Computer upgrade..Looking for advice

BOWTYE8 · Post by **BOWTYE8** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 3:38 pm

Here is what I have and thinking of doing.
AMD 4800x2 with Raid 0 raptor 2x74 gigs.

Looking to upgrade. I dont game but do convert movies etc. So lots of big .Rar files. Love the raid o and raptors for this(speed).

I was looking at bare bones kits at Tiger. say 4-500.00.
Itel Quad core Q6700. Dont know If I would go with raid 0 with my current raptors or get one of the newer faster 150 gig raptors.--Any adivce on this also??

Video is not all important. Just a basic pci 512 vid card.

Plan to swap my current CD,DVD over to the new rig so would looking at the complete barebones with ram,MB,processor and most come with a harddrive. Which is still ok- but will still run a new raptor or my current raptors.

I would take my current AMD 4800x2 and install it in my basic server computer. My current raptors would be overkill for it. Just use it for my website and storing home pics and music etc...

Faust · Post by **Faust** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 9:59 pm

if youre actually converting, then CPU and mem speed/volume is important, maybe even more so than the sustained writes of a RAID 0 subsystem (which would really shine in real-time encoding). imo, whether or not youd need to upgrade your raptors depends more on how much space you need for archiving rather than speed. if you want to store all your movies on the same volume without moving them elsewhere for storage then yeah, you may wanna upgrade. the older raptors are still awsome when it comes to access times (random as well as sequential) and more-than-ample sustained reads/writes, so to be honest i would keep them. you could use the current array for the dump space during conversion, then plop the output to a budget obese drive for storage when done.

ill be honest and say that for the past few years i havent really focused on exactly which models are the awsomest, many other members here are more in tune with that (help!!

). but, if i were you, my priority list would be...

CPU speed/processing volume
speed and volume of memory
disk i/o volume (as long as your current subsystem is nice and fast and ample enough to suit each job individually, which it is i believe)
separate disk storage space

Rivas · Post by **Rivas** » Fri Aug 21, 2009 6:45 am

I just tested my HDD in raid 0 with HD Tune Pro 3.50.

Wait a little bit longer SSD drives are getting cheaper and cheaper.

Transfer rate:

Minimum: 89.0 MB/sec
Maximum: 208.0 MB/sec
Average: 128.1 MB/sec

Acess time: 0.1ms
Burst rate: 168.9 MB/sec
Cpu usage: 6.8%

Random access: read 267.398 MB/sec

Data Transfer Performance is 327MB/s read and 280MB/s write.(file length 64MB)

BOWTYE8 · Post by **BOWTYE8** » Fri Aug 21, 2009 10:02 am

Faust - Thakns for the info. I do love the raptors. Unzipping the .rar and thencombining the .rar is the drive speed in which the raptors handle well.
Correct I do also convert to DVD which is processor.

So its looks like I will keep the raptors. I have a brand new still in wrapper WD 500gb Green drive that I will use for deep storage. When the raptors get filled. I tx pics,movies and music over to the storage drive.

Right now I have the raptors setup in raid 0 with 40 gig for OS and the other 105 for storage/ converting etc.....

Rivas- I will test my raptor this weekend for their true speed at this point and compare to your speed test specs.

BOWTYE8 · Post by **BOWTYE8** » Fri Aug 21, 2009 7:13 pm

Not as good as I thought for me???. Rivas -what are you running???????

Faust · Post by **Faust** » Fri Aug 21, 2009 8:32 pm

hrm. odd. i would expect more from 2 striped raptors. maybe defrag and close unnecessary background stuff? heres a single WD 640GB Black drive. pretty close to that array as far as across the platters.

Rivas, which controller are you using? not sure how the Promise cards stack up to some of the new/different RAID controllers. could also be a reason for his lower reported speeds.

Rivas · Post by **Rivas** » Sat Aug 22, 2009 3:23 pm

Just what I have on board, intel controller.

It's 2 ocz vertex series striped, vista64 and P6T7 mobo.

Faust · Post by **Faust** » Sat Aug 22, 2009 6:45 pm

for reference, heres a 1st gen 74GB Raptor i use mostly for fiddling with WDS. youre doin fine, i think. i misread and thought Rivas was running raptors at first. im guessing Rivas's array is SSDs (?).

the Black WD 640GB drives (my previous benchmark), as far as sustained reads/writes are pretty sick. cheap, too (~$75 per drive). you just sacrifice about 50% in access times and random read/writes obviously.

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Sat Aug 22, 2009 7:14 pm

for video encoding, you dam sure want a quadcore CPU IMO

and just for comparison, here is a 146GB ultra 320SCSI drive that is about 1/2 full and never been defraged in over a year or 2 LOL

Rivas · Post by **Rivas** » Sat Aug 22, 2009 11:18 pm

Faust wrote: im guessing Rivas's array is SSDs (?).

Yes, I'm using SSD's 120gbx2

BOWTYE8 · Post by **BOWTYE8** » Sun Aug 23, 2009 3:08 pm

Rivas wrote:Yes, I'm using SSD's 120gbx2

Those SSD drives are smokin!!

I will try to keep me current drives and look for a quad core setup.\
is the Intel Quad core Q6700 a decent setup?? I have always had a AMD but it seems Intel has taken the lead pretty good. I just cant figure out allthe new models numbers :P

thanks

BOWTYE8 · Post by **BOWTYE8** » Sun Aug 23, 2009 3:27 pm

looking at this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDeal ... mbo.239851
or http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDeal ... mbo.230114
I like this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDeal ... mbo.239577

Thought or other sugestions.

BOWTYE8 · Post by **BOWTYE8** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 3:41 pm

still looking. Any input on this
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... u=B69-3064

BOWTYE8 · Post by **BOWTYE8** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 10:16 pm

Well picked up a few items...Way past budget off 350-400.
Asus MB M4A78T-E
AMD AM3 Phenon II 965
Corsair 4 GB 1600mhz
Sata DVD drive.
650 PSU

I have a nice Soprano case and the 2 older raptor drives. Also had 500gig WD green sata drive in the box for storage.

I will be using the on board vid for now...I think it a radeon HD 3300 with 128 meg and it can share some of the 4 gig if I need.
I dont game so not a priority at the moment.

I will install my current machine guts into another chasis and make it my home server.