Sorry guys, I should of been more specific....

Old System:
768 mb RAM
Athlon 2400 XP
EIDE HD ATA100 40G
5500 GeForce3 or 4?
21" CRT Hitachi

New System:
Klipsch PC Speaker System (2 front spkrs, 1 subwoofer)
I plan to use Sound Card Located on Motherboard 7.1 channel
MSI Neo4 Platinum SLI Motherboard
74G Raptor SATA Harddrive preferred (or 2 80G SATA 7200rpm @ Raid 0?)
Athlon 64 3200 or 3500 90nm 939 socket
1 gig RAM PC3200
GeForce4 6600GT,6800GT, or X800XL Video Card PCI-Express (1 card for now)
Keyboard
Mouse MX-1000 Logitech (Laser)
Coolmaster Case
Neo 480 Power Supplier (480 Watts)
Hyundai 19" LCD - Researched on TomsHardware
Plextor DVD-CD writer/reader Dual Layer 16X DVD-Reader....
Coolmaster Temp & Fan controller

Question(s):
1. How about getting two SATA Harddrives 80G each @ 7200 rpm, setup as Raid? Will the performance be close to that of 1 raptor drive?
2. Will I loose that much speed utilizing two SATA 7200rpm drives at raid, versus using one raptor?
3. Is my power supply adequate?
4. Will my onboard soundcard eat more cpu processes than a stand alone sound card like Audigy, etc.....? Would you recommend an Audigy card versus on-board sound card?
5. Most likely I'll only purchase 1 card for the system. So, based on that, and the reviews/tests, I think the X800XL is a real contender. It's about the same or better than two 6600GT's SLI, and close or better than one 6800GT. What is your recommendation?

Note: Most of the items I chose for the new system I've researched and researched on tomshardware, pcgameworld, ect, ect...

1-better performance and more storage
2-no
3-Yes it should
4-sound card concern about CPU cycle have always been a topic, even in the time of 486, and first pentium. With today's computer, you may loose some FPS, but you wont notice it.
5-x800xl and the non sli version of that motherboard, no Plextor drive as they are overpriced and not really worth it as today's burners are vey good while Plextor's one seem plagued with firmware problems.

Get faster RAM, like ddr500, with what you saved on the non sli version and the 3200+, so if you want to try OC, you'll have a more better system

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

He's right about that RAM, go for the pc4000 if you can afford it.

<font color=green> Woohoo!! I am officially an <b> Addict </b>!! </font color=green>
<i> <font color=red> One new Firefox fan </font color=red> </i>

Pat: What do you think of this review by anandtech on <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2101" target="_new">RAID 0</A>? It seems they don't think a lot about RAID0 performance increases...
Also, this admittedly old <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2073" target="_new">review of HDDs</A> seems to say that the real-world performance increase of the Raptor drives is good, but not as significant as synthetic benchmarks would imply. I would've posted this in the HDD forum, but it came up in her and I just read the reviews...

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<font color=red>You're a boil on the arse of progress - don't make me squeeze you!</font color=red>

Don't you mean non-sli version of the motherboard? Something like this<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=13-130-484&depa=1" target="_new">MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum</A> for $159, or even better the <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=13-136-152&depa=1" target="_new">DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra D</A> for $147.

<pre>(seems the nF4 Ultra boards are going up in prices)</pre><p>__________________________________________________
<font color=red>You're a boil on the arse of progress - don't make me squeeze you!</font color=red>

Faster drives will just shorten the duration by the percentage they are faster during the period they are the bottleneck. The rest of the time their will be no performance increase, whatsoever.

<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

And thus, unless you will be performing a lot of HDD intensive operations, the cost/benefit of going Raptor will be high and the same thing could be said about RAID0. I know that Pat has a lot of experience with RAID0 performance and wanted to get his thoughts, too. Rich - do you use RAID0 a lot?

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<font color=red>You're a boil on the arse of progress - don't make me squeeze you!</font color=red>

Okay, bare with me, I'll try and interpret your recommendations....

1. No significant performance gain utilizing a raptor over 7200rpm Raid0 config. And after reading the review/tests, I'm convinced a single drive Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm is the ticket.

2. With the extra money I save from a single HDD, I'll purchase PC4000 memory.

3. I was going to ask the question about non-sli boards, but figured sli is the way to go regardless of ATI or nV. Therefore, I'm set on getting the X800XL video card. Would this be X800XL 8x? or X800XL 4x? I'm assume AGP is the correct config.

4. Motherboard, I'm leaning towards MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum versus the DFI nF4 Ultra D.

5. I believe I'll have extra cash to possibly get a AMD 64 3500 versus 3200.

Before:
MSI Neo4 Platinum SLI Motherboard
74G Raptor SATA Harddrive preferred (or 2 80G SATA 7200rpm @ Raid 0?)
Athlon 64 3200 or 3500 90nm 939 socket
1 gig RAM PC3200
GeForce4 6600GT,6800GT, or X800XL Video Card PCI-Express (1 card for now)
Neo 480 Power Supplier (480 Watts)
Hyundai 19" LCD - Researched on TomsHardware
Plextor DVD-CD writer/reader Dual Layer 16X DVD-Reader....
Coolmaster Temp & Fan controller

Revised:
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum (AGP Slot)
Seagate Barracuda 160G 7200rpm
Athlon 64 3200 or 3500 90nm 939 socket
1 gig RAM PC3200 or PC4000
X800XL Video Card AGP
Neo 480 Power Supplier (480 Watts)
Hyundai 19" LCD - Researched on TomsHardware
NEC DVD-CD Dual Layer
Coolmaster Temp & Fan controller

Any other recommendations before I print this revision, and execute? Gentleman, I think I have a system!!






<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by SmokinBarrel on 03/09/05 02:01 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

Go with the 3200+ and don't get PC4000. A64s are NOT bandwidth starved, so you can o/c, use a divider and lose 1% performance while saving a good chunk of change. Use the money you save on the ram and the processor to get a single 74 GB raptor and a 200/250 GB SATA drive as well. Install your os and programs on the raptor, and your data files on the larger drive.

s signature has been formatted to fit your scr

I have had 3 systems with onboard RAID 0, and have order list for a Netcell syncRAID and 3 Raptors waiting to order.
I have not had any errors loss of data or crashes due to RAID 0, but do not see enough performance jump to take that possible hit in reliability.

<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

He won't get better performance out of a raid system over a single raptor. The seek times for the raptor will be much faster, and bandwidth won't do much for him. Read some of the reviews. Add to the fact that you have 2 drives which can fail now, as opposed to only one with a 5 year warranty.

s signature has been formatted to fit your scr

I do and have exactly what svrpig suggests above for storage now.

<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

Okay, I believe this will be my new system:

MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum (AGP Slot) or DFI nF4 Ultra D
Seagate Barracuda 80 - 160G 7200rpm + 74G Raptor (Raid 0)
Athlon 64 3200 90nm 939 socket
1 gig RAM PC3200
X800XL Video Card AGP
Neo 480 Power Supplier (480 Watts)
Hyundai 19" LCD - Researched on TomsHardware
NEC DVD-CD Dual Layer
Coolmaster Temp & Fan controller

How about this setup??? On a scale of 1 - 10 (10 being awesome setup/system) If you mark below 7, please state you cons, or improvement(s)?

_______________

My old system:
Athlon XP 2400
768G Ram PC2100
GeForce nV2 or 3, 5500 FX? Video Card
40G 5400rpm HDD
MSI Motherboard

How will you rate my experience with the new system discribed above in comparison to my old system when I play a game? On a scale of 1 - 10 (10 = kikazz experience/graphics)






<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by SmokinBarrel on 03/09/05 02:45 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

Do NOT raid0 the drives.

I would also suggest the Soltek KT890 board. Cheap, very fast, solid...

Good otherwise though.

s signature has been formatted to fit your scr

1. What RAM are you looking at - mfr/model? This <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-220-006&depa=1" target="_new">Patriot PDC1G3200LLK</A> is some really good RAM for the $147 - it was over $170 last week!
2. What mfr model for the PSU? You might be better going with the <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-104-934&depa=0" target="_new">Fortron Blue Storm 500W</A> or the <A HREF="http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=BA21102" target="_new">Enermax 535W Whisper II</A>.
3. You won't be able to put the Raptor and the other drive in a RAID0.