E6700 SLI Gaming Build

[Moonraker™]

Already have the 2 GTX's

Question: When I look up Hard drives I notice Seagate can get 3.0Gb/s and 7200 RPM, and the Raptors are 1.5Gb/s and 10,000 RPM... which number is more important?

Ah bugger. Sorry - In that case go for 7900GTX's

I'm going for 2x 320GB 7200.10 RPM (Perpendicular) Seagate's. Not only are they fast, but agreed, like [TAG]Imp said. They are really good value.

Apparantly their f'kin hot in raid 0 too. But I do loads of multimedia and music production on my machine (as well as gaming!), so I'd be too scared of loosing all my data if something went wrong!

I may in fact go for 1x 74GB Raptor (and install games etc. on there) and then 1x Seagate (as above) and use that for all else. Just really don't think it's worth it for a little performance increase (which apparantly is like 1 second faster at loading BF2 - according to a labs test I read somwhere)

[Natalia]

Would a Raptor really be noticably faster than the current Baracudas I already have? Or are we talking about milliseconds here?

[[TAG]Imp]

Would a Raptor really be noticably faster than the current Baracudas I already have? Or are we talking about milliseconds here?

not miliseconds, but a few seconds at MAX.... it's really up to you, if you feel like it's worth your money, go for it. I'm on a ridiculously tight budget, so i didn't even consider it.

[Natalia]

not miliseconds, but a few seconds at MAX.... it's really up to you, if you feel like it's worth your money, go for it. I'm on a ridiculously tight budget, so i didn't even consider it.

How about this:

One (1) Raptor WD1500AD 150GB Drive

or

Threee (3) Raptor WD360 36GB Drives IN Raid 0

I figure those two options are about the same price when I checked a few places.

Reason I ask between the two is it seems the 150GB drive had better scores here:
http://www23.tomshardware.com/storag...2=138&chart=32

Then again, I am not sure what is most important among those tests you can view.

[[TAG]Imp]

uh, i suggest that you just get a raptor for games/whatever you need the speed with, and then a barracuda or two for storage. and load the OS on the raptor

[Gun_Strife]

yup 1x 150gb raptor and 1 or 2 of these
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148140

[Teratism]

Jump over the raptor and get a 15,000 rpm HD like the Seagate cheetah
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822111145
Seagate Cheetah 15K.4 ST336754LW 36.7GB 15,000 RPM 8MB Cache SCSI Ultra320 68pin Hard Drive - OEM $209.
Or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822141139
HITACHI Ultrastar 15K147 HUS151436VL3600 (96P0112) 36.7GB 15,000 RPM 16MB Cache SCSI Ultra320 68pin Hard Drive - OEM $159.99

They are a lot smaller than the raptors, but if you equate a game to being 4 gigs you should be able to fit 8 games on one of them, then store the rest of the real data on the Seagate Baracuda perpendiculars.

[Moonraker™]

That is just stupidly expensive if you ask me. But hey, if you got money to blow!

[Shift]

SCSI drives aren't worth it.

The problem is, your case holds only four hard drives, unless you decide to get another hard drive module. Seems you're stuck, so unless you get another hard drive module, this would be my build

I agree get one 150gb Raptor for OS/games. Then get like a 250gb HDD for storage, along with your 160gb from before, so that's 410gb of storage.

Or if your an absolute speed demon, you can put 2x 150 gb Raptors in Raid 0, and keep your 160gb as storage. All up to you.

Also the Stacker 830 is cheaper at Newegg

[Natalia]

Okay, it seems people are suggesting 1 150GB Raptor instead of 3 36 GB Raptors in Raid 0, any reason?

[Shift]

Okay, it seems people are suggesting 1 150GB Raptor instead of 3 36 GB Raptors in Raid 0, any reason?

A 36gb HDD at Newegg retails for $110. So it's not a good value getting 3x 36gb. Also your case holds only four drives, and you get less storage if you plan to put in 3x 36gb Raptors.

[Natalia]

A 36gb HDD at Newegg retails for $110. So it's not a good value getting 3x 36gb. Also your case holds only four drives, and you get less storage if you plan to put in 3x 36gb Raptors.

But would it be higher performance?

Because I could do 3 small Raptors and that large Seagate that was mentioned for a total of 4 drives...

[Natalia]

uOpt, from another thread, got me wondering if 2GB of memory is enough. Instict tells me it is, but I would love the opinion of all of you here who are much more knowledgable than I.

[RangerXLT8]

uOpt, from another thread, got me wondering if 2GB of memory is enough. Instict tells me it is, but I would love the opinion of all of you here who are much more knowledgable than I.

Right now 2GB of memory is sufficeint for gaming. EDIT

Like you mentioned the 3 36GB Raptors and 1 big drive make 4, that is exactly what I run. If you do get 3 raptors, wait and see how heavy they are. My cage of 3 Raptors and 1 WD 320KS weighs probably 15-20 pounds. My buddy picked up my case one day at a lan party and he couldn't believe how heavy it was.

[Shift]

uOpt, from another thread, got me wondering if 2GB of memory is enough. Instict tells me it is, but I would love the opinion of all of you here who are much more knowledgable than I.

Two gigs right now is fine since WIndows doesn't see more than 3 gigs and you lose dual channel. Vista on the other hand will be a memoey hog, so upgrade you RAM when you get Vista.

[Natalia]

Two gigs right now is fine since WIndows doesn't see more than 3 gigs and you lose dual channel. Vista on the other hand will be a memoey hog, so upgrade you RAM when you get Vista.

You loose dual channel with 4x1GB Sticks? I think that does sound familiar. Is that because of the Motherboards or because of Windows?

[RangerXLT8]

You loose dual channel with 4x1GB Sticks? I think that does sound familiar. Is that because of the Motherboards or because of Windows?

This is because of Windows XP. Current Intel 975X MB are capable of 8gb, and Nvidia 590 might* be capable of 16gb.

[NiCKE^]

Losing Dual Channel with 4GB? Then CPU-Z isn't accurate.

[S&M]

Here's my results with E6600 Sli Gaming Rig ...

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=109828

Hope it will help you choose and understand what you are going to see from the new computer ...

[Natalia]

Here's my results with E6600 Sli Gaming Rig ...

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=109828

Hope it will help you choose and understand what you are going to see from the new computer ...

Wow! Will you come over yo my place and guide me through my setup

Thanks that does help a lot! I guess that goes to show there being no point in getting a E6700.

[[TAG]Imp]

WHOA! nice 06 scores...

[andyisc00l]

please don't buy the raptors..its a waste of money, the sata 3.0gb/s drives in raid0 will be very close in speed, sometimes even beating raptors...again its like buying ddr2 1066 ram when ddr2-800 will be fine except its far more ridiculous in this case...i've noticed alot of people here aren't concerned with money..if I were you I'd get 2-250gb caviar RE(raid edition) WD2500YD in raid0, has a 5 year warranty too ,will cost you $160..the only thing you will notice is maybe games will load a few seconds faster, you won't notice a big difference, maybe some loud seeking..also for your ram your gonna need active cooling, and you'll need to hit 2.4v-2.5v to really get performance out of them(ddr2-1100 cas4), just to keep in mind.. I'm not sure what the asus boards max vdimm is might wanna check that out..and lastly in my opinion $240 for that case is kind of a waste..but alot of people like the case so who knows..if you can't find a tuniq get a scythe ninja it does better then tuniq with low cfm..and there is a new ninja comin out, just released, is supposed to be a few degrees better then ninja which is pretty wild

[Natalia]

please don't buy the raptors..its a waste of money, the sata 3.0gb/s drives in raid0 will be very close in speed, sometimes even beating raptors...again its like buying ddr2 1066 ram when ddr2-800 will be fine except its far more ridiculous in this case...i've noticed alot of people here aren't concerned with money..if I were you I'd get 2-250gb caviar RE(raid edition) WD2500YD in raid0, has a 5 year warranty too ,will cost you $160..the only thing you will notice is maybe games will load a few seconds faster, you won't notice a big difference, maybe some loud seeking..also for your ram your gonna need active cooling, and you'll need to hit 2.4v-2.5v to really get performance out of them(ddr2-1100 cas4), just to keep in mind.. I'm not sure what the asus boards max vdimm is might wanna check that out..and lastly in my opinion $240 for that case is kind of a waste..but alot of people like the case so who knows..if you can't find a tuniq get a scythe ninja it does better then tuniq with low cfm..and there is a new ninja comin out, just released, is supposed to be a few degrees better then ninja which is pretty wild

This Ninja?
http://www.digital-daily.com/editori..._4/index04.htm

And what would you be recommending to cool the memory?

[Shift]

Yiu can also try out the Noctua heatsink. People have been getting crazy results with that heatsink.

[[TAG]Imp]

please don't buy the raptors..its a waste of money, the sata 3.0gb/s drives in raid0 will be very close in speed, sometimes even beating raptors...again its like buying ddr2 1066 ram when ddr2-800 will be fine except its far more ridiculous in this case...i've noticed alot of people here aren't concerned with money..if I were you I'd get 2-250gb caviar RE(raid edition) WD2500YD in raid0, has a 5 year warranty too ,will cost you $160..the only thing you will notice is maybe games will load a few seconds faster, you won't notice a big difference, maybe some loud seeking..also for your ram your gonna need active cooling, and you'll need to hit 2.4v-2.5v to really get performance out of them(ddr2-1100 cas4), just to keep in mind.. I'm not sure what the asus boards max vdimm is might wanna check that out..and lastly in my opinion $240 for that case is kind of a waste..but alot of people like the case so who knows..if you can't find a tuniq get a scythe ninja it does better then tuniq with low cfm..and there is a new ninja comin out, just released, is supposed to be a few degrees better then ninja which is pretty wild

I agree about the hard drives, except i would go seagate, just my personal preference...