Crap, Even I need help pick a mobo/Storage discussion

[michal1980]

i'd like my pc to be more general use. So its going for gaming + media center to stream music/movies to the xbox 360.

for this purpose i will be using windows vista ulimate (got a deal on it so its cool)

I know some of the downfalls of gaming in vista, but have played with RTM, and the only game right now thats a big problem for me is STALKER.

to rid the wave of the fall out of the ati card. I'll be using my 7800gt in the short term, and see if in the next month the ati cards actually come out. otherwise i'll be going to a 8800gts 640.

for the processor, I will probably use a 6600, or whatever <200 dollar cpu at the moment overclocks the best.

Ram i'm thinking 2gbs, maybe 4 if vista 32bit can see it. (I sense many more problems running 64bit right now).

But i'm going to need a ton of storage. Right now I have close 2 1tb of storage, but its over 4 disks, and I'd like to cut that back.

The final goal would be to have ~3-4tb of stroage. with ecoding, I could probably get it down to 2-3TB

with about 1.5 right now.

The pc will also be used for video encoding, and it appears that having a raid 0 array makes the encoding take 30% less time.

To that end, I will feel that in the end I will be using a good number of drives, esspically since i'm cheap.

The cheapest route would be to just buy 6 500gb harddrives, and each have its own drive letter.

But I'd like some back-up for at least some of the data.

The easiest why I geuss would be a raid 1 for the OS/Documents. Which would make them small drives.

Then have a smallish raid-o array, and then 2-3 tb drives, which can be added as my needs grow.

Add to that 2 optical drives.

I see in the end having up to 8 drives in my system.

I know the p965 has no native ide support, and with the j-mirco chip just has general issues. And that scares me a bit, I'd be willing to get new opitical drives, that are sata if that works. but Im still not 100% sure.

or should I go for like 4 sata drives 750 and raid 5 them getting about 2tb of storage. and then 2 small drives for my raid 0.

4 drives at once though would be a big chunk, can raid 5 'grown' i.e 3 drives now, then 4 later, etc, or would I have to rebuild?

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so which chipset should I end up with, a p965 (and then I'd like mobo that doesn't have issues with the extra controller)

or a nivida 680 or lt?

I dont think the 650 has as many sata ports as I need, but I could be wrong.

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just for fyi.
I'll never use sli, or crossfire, unless I win some cash.
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sorry its so long, if someone can summuarize it better please do.

 

[vailr]

Have you considered using external HD enclosures?
That way, you cut down on cooling requirements.
And, increase the lifespan of the hard drive, by not being powered up as much, or as often.
If you want to watch "Bridge Over the River Kwai" (for example) on external disc G (connected via USB 2.0, firewire, or eSATA) just flip the power switch on and the drive content is immediately available to the running system.

 

[michal1980]

I have but, I need access to most of the data, 24, esspically the streaming movies. I geuss I could go an external route, but i'd like everything in one box.

I geuss i'd have to do more research,

It all depends on how windows media center would respond to an external drive.

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but from my readings, i think i'll end up with a 680i mobo, I'd hate to have to give up the optition of ide opitical drives, and i've seen some goofy problems with intel solution.

 

[Madwand1]

Intel RAID is often limited to max 4 drives per array even when 6 slots are available, which limits the expansion.

nVIDIA RAID is said to have a 2 TiB limitation, which could defeat the support for larger number of drives in this context. I suggest checking this with nVIDIA support for specific chipset versions, and then double-checking whatever nice things they tell you elsewhere if possible. There also several reports of current nVIDIA chipsets demonstrating bandwidth limitations around 100 MB/s.

"RAID alone is not a backup". So regardless of how supposedly good an implementation is, if you have no external disconnected backup, then you have a data risk proportional to the size of your storage and the value and originality / recreation time/cost of that data. At these sizes, except where you can segment the data adequately into important/original and others, the only practical backups are going to be additional arrays and even additional servers.

Having a massive data storage on a gaming machine (which tend to be unstable, pushed to the limits, frequently changing, running unstable drivers and software, etc.) is also risk in itself.

 

[michal1980]

theres an external back up, for things that are important,
namely documents and pictures.

every so often the get pulled off the external drive to a dvd.

the rest of the stuff. I have the dvds of the movies so if I lose them, it will just be lost time, backing up 2-3 tb is not something i plan on doing, right now the critical stuff can fit on 2 - 3 dvds.

thanks for pointing on the limits to me

 

[Cardio]

I have both Evga 680i and GB 956P DS3 V.3. Both work alright in the end. I did not have much hassel with the DS3 SATA/IDE as I used a SATA Optical. Raid alright. Other hassels with the DS3 are not as pleasant and prefer the 680. 680i easier setup and seemingly more stable. I have multiple raid arrays on both but would not do again. No Speed advantage my testing and AT's latest finding same conclusion. Too much trouble for imagined gain.

Have had fabulous luck with E6420 (2 of them) will boot into windows at 3.8! Running 3.720 (8*365) on Air 24/7, Ninja W 2 S/flex fans virutally silent, 40mm fan on stock NB heatsink. Temps at 100% load <54c idle 30c.

 

[michal1980]

the only reason I'd have raid drives, is because there is one test that effects speed alot...

video encoding.

so i'm thinking of just seting up the drives like this:

300gb boot drive, stores most programs/os/documents

400x2 in a raid 0 for encoding. So as to not waste space, games will be loaded on the drive.

then just add 750gb - 1tb drives as I need, and skip raiding them since all they will be used for is holding movies.