[Nebby]

Not saying that there's no benefit, just saying that there isn't much benefit for most users

I can't go back to mechanical drives after running SSD for any duration of time

 
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Windows boots up quite a bit quicker and games load faster too.

If I'm stuck w/ mechanicals for now, I'm gonna do whatever I can!

 

[Jodiuh]

If by most users you mean those that don't boot into windows or play games, then yes, it has little benefit for them.
 
Fortunately, I've done a pretty decent job staying away from SSD's. I almost put a RealSSD in here, but chose to hold off for one more round.

 

[stang]

Just get a fast SSD for your OS and put everything else onto hard disk drives. That is, if you are not loaded with cash and can afford to go all out Solid State. 

 

[Jodiuh]

No way dude. I already boned myself by going w/ Lynnfield months before Sandy Bridge comes to play. Don't wanna be saddled w/ Sandforce or Marvell controller's when Intel's pulling out their goodies. OC failure on the previous drives can be nasty.

 

[Nebby]

Quote:

If by most users you mean those that don't boot into windows or play games, then yes, it has little benefit for them.
 
Fortunately, I've done a pretty decent job staying away from SSD's. I almost put a RealSSD in here, but chose to hold off for one more round.

 

Have you done benchmarks comparing before and after? Not all games benefit as much from a fast hard drive. Did you measure the boot up time difference? Saying that every user that boots into windows and plays games will benefit from a raid is far too generic a recommendation. When I first got my raid card + 15.k6 Cheetah's, I put the three of them into a raid 0 to see how the performance was and my conclusion was that you just don't get that much benefit from raid 0 in most games and most user situations. Yes, you'll shave a few seconds off your windows boot time and a few seconds here and there on level loads but for the gains, all that hardware is a waste (especially when you consider the downside of raid 0).
 
As for booting, I really only care about that for my laptop; with my main computer the longest part of bootup is the raid card bios anyway 

 
We'll just have to agree to disagree; I've gone through my overclocking phase so I can see where you're coming from but to me it doesn't seem like it's worth it anymore.

 

[revolink24]

 
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I really hate flashy cases.  They piss me off.  Anything with 3242352 LEDs is a no go.  I have no issue with a LED or two inside so you can see the insides, but having an LED for EVERY fan is no good.  Plus, I will probably have this on a lot in order to rip movies and I need to sleep.
 
 
You striped vraptors?  Damn.  But drive failure could be a bitch, unless you backup a lot.  Wouldn't carpeting just hold heat and collect dust?  I mean it looks cool, but isn't it just hurting your PC?
 
 
As for OC'ing stuff.  I'm not sure if I want to yet.  I've really lost the OC touch and I haven't done it in so long, I would probably forget something and fry a chip. 
 
 

 

P180 series, or if you are planning on serious case longevity (using it for the next few builds) I say go all out and get a Corsair 800D/Silverstone TJ10/Lian Li

 

[dirkpitt45]

Quote:

 
 
I don't see how you can describe the CM690 as anything but cramped after looking at those pictures. A bigger case allows for more room which  makes a case much easier to deal with. It gives space for more fans or whatever else you wanna fit in there. It's taller and easier to hit the power button or reach the optical drive. And with wheels it's a cinch to move around. For LAN's, I use one of the larger Thermaltake carrying straps, so that's not even an issue. Unless there's a budget concern or you lack a gym membership, I see no reason to go w/ something smaller like the CM690 or even worse the 900...yuck.
 
 

The original 690 is not the 690 II; http://i28.tinypic.com/wjdvnl.jpg, Only a 4850 in there though, older pic, would take a newer one, but don't have a camera atm. 5870 is just slightly longer, I'd say there's about 2 inches from the end of it to the hdd cages. Excuse the terrible cable management, was the first pic I took when I got the case and didn't clean everything up yet.  
 
I don't agree with the "bigger is better", smaller is more work cable management wise, but not worse. I've got 6 fans, 1 on the bottom, 2 on top, 1 on the back, 2 up front, plus the 2 on the side panel so 8 actually. Not that amount of fans matters really, but I only lose a degree (on the cpu) with all the panels on compared to off. The power button and wheels work for you, but not all of us keep our pc's under our desks, mine sits on top to the right for easy access. IMO I prefer no wasted space, which you don't have with a mid-tower and air cooling. You've got just enough (or slightly less depending on your case), unlike the stacker, where you've got tons of room all around the motherboard, filled with nothing. Now if you're going to go water cooling with a loop for gpu, south/north bridge, and cpu, then you'd obviously want a full tower. But for air cooling why bother? Spend the extra $100 on a 40gb SSD for a boot drive and call it a day.  

 

[Jodiuh]

Thanks from sharing your thoughts guys. It definitely gives others looking for something new a couple of perspectives.

Look at what overclockers club just went through!

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/azza_hurrican_2000/print/

It sure looks ugly, but its hard to argue with the cooling or price!

 

[Nebby]

You weren't kidding when you said it looks ugly

 

[Jodiuh]

Yeah, definitely something you hide under the desk. Or decorate with pink streamers and turn in your man card. You really have a choice with the hurrican. (Stupid name too)

 

[mralexosborn]

Quote:

You weren't kidding when you said it looks ugly

Ugly is an understatement. Cheap and plasticky looking is more accurate. 

 

[Jodiuh]

No that is one area where I do appreciate my 1,000 lb Stacker. I can sit on it, stand on it, kick it, bang into doors and walls...all without fear of damaging anything inside. Its like a mini fallout shelter.

 

[XxATOLxX]

I got rid of the Asus UL50VT and replaced it with an Alienware M11x R2. I like it so far, the only thing I don't like is this new Nvidia Optimus, you can't really tell what video card is running and sometimes it ends up draining my battery rapidly. As of right now, I'm pulling a little over 4 hours of battery life, which isn't as good as the UL50VT, but I'm willing to sacrifice battery life for extra speed. What I'm trying to set up right now is to have the Alienware as my main computer, it pretty much does everything faster than my desktop anyways. Once I get a good docking setup and a USB dac, I'll phase out the desktop which is starting to get pretty dated.
 
Future upgrade might be an SSD hard drive, assuming that they'll come down in price or if I even end up keeping this laptop as long.
 
 
Specs:
i7 640UM
4GB RAM
320GB HDD
GT335M w/ Optimus
 

 

[WalkmanMan]

E Machine Desktop (Current)
 
AMD Athlon 3500+ 2.2GHz
2 GB DDR400 RAM
160GB 7200RPM HD
Zotac GeForce 9600GT
350W PS
17" 720p LCD
 
HP Compaq Desktop (Prior)
 
AMD Opteron 146 2.0GHz
1 GB DDR400 RAM
80 GB 7200 RPM HD
Ati Radeon X850XT
300W PS
15" 1080p CRT
 
Gateway FX Laptop (Other)
 
Core 2 Duo 2 GHz
4GB DDR2 RAM
320GB HD
GeForce 9600GT M
17" 720p LCD
 
The HP Compaq Desktop was the fastest but the graphics card died. It was faster because of CPU and GPU architecture or something, I don't know. Guess specs can be misleading though.

 

[mattering]

Your E-Machine is faster than ur old desktop and ur laptop is faster than your old desktop lol....I haz gateway FX too..the FX P7809G but  i'm in love with my desktop

...oh and that azza case didnt look half bad....srsly...when all the LEDs were lit up though ...Benchies on the 6870 and 6850 are out...considering that the 6870s are around 230USD...they are quite the bang for your buck