Primary Hard Drive 1 TB HARD DRIVE -- 16M Cache, 7200 RPM, 3.0Gb/s - Dual 1TB Drives (1TB Capacity) - RAID 1 Data Security

I recommend reconfiguring this to RAID 0.  Otherwise your HDD transfer rates will be your bottleneck, followed by the video card.

You can add a 3rd drive or use an EXT USB for backup, and very little cost and you stand to gain much performance with RAID 0.

EDIT: Or better yet, leave the mirror and get a couple veloci-raptors to stripe, no maintenance like SSD and still sick performance.

 I have been using it since RC1 and am very very happy with it thus far. If you feel a little iffy about jumping to a new OS I would wait 3-6 months to see how it goes for the masses. If on the other hand you like to be using the latest software (i use FF 3.5, Chrome 2 and IE8) then go on ahead and get it :)

Originally posted by heremypet

Primary Hard Drive 1 TB HARD DRIVE -- 16M Cache, 7200 RPM, 3.0Gb/s - Dual 1TB Drives (1TB Capacity) - RAID 1 Data Security

I recommend reconfiguring this to RAID 0.  Otherwise your HDD transfer rates will be your bottleneck, followed by the video card.

You can add a 3rd drive or use an EXT USB for backup, and very little cost and you stand to gain much performance with RAID 0.

EDIT: Or better yet, leave the mirror and get a couple veloci-raptors to stripe, no maintenance like SSD and still sick performance.

Like I said i'm not a techy, but I do understand a little. But how would the transfer be bottlenecked by having the HDD mirrored?

I mean I know if I have it write to both drives it would go faster. but i've known ppl who've done this and I wouldn't (twice the chance of losing yoru data)

It's not that mirroring them will slow them down, it's just that max sata transfer rates, in light of your other system specs, will be the bottleneck on that system. 

If you're concerned with losing your data consider this: redundancy doesn't protect against viruses, software corruption, and accidental deletion, only physical HDD failure.  You're better off using a formal backup solution for that (possibility) while reaping the performance benefits of striping 100% of the time.

Hmmm Yeah i'm more worried about the HD failing then anything else. And if I do anything like you are saying i'm voiding my warrenty. So I guess i'll have to suck it up. but thanks for the advice/help.

Originally posted by Ilvaldyr

Originally posted by Dewm

...Do you have a problem with alien ware? I always thought they where a high end brand.

I have an Alienware.

They're waaay overpriced, but it's a pretty awesome machine.

What if you don't want to build your own and have the money? I paid £3.5k for my PC ,not because i couldn't get the same thing cheaper if i built it,no, it was because i could not be bothered to build it.

I also get a platinum same day warranty till the end of 2011.

I get same day service. If anything goes wrong with my pc i can have an engineer out the same day with the parts or a brand new replacement,that's the difference.

I have a.. Dell 730 XPS H2C Lt Edition..

Windows Vista ultimate 64bit
H2C liquid cooling system
Dell 1000W PSU
- EPS12V, SLI, ATX2.0, SSI
- 92mm thermally controlled fan
- MTBF: 400,000 hours
Motherboard chipset NForce 790i SLI
CPU 3.8GHz GHz ( Factory over clocked) Intel Quad Core 2 Extreme QX9770
6GB of Corsair Dominator DDR3 ( Factory over clocked 1600MHz )
Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer audio card
2 x728mb 8800gtx Sli config
2x 160GB 10,000 rpm hard drive, 1TB 7,200 rpm hard drive
AGEIA PhysX physics card accelerator
Blu-ray/HD-DVD combo drive
DELL ULTRA SHARP 2408WFP24-inch Wide screen Flat Panel Monitor.

It stands at 22inches tall and 9 inches wide,it's a beast.

www.techgadgets.in/images/dell-xps-730-h2c-gaming-desktop.jpg

www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2008/05/5-28-08-730-h2c_dell.jpg

I will be Ebaying it in 6 months time and replacing it with the 730x Intel Core i7 .

I might even offer it up for sale on this site,i really don't need the money(not being big headed,i have a good job) so i would let it go for around the £1000 price.

 So whats the countdown to?

I have been building my own machines for the past 15 years or so.  I decided to buy a nice Alienware Core i7 box a few months ago, and I love it.  The price wasn't too bad, but yes it was more than I would have payed for building my own.  However, I have a warranty, which is nice when something goes wrong.  I had an Alienware laptop through work a few years ago, and it rocked.

Once you realize that building your own gaming rig isn't so much of a thrill when you personal time is worth gold to you, the little bit of extra money for a pre-built rig may be worth it.  People like to rip on Alienware, but I don't see the problem.

I also just ordered a $5000 Dell Precision M6400 through work.... I can't wait to get my hands on that sumbitch.  Thank god it wasn't my money, because I wouldn't own it if it was.

Very nice system OP.

I would suggest taking even some of the older games you might have, it can be a total different experiance seeing them at UBER high settings.

Or maybe pick up a few games from last or this year that might have nice price drops. I bet there are plenty of games you might have wanted to play but like you said didn't have the system to play them.

 I agree with playing older games again. Once i finished my current rig (see signature) I had to resub to LoTRO just to set everything on max :) Let me tell you.. what a difference it makes! I am reinstalling AC as we speak (another thread got my nostalgic for it) and will do the same. I don't expect as big of gains but still think it will look better than I remember (been 4-5 years).

 illanadan how are you finding the 5870's?

i was thinking about getting one or possibly a pair

wow 8 gig ram.  you can octuple box Aion or decuple box wow

 Newegg sold out a few days ago, but just sign up for their auto-notify. I get all my stuff through Newegg :) Be for warned though that some people are having issues with the CrossFire drivers right now. For me they popped right in and once I enabled it, it just worked. I like the cards because of their idle power draw. it only draws like 27w idle! Plus i like how cool they stay :)

i meant performance wise :)  i wont be getting them till around late december/early jan

WOOT!

Just arrived. deffinitly exited. If you want I put pictures up (but you probably don't really care) :P

But thanks for humoring me at least.

Originally posted by Dewm

 

WOOT!

 

Just arrived. deffinitly exited. If you want I put pictures up (but you probably don't really care) :P

But thanks for humoring me at least.

I wouldn't mind seeing some. It's always exciting when people get new things.

Originally posted by Dewm

 

WOOT!

 

Just arrived. deffinitly exited. If you want I put pictures up (but you probably don't really care) :P

But thanks for humoring me at least.

 

 

yeah man post some pics

 pics pics pics!

The 5870's are running great! You really don't notice a huge diff until you try to play games on max settings and high res's. Thats when these bad boys really shine :) 

Holy hell this thing is fast. (posting from it right now)

Yeah.. so far so good, the only thing i'm a little unhappy about is that ibuypower said I get a free windows 7 upgrade. Which doesn't happen untill today with microsoft. So we'll see how long it takes to get that.

i'll post some pics in the morning gotta go to work :(

 cool glad you're happy with it