Building: have some but want views on the rest

LoLth

hey all,

Its that time again. 3 years after a pc blowup (melted cmos chip and god knows what else) my patched together pal is getting retired. Well, most of it anyway.

What I have for the new build:
Asus P5W Deluxe
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=321774

4 x 1gb transcend DDR2 667 ram (thanks to ibood!)

2x 250gb sata (these will be the new OS drive set up in Raid 1)

To be carried over from old PC:

X1650 PCI-ex card - it does the job for me, might upgrade in the future or get another for x-fire but not really a priority right now.

PSU - 650w psu - forget the make but its not exactly quiet

DVD-DL DVD+/- RW (plextor)

To be purchased:

Intel e6420 (when its released)

3 x 500gb sata - to be set up in raid 5 for data - this will also be a multimedia server for a house lan

Case - really need to balance cooling and noise. its in a well ventilated area. I also would like to have something that
a: looks good
b: takes 5x 3.5" hdd
c: at least 2x 5.25" bays (external)
d: has front usb / sound connectors
currently using an antec lanboy case that I like but I'm keeping the old pc in it for future use. I dont go to lans so portability isnt an issue, though I do quite like the tool-less designs and the easy load hard drives.

I would also like some suggestions on a new (quieter) PSU.

This build will be running windows XP for the foreseeable future. There is a pretty tight budget but the initial build will be spread over the next 2-3 months with other bits upgraded as necessary as time passes.

any suggestions?

So far, if I strip the current case, carry as much as possible over from the old pc this build will work out at approx €400 + whatever the cpu costs. Over the next 3-4 months I can put about another 400 towards that (+cpu).

8T8

Keep in mind the Asus 975X has a mixed bag of SATA controllers

* Native Intel controller supporting RAID 0, 1, 5 - 3 internal ports
* JMicron controller supporting RAID 0, 1 - 1 internal & 1 external
* Silicon Image supporting RAID 0, 1 - 2 internal ports

RAID 5 plans could be cramped by only 3 ports being available if you wish to make a bigger array in the future.


For comparison the P965 chipset like on this MSI 965 Platinum, supports E6420 as well.

* Native Intel controller supporting RAID 0, 1, 5 - 6 internal ports
* JMicron controller supporting RAID 0, 1 - 1 internal & 1 external


As for HD's anything really will do, Western Digital revealed a new line of HD's for media servers but I do not know if you can purchase them yet.

Case wise I would recommend the the Akasa Eclipse 62 can take 9 hard drives without using any of the four 5.25 bays it also has. Very spacious interior and quiet case but rather plain looking on the outside, it also has two front USB ports but no sound connectors.

TonyM.

The Akasa will only take 4 discs if you remove the center cage to install a Ninja .

Spear

LoLth wrote:

Case - really need to balance cooling and noise. its in a well ventilated area. I also would like to have something that
a: looks good
b: takes 5x 3.5" hdd
c: at least 2x 5.25" bays (external)
d: has front usb / sound connectors

A suggestion might be a Thermaltake Mozart TX, http://www.mozarttx.com/

c0y0te

I was considering this board myself but I read somewhere (cant remember the link, sorry) that there were two issues with it:-

1) If you have any plans to run Vista O/S you are in for some nightmares; it seems there aren't any decent drivers available yet and it doesn't work. The review I read ended up with the user having to revert to XP

2) The Wi-fi onboard is pretty slow. A review noted a max of 10k/sec - which could only be remedied by using an external WI-FI router.

Anti

Spear wrote:

A suggestion might be a Thermaltake Mozart TX, http://www.mozarttx.com/

The thing is a beast, its absolutly massive. 72cm tall.

LoLth

aye. looks fantastic and I doubt there would *ever* be any heat issues but it is indeed , too big.

Same goes for the aplus twin engine tower. massive, quite ugly but from what I have read it would make a fantastic fridge.

Antec 900 looks nice but I have read some bad reviews of it (or at least iffy). Anyone used one of the antec 900s ?

Board: Raid 5 - 3 disk array is about all I can envisage needing now or in the future. (over time, if more space is needed, I'll increase the size of the raid members rather than the amoun tof them but seriously, I doubt it will come to that! ).

XP is the system I intend using. If I ever decide to go Vista, there will, most likely be drivers out and about by that time.

Wi-fi on board is 802.11g which is 54mbps speed as standard (though from experience it never , ever, runs that fast ) Perhaps the reviewer was connecting to a slower device ? or environmental issues got involved. maybe it just wasnt feeling. I have a wireless access point so external option wouldnt leave me any worse off than I am currently. Any chance of a link to that review?

thanks for the comments so far lads. definitely food for thought.

Anti

I have a 900, great case. Amazing cooling, very very quiet. Lots of space, but it could do with a modular design similar to the p180's. Apart from that no gripes here at all

DanGerMus

Antec p180 would be perfect for you. accept no front audio. but thats an easy fix i should think. i have one and i love it. There is a knew Antec coming out soon too the p190 i think. Comes with two PSUs but i'd say it'll be good and quiet. worth lookin at anyway.