Custom Build Comparable to this Prebuilt

[Zawmbeez]

I'm going with the SeaSonic. Better safe then sorry right? $30 is very little when your making a $1000 purchase. Might as well make sure its good.

 

[FishAk]

FishAk, that is purely your opinion.

You're exactly right Zap, the necessity of backing up a computer is purely my opinion. I'm sure it's your opinion also, and that you have a good backup system.

I'm also of the opinion that you should look both ways before crossing a street, you should wear a seat belt while traveling in a vehicle, you should wear protection if you shank a stranger, and you should maintain smoke detectors in your home. Not everyone agrees with my opinions listed, and they are entitled to make their own choice.

There is no indication in the OP's thread of an external drive, or any other backup solution. As you are well awair, another internal drive, while not a complete backup solution, is much better than no backup at all. As you pointed out, this is a family system, and not solely the OP's. If mom looses her photos, or dad loses all the movies he has edited and saved, who is going to get the blame if this is a home-built, regardless of where the fault actually lies? There is no question about whether or not the drive will die, the only question is when, and whether data will be lost. The data loss can be prevented for very little cost.

It is my very strong personal opinion that whichever computer is purchased, a backup drive must be acquired. But that's only my opinion. Some people are of the opinion that they don't need to wear a seat belt, and they are entitled to that opinion. Some of them will never have a problem.

 

[Zap]

You're exactly right Zap, the necessity of backing up a computer is purely my opinion.

I must have not made myself clear. My saying it is purely your opinion is of using a secondary internal HDD for the backup, not the necessity of doing backups.

Do backups? Yes.

Do backups on a secondary internal HDD? That is one possibility among the multitude of ways to back up your data.

It is actually great that you bring this up because it is often overlooked. However, telling a noob builder "you MUST do it this way" just, well, irks me, that's all. If you had said more to the lines of "you MUST have a backup, here's how I do it and what I recommend" you would have my wholehearted support.

 

[Zawmbeez]

I have two external (WD) hard drives in a toaster that I will probably use for back up. I might still use the internal once I get so more data on the computer. Thanks for all the suggestions.

 

[FishAk]

OK, that's great! If you already have two external drives for backup, it's not necessary to buy another drive for internal BU. An internal BU drive is convenient, and you can keep you backups more up-to-date automatically without keeping an external drive connected, but it's not as safe as 2 external BU sets. Two external backups, each with it's own power supply, and one in a separate physical location (like across town) provides a new layer of protection. You can use TrueCrypt to encrypt external drives for free, to protect the data from unauthorized access. Keep a 50Gb or so partition unencrypted to store an image set of your OS/programs partition, and to keep a copy of TrueCrypt in, so you can unlock the encrypted partition on a computer without TrueCrypt installed.

Depending on how you arrange your partitions, you can also get a performance boost from a second internal HDD, but you can get a much bigger boost from an SSD. SSD prices are dropping quite fast, and you will likely be able to get a good one large enough to contain your OS and programs for less than $50 next year.