October Upgrade Components, What do ya think?

[_Mystical_Night]

These are the components im going to use in the new rig that im building in october to get rid of my ageing AMD Athlon Xp 2600+

CPU (conroe sweetness)
=======
E6600 Conroe

http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16819115003

Mobo (its inbetween a P5B Deluxe and a P5B, same southbridge as P5B Deluxe
=======
Asus P5B-E (reasonably priced, good specs, not over $200)

http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16813131070

Hard Drive (selling off IDE's before they get too obsolete since newer mobos are starting to get rid of IDE slots)
============
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250gb 16mb cache SATA

http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16822148144

Ram (2gb is too expensive atm ill get 1gb for now until prices drop)
=======
G.Skill 1gb DDR2 800

http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16820231063

Video Card (should be a huge upgrade from my 6600gt)
=========
Sapphire Radeon X1900XT 256mb PCI-E x16

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102051

Power Supply (Modular cabling mmmm, sure beats my 430 watt enermax)
===========
Hiper 580 watt

http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16817128003

Total Cost = around $1,100


What do you guys think? good upgrade?

[_Mystical_Night]

oh ya I was looking into the whole external drive backup thingy .. you guys think I should keep my 80gb western digital as an external backup drive (by buying an external USB enclosure) so i dont have to be burning my files to dvd's as backups ?

How would that work? you hook up the external enclosure to the hard drive, put it in there, and use the usb connector like a USB Flash Drive ? no need to install it as an additional storage device ? the data doesnt get erased when you take it to another pc with data inside ?

[BipolarBill]

That's right. You have to treat it gently though.

Looks like a great system.

[_Mystical_Night]

I ordered all the parts weeeeeee finally getting rid of my 5 yr old system sooo happy

[G]

That's a fantastic system and the Intel choice is now the one to go with.

No, use the 80GB as an internal backup.

With regards to an external HDD, I would buy one complete from the likes of Western Digital or Maxtor. Why? Because the components are all build and contracted in-house, i.e., the HDD and the enclosures so there is less chance of damage. They are tested extensively so there is no 137GB limit when you buy a 200GB HDD with an incompatible enclosure.

Also, the quality of build cannot be beaten with the in-house ones from Maxtor, for example.

You concerns with data are simple. All you do is hook it up, either Firewire or USB and it will be recognised within seconds. the data will still be there if you disconnect , power-off and then reconnect. So relax in this regard, the data will not be erased if you hook it up to another computer.

They are all portable, even if it does not say so.
http://www.maxtorsolutions.com/en/To...rid/index.html

Just make sure you read up first.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...nufactory=1304

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...nufactory=1304

[BipolarBill]

When a pre-built drive fails, you have to replace the entire unit. Build your own, save money and be able to replace the drive *or* the enclosure if it fails. I haven't found pre-built drives to be any tougher than user-built ones.

[G]

Sorry Bill but I don't agree. Plus it is possible to replace a dead HDD within a Maxtor unit.

Moreover, the units are more robust and shock resistant.

[BipolarBill]

Well, it's a moot point because he already has the drive portion.

[bruceb]

Some external drives can be disassembled, some not.
Better to buy your own case & put your own drive in it, if
you decide to go that route.

However, I agree with G .. better and probably faster data
transfer rates if the backup drive is inside the computer.
The only advantage to an external backup drive is IF all your
expansion slots are full or IF you want to keep the backup drive
in another location, say a SAFE or Off Site which most very
large companies do.

[G]

No, use the 80GB as an internal backup.




Separately

With regards to an external HDD, I would buy one complete from the likes of Western Digital or Maxtor. Why? Because the components are all build and contracted in-house, i.e., the HDD and the enclosures so there is less chance of damage. They are tested extensively so there is no 137GB limit when you buy a 200GB HDD with an incompatible enclosure.

Also, the quality of build cannot be beaten with the in-house ones from Maxtor, for example.

[Sterling_Aug]

That may be because Maxtor drives are made cheaply and fail early (my opinion).


Have you seen what some people do with Maxtor drives?

22 terabytes worth of hard drives at a cost of $18,400 total.

http://www.igizmodo.com/Hot_News/Gad...s_Dominos.html

I could have gotten 450 Maxtor drives for him a few months ago when we had to replace all of the 40GB drives at work because the failed in the Dell Optiplex GX-270s we had.

[BipolarBill]

LOL!

In my experience, Maxtor drives last about as long as the warranty and fail right after. Western Digitals fail early or last forever. I don't know which is worse. I like Hitachi, but I can't speak for their reliability yet. So far, so good, but I'm not sure. Seagate and Samsung are my faves these days. I'd rather have a slow drive than a dead one.

[Sterling_Aug]

I also rank Toshiba laptop drives right up there with the Maxtors. Real junk in my book.

[_Mystical_Night]

thanks for all the suggestions guys and the info on the external drives

[_Mystical_Night]

I was looking around the internet and found some interesting threads on the P5B-E, it turns out there are two revs for it 1.01G and 1.02G

First Version 1.01G is Memory 2.1V Version.
Second Version 1.02G is Memory 2.45V Version

if your interested in buying one of these mobos check out these links

http://xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=114123 <-- very good thread
http://xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=117786

crud i hope the one I ordered from newegg is 1.02g I get it on thursday