do I have to add more RAM to use 64bit windows?