New Computer

[Raid]

How about two drives and run a mirror?


Add a second video card so you can run two monitors?


Does your PS have an 80+ rating?


Card Reader?

[Kayaker72]

How about two drives and run a mirror?

Isn't that the RAID configuration? [:P] I looked into this a fair amount and it is on my list of what I wanted. It seems that it is very good protection against drive failure. But, as Daniel pointed out,it wouldn't protect against theft, fire, water, or human error. So, while I would still like to add it, I am up against my budget that I had in mind so I opted to use two external HDDs as my back-ups, which I already own. One of which is kept offsite...it's manual, but should work. To help prevent disk failure to begin with, I went with the Caviar Black, which had the best ratings I could find.

Add a second video card so you can run two monitors?

That is a good thought. I talked to our IT guy at work yesterday and he didn't seem to think I needed two. But your question has me looking into it. Re-reading this thread has me re-evaluating my motherboard (AM3 not AM3+, only up to 16 GB RAM memory, and RAM at 2000, 1333, 1066, not 1600). So I'll look at multiple video cards too. But company came over, so all this will need to sit a couple of days.

Does your PS have an 80+ rating?

Is this "efficiency under maximum load?" If so, it is rated at >70%. I went for a less expensive, very basic looking PS that still had a "4 egg" rating.

Card Reader?

One thing that I already have []


Thanks,


Brant

[Dr Croubie]

yeah, i choose more external backups not plugged in, no amount of extra RAID disks can protect against virus, theft, user error, or cat walking on your keyboard. 1 disk is quieter and less power too.


.


On your motherboard/video card thing. so far you've got a motherboard with builtin graphics and no graphics card. fair enough, but:


- I don't know if you can plug in two monitors, you'll have to check the motherboard manual if you can get one before buying. If you get an nVidia graphics card then you can use 2 of the 3 outputs (per card) at once. The latest Radeon cards with Eyefinity or whatever it's called, you can plug in god knows how many monitors per card, i think displayport daisychains even (but you'll probably need a high-end card)


- motherboard graphics will chew up your system RAM because they don't have their own. 8GB should be more than enough as it is, hurts most on games. How many 21megapixel 16bit TIFFs do you layer on top of each other at once? Even the lowest end card will help a bit if you do.


- motherboard itself, you *might* get away with plugging in the new am3+ CPUs into that board (best research it if you really want to). If not, you can always buy my x6 if/when i go to 8-core


- also, only the AMD 900-series chipset take the AM3+ cpus. but none of them have builtin graphics. so if you go up there, add another $40 for a basic graphics card too.


- with the RAM speed, i keep seeing things that say the lowest-end Athlon-100 series are limited to 1333-speed. i'll update tomorrow (or whenever the package arrives) as to how i get on with a phenom2 and 1600 RAM, i think i'll be fine though.


.


ps, and my PSU is 80% efficient. never heard of the brand you got, but there's a lot more choice in the states i've ever heard of...

[Raid]

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"]<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"]<span style="font-size: small;"]<span style="font-family: Calibri;"]I have used mirrored drives on all but one of my computers I owned (this is not the backup), It&rsquo;s so much easier to replace a drive when it fails than rebuild a system from a backup. I have had Raid systems at home long before a home NAS became the standard, hence the Raid nickname. I currently have three NAS units running at home&hellip; sad I know[:$].<o></o>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"]<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"]<o><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"]</o>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"]<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"]<span style="font-size: small;"]<span style="font-family: Calibri;"]The reason why I suggested a second monitor, is that working on two screens is fantastic, once you have made the jump you will never go back. <o></o>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"]<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"]<o><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"]</o>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"]<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"]<span style="font-size: small;"]<span style="font-family: Calibri;"]The 80+ program introduces about 6 years ago by industry, has highlighted how bad Computer power supplies are. I fact most PC power suppliers are so inefficient at part loads (50% or less) that more than half the power is being consumed by the power supply in heat. The 80 Plus Platinum power supplies are so good that many are now fan-less. <o></o>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"]<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"]<o><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"]</o>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"]<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"]<span style="font-size: small;"]<span style="font-family: Calibri;"]Many years ago had a colleaguealways used 1KW power supplies in his PC&rsquo;s, just to be safe. After a few quick measurements we showed that of his load (500W) 70% was being consumed by the power supply in the form of heat (350W) and only 150W went to the computer. This computer had a number of 5&rdquo; full height drives&hellip; does anybody remember them?<o></o>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"]<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"]<o><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"]</o>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"]<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"]<o>[img]/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/24/7652.80Plus.JPG[/img]</o>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"]<span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-no-proof: yes;"]<v:shapetype coordsize="21600,21600" o:spt="75" oreferrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f" id="_x0000_t75"]<v:stroke joinstyle="miter"]</v:stroke><v:formulas><v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"]</v:f><v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"]</v:f><v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"]</v:f><v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"]</v:f><v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"]</v:f><v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"]</v:f><v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"]</v:f><v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"]</v:f><v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"]</v:f><v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"]</v:f><v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"]</v:f><v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"]</v:f></v:formulas><vath o:extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect"]</vath><o:lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t"]</o:lock></v:shapetype><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"]<o></o>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"]<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"]<o><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"]</o>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"]<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"]<span style="font-size: small;"]<span style="font-family: Calibri;"]The link below will give you all the information you need on this standard.<o></o>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"]<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"]<o><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"]</o>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"]<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"]http://www.plugloadsolutions.com/80PlusPowerSupplies.aspx<o></o>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"]<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"]<o><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"]</o>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"]<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"]<o><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"]</o>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"]<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"]<span style="font-size: small;"]<span style="font-family: Calibri;"]As for the Card reader, I thought that your new PC would be USB 3, so it may be time for a big speed increase with a new reader. I have always prefer to use an internal mounted reader (using a drive bay).
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"]<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"]<span style="font-size: small;"]<span style="font-family: Calibri;"]
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"]<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"]<span style="font-size: small;"]<span style="font-family: Calibri;"]Hope this helps.<o></o>

[dsiegel5151]

I agree with Raid. Two monitors is the way to go. I have two monitors on all of my computers, even my laptop dock. It

[Dr Croubie]

Well, my computer is up and running, finally. has been together since last thursday, i

[neuroanatomist]

Well, I had all my files imported onto the Air, all software installed, and was editing photos and surfing the Internet within a couple of hours, with probably no more than a couple dozen trackpad clicks and some download time. Thanks to the coffee and croissant at hand, I felt no need to eat the computer.

[Daniel Browning]

Well, my computer is up and running, finally. has been together since last thursday, i've finally got the graphical interface working.

Nice. I ran into one of the issues you did (nouveau) back when I upgraded from Fedora 9 to 11:


http://blog.endpoint.com/2009/07/fedora-goes-up-to-eleven.html

But i'd do that every day for the rest of my life rather than pay for windows, and i'd rather eat the whole thing than touch a mac. or maybe i'm just insane?

They can pry Linux from my cold, dead (but Free as in Freedom) fingers. []