Help a newbie with architecture...

[dukay]

Normally I've bought ready made computers, upgraded when they ran completely out of gas and then repeated the process. Now it seems it's time to get a new computer and fortuitously, I've come into a bit of 'mad money'. I'd like to put a "Dream Machine" together (though not quite what
the Anandtech guys came up with). My applications are hard disk recording (audio), image processing, gaming and the usual suspects. After a bit of research, I've come up with the following:

Abit KT7-RAID motherboard
1GHz T'bird processor
512 MB 133MHz SDRAM (suggestions welcome)
Adaptec 3200S RAID SCSI ULTRA 160 controller card
Two 15000 RPM Cheetah 18.6GB hard drives
Two IBM 75 GB Deskstar 7200 RPM hard drives
Prophet 64MB video

I understand about cases, cooling, power supply size, etc.
I expect to use the second channel in the Adaptec controller for DVD, CD-RW, etc.
I expect to run Windows 98 or Me.

I'm proposing to set the two sets of disks up in RAID 0 (striped) with the SCSI set being used as the boot disks and for software. I'm assuming that with the short seek times and lower latency of the Cheetahs I'll get better performance. The IBM drives will be used for data storage (images and recording tracks) which is (presumably) accessed less frequently.

My questions are:

Does this generally make sense (from a performance point of view, not $$)?
Will it work?
Are there better approaches? Component selections?
If I were to delay a month or two would my preferred components change? To what?
What problems am I likely to run into putting this together and bringing it up?
What have I forgotten?
Roughly where would this fit on the "Dream Machine" performance scale?

Thanks

 

[TechKnight]

Eh... they said something about 950Mhz machines outperforming the 1Ghz machines, probably because of FSB. Also save a chunk of money too. So if you're having this system to show off, go for the 1Ghz, but for performance, I'd say a 950Mhz processor.

 

[Zorba]

TechKnight: Where'd you see that?

dukay: If you wait a bit you might be able to get your hands on a 1.1GHz T-Bird.

 

[ElFenix]

if you were to delay a month or two you could get a DDR mobo, so that your athlon could be fed a lot better. the price wouldn't change too much. have to wonder about the OS choice though. windows 2000 sounds more up your alley.