New computer? Maybe...

[Tbone]

I did ask him. He said "I'm not sure, but I've seen someone do it before. That's what I'm going to do when I get my blah blah blah"

[likwidtek]

Yeah that's what I mentioned before too.  Get two of them have ask ibuypower to configure them in RAID 0 before installing Vista.  I looked in their configurator and didn't see the option but I'm sure it's available.  You may have to ask via the online chat thingy.

Raid 0 basically combines both disks so they read and write together.  Not exactly twice as fast but much better load times in windows and in games.  The only down side to this though is you have twice the chance of data loss.  In other words with a normal setup with 1 harddrive you have a 1x chance of data loss.  Meaning a hardrive breaks and you lose your data and have to restore from backup.  With RAID 0 two identicle harddrives are shotgunned together for performance.  So this way you have a 2x chance of data loss because if either one dies you lose all your data.  

As long as you have backups there's no need to worry and some people feel it's worth the performance gain.

[Tbone]

New setup. Changes are video card and an additional HD:

Case ( [New !!!] Thermaltake V9 Gaming Tower Case w/420W Power Supply Green )
Case Lighting ( None )
Power Supply ( 800 Watt -- Power Supply Quad SLI Ready )
Processor ( [New !!] Intel Core i7 Processor 920 (4x 2.66GHz/8MB L3 Cache) )
Processor Cooling ( Certified CPU Fan and Heatsink )
Motherboard ( Asus P6T Intel X58 Chipset CrossFire and SLI Supported w/7.1 Sound, Triple-Channel DDR3, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, 3-Way SLI PCI-E MB 3-Way SLI )
Memory ( 12 GB [2 GB X6] DDR3-1333 Triple Memory Module Corsair XMS3 Dominator w/DHX technology )
Video Card ( 2x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 896MB w/DVI + TV Out Video - running SLI mode )
Video Card Brand ( Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA )
Hard Drive ( 500 GB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 16M Cache] )
2nd Hard Drive ( 500 GB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 16M Cache] )
External Hard Drives [USB 2.0/eSATA] ( None )
CD/DVD Drive ( None )
CD-RW/DVD-RW Drive ( [** Special !!! ***] LG 22X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive Black )
Sound Card ( 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard )
Speaker System ( iBUYPOWER 2.1 Channel Stereo Super Bass Subwoofer Speaker System )
Network Card ( Killer K1 - Online Gaming Accelerator - w/ 333Mhz Network Processing Unit + Lag Reduction Technology )
Floppy Drive ( None )
Monitor ( LCD Monitor Sceptre 24" LCD 16:9 Wide Screen HDTV Video & PC Monitor Support Resolution 1920x1200 )
2nd Monitor ( None )
Keyboard ( iBUYPOWER USB Keyboard w/ 18 Internet Hot /Multimedia Keys Black )
Mouse ( iBUYPOWER 1600 dpi High Sensitivity Internet Mouse Black )
USB 2.0 Accessories ( Built-in USB 2.0 Ports )
Meter Display ( None )
Flash Media Reader/Writer ( None )
Operating System ( Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium + [Free 60-Day !!!] Microsoft Office 2007(Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access ....) 64-Bit )
Software/Game ( [Free Game] - Halo 2 Free with purchase of Microsoft Windows Vista operating system )
USB Flash Drive ( None )
MP3 Player ( None )
Video Camera ( None )
Headset ( None )
Power Protection ( None )
Warranty ( Warranty Service Standard 3-Year Limited Warranty + Lifetime Technical Support )
Rush Service ( Rush Service Fee (not shipping fee) No Rush Service, Estimate Ship Out in 5~10 Business Days )

Total: $2329

[ZephixLeer (Zephic)]

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,680543/Review-Ati-Radeon-HD-4890-versus-Nvidia-Geforce-GTX-275/Reviews/?page=14

Thought I'd post that just for future comparison if anyone is trying to decide on video-cards.
It's a bench between the Nvidia 275 and the ATI 4890, but has some other cards included in the benchmarks.

[likwidtek]

They're so close in performance the only decider is really price.  ATI is still a better value right now IMO.  I've been ANTI ati since my 9700 pro and was really scared to buy ATI in December but i don't regret it.  I've had zero issues and insane performance.  Who ever told Tbone that there are problems with crossfire isn't giving him good information.

It's all just Ford and Chevy at this point.

[likwidtek]

Also I noticed you took out the wireless N adatper.  What other modifications did you make?  If you're going to go wireless anyway, you might as well downgrade the "Network Card ( Killer K1 - Online Gaming Accelerator - w/ 333Mhz Network Processing Unit + Lag Reduction Technology ) " to just onboard lan and sav a couple hundred bucks.  But if you get the wireless N adapter don't do the USB one do the internal.  

Also the green cathode light for only $10 is a must have, also make sure you choose GREEN as the color for the CD drive so it matches your green case... and I recommend you get the "NZXT Sentry LX Aluminum Fan Control, Clock, and Temperature LCD Display   "  for fluff and awesome sauce.

[Tbone]

All the lights will just keep me awake at night. lol...

There's no option to get anything other than the Killer card that I see.

I took the wireless adapter out because I just bought a linksys wireless N ultra gigabyte router so I'll probably get an adapter that will take advantage of all of that. They don't have an internal option.

[Tbone]

Final draft:

Case ( [New !!!] Thermaltake V9 Gaming Tower Case w/420W Power Supply Green )
Case Lighting ( Cold Cathode Neon Light Green )
Power Supply ( 800 Watt -- Power Supply Quad SLI Ready )
Processor ( [New !!] Intel Core i7 Processor 920 (4x 2.66GHz/8MB L3 Cache) )
Processor Cooling ( iBUYPOWER Napoleon CPU Cooling Fan System Kit )
Motherboard ( Asus P6T Intel X58 Chipset CrossFire and SLI Supported w/7.1 Sound, Triple-Channel DDR3, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, 3-Way SLI PCI-E MB 3-Way SLI )
Memory ( 12 GB [2 GB X6] DDR3-1333 Triple Memory Module Corsair XMS3 Dominator w/DHX technology )
Video Card ( 2x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 896MB w/DVI + TV Out Video - running SLI mode )
Video Card Brand ( Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA )
Hard Drive ( 500 GB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 16M Cache] )
2nd Hard Drive ( 500 GB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 16M Cache] )
External Hard Drives [USB 2.0/eSATA] ( None )
CD/DVD Drive ( None )
CD-RW/DVD-RW Drive ( [** Special !!! ***] LG 22X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive Green )
Sound Card ( Creative Lab Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer )
Speaker System ( iBUYPOWER 2.1 Channel Stereo Super Bass Subwoofer Speaker System )
Network Card ( Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100) )
Floppy Drive ( None )
Monitor ( LCD Monitor Sceptre 24" LCD 16:9 Wide Screen HDTV Video & PC Monitor Support Resolution 1920x1200 )
2nd Monitor ( None )
Keyboard ( iBUYPOWER USB Keyboard w/ 18 Internet Hot /Multimedia Keys Black )
Mouse ( iBUYPOWER 1600 dpi High Sensitivity Internet Mouse Black )
USB 2.0 Accessories ( Built-in USB 2.0 Ports )
Meter Display ( None )
Flash Media Reader/Writer ( None )
Operating System ( Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium + [Free 60-Day !!!] Microsoft Office 2007(Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access ....) 64-Bit )
Software/Game ( [Free Game] - Halo 2 Free with purchase of Microsoft Windows Vista operating system )
USB Flash Drive ( None )
MP3 Player ( None )
Video Camera ( None )
Headset ( None )
Power Protection ( None )
Warranty ( Warranty Service Standard 3-Year Limited Warranty + Lifetime Technical Support )
Rush Service ( Rush Service Fee (not shipping fee) No Rush Service, Estimate Ship Out in 5~10 Business Days )


With shipping, $2390

[likwidtek]

woot!

[NoCry]

nice that; do it!

[Tbone]

Ordered...

[Tbone]

I'm glad I did not get that LCD display. They called today and I had to do a $65 upgrade to my power supply for it to be compatible. At least I know they are aware that I want to RAID 0 the HDs.

[Lithium]

Crossfire and SLI = Big Joke. I have SLI in my desktop and 9 times out of 10 I disable it because it ends up causing more problems than performance.

Myths:
Your video memory IS NOT doubled.
Your framerate IS NOT doubled. (not even 25% increase in many situations depending on how the processor bottlenecks)
Just because you see your 3dmark score go up doesn't mean your real games will go up. (see myth 2)

And of top of it you are sucking another 150-200 watts of power which adds a ton more heat to the system.

Anyway, good luck maybe the new processor have more bandwidth to handle it.

And on the topic of hard drives, I don't think I'll ever buy a mechanical hard drive again. SSD is where it is at. Super fast, super reliable, no moving parts, less power, and less heat.

[Tbone]

I didn't bring my umbrella. I forgot Lithium is here to rain on my parade!!

[likwidtek]

hehe.