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Ok, I am walking the upgrade path of life and have been told I am getting a new PC come my birthday/ christmas. This is what I am looking at. Please tell me what you guys think and if I need to add something.<br><br>Biostar K8NHA Pro w/ AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (1) <br>512MB DDR PC 3200 400Mhz (4) <br>Maxtor HDD 160GB 133/7200/8MB (1) <br>Soundblaster Audigy2 (2) <br>MSI 52x CD-Rom (1) <br>I have a CD - RW and a DVD RW<br>Radeon x800 256MB (1) <br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductde ... =0">Aspire X-Dreamer II Black (1)</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br> <p><!--EZCODE CENTER START--><div style="text-align:center"><br>Proud Member of the<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>The Templars</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>Proud Member of <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>XMEN</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>Proud Sportscaster for the<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>TsN - The Team Sportscast Network</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>What we do today, Echoes in Eternity!<br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>ROMA VICT</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></div><!--EZCODE CENTER END--></p><i></i>

Found a problem. The MB only takes 2 DIMMs. Which means that if you want 2 GB, you need 2 x 1GB sticks, not 4 x 512MB. And you put down 2 audigy cards? Maybe I'm not reading your notation correctly.<br><br>Since you seem to be going all-out, money-is-no-object, why aren't you doing RAID? Stuff will load a heck of a lot faster. You could do SATA, too, for improved airflow. <p><!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://www.xmenclan.org/xmengambit.gif"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--><br>XMEN member<br>Card-carrying DTM<br>OKL Fish-napper<br><br>Though a program be but three lines long, someday it will have to be maintained.<br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em> The Tao of Programming</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--></p><i></i>

Ok, the ram issue was not known at the time, thanks for the info on that one. The dual sound cards is not a mis-print. I need at least two cards to do my broadcasting so those are a requirement.<br><br>As for RAID and SATA... link something in here for me please... Oh and this system isn't actually that much. I can get it build for under $1400.00. <p><!--EZCODE CENTER START--><div style="text-align:center"><br>Proud Member of the<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>The Templars</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>Proud Member of <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>XMEN</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>Proud Sportscaster for the<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>TsN - The Team Sportscast Network</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>What we do today, Echoes in Eternity!<br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>ROMA VICT</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></div><!--EZCODE CENTER END--></p><i></i>

For starters, SATA is Serial ATA, whereas the ATA-100 or -133 drives you see that use a ribbon cable are Parallel ATA. Technically the interface is slightly faster (150 Mb/s vs 133) but it uses a much smaller cable for data transfer, which means less blocked airflow!<br><br>Info and pics: <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.explosivelabs.com/articles/s ... <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>RAID can be implemented on SCSI, PATA, or SATA drives. RAID is an array of disks, with a minimum size of two. Here's a linky for info, but from a SCSI point of view. <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.uni-mainz.de/~neuffer/scsi/w ... <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br>Basically the RAID you'd be able to get would be good for either data redundancy or for "striping", where part of (usually half, in a home setup) the data is written to one physical drive and part to another. Translation: data would move between the hard drive array into memory nearly twice as fast. Theoretically. It's actually less, but does give a big speed boost. If one drive fails, though, then you've pretty well lost all the info, because it's shared across the drives. <br><br>Many current motherboards, I think including your Biostar, are capable of SATA or RAID or both. The Chaintech I plan to use for my A-64 setup certainly is, and it also uses the nForce3 chipset.<br><br> <p><!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://www.xmenclan.org/xmengambit.gif"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--><br>XMEN member<br>Card-carrying DTM<br>OKL Fish-napper<br><br>Though a program be but three lines long, someday it will have to be maintained.<br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em> The Tao of Programming</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--></p><i></i>

I plan on getting an ATI x800 here soon. Hopefully I'll miraculously have time and money to get a system built for the LAN and time off from work to go. <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :D --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/happy.gif ALT=":D"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <br> <p></p><i></i>

Ok, so after reading this, and another forums post... what sort of hardware do I need for the SATA setup? <p><!--EZCODE CENTER START--><div style="text-align:center"><br>Proud Member of the<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>The Templars</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>Proud Member of <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>XMEN</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>Proud Sportscaster for the<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>TsN - The Team Sportscast Network</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>What we do today, Echoes in Eternity!<br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>ROMA VICT</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></div><!--EZCODE CENTER END--></p><i></i>

You need a mainboard with an SATA controller onboard, or an SATA card to connect the drives to, and then make a couple jumper settings, and then presto. <p><!--EZCODE HR START--><hr /><!--EZCODE HR END--><!--EZCODE CENTER START--><div style="text-align:center"><br><!--EZCODE FONT START--><span style="color:red;font-family:Arial;font-size:medium;"><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>"Never, Never, Never Quit"</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> -Winston Churchill</span><!--EZCODE FONT END--></div><!--EZCODE CENTER END--></p><i></i>

Wow, like that totally was not for the ignorant...<br><br>What the hell did you just say SH?<br><br>Are there any decent non-Intel mobos that are SATA capable that are good... <p><!--EZCODE CENTER START--><div style="text-align:center"><br>Proud Member of the<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>The Templars</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>Proud Member of <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>XMEN</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>Proud Sportscaster for the<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>TsN - The Team Sportscast Network</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>What we do today, Echoes in Eternity!<br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>ROMA VICT</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></div><!--EZCODE CENTER END--></p><i></i>

I like the Asus A7N8X Series boards, but they don't have one that supports the Athlon 64 chips, I don't think... But it's possible. Been a while since I seriously looked at upgrading.<br><br>Basically, to have SATA work on your system, you need the drives, and the controller for it, not unlike with regular IDE drives. With the SATA, you hook the cables and jumpers up, and the BIOS detects the SATA controller as the primary I/O Bus, (Like IDE 0, it's where the Hard drives are, and IDE 1 is where the Optical drives reside.) and so it knows to find the HDDs there instead of IDE 0.<br><br>Does that make more sense? <p><!--EZCODE HR START--><hr /><!--EZCODE HR END--><!--EZCODE CENTER START--><div style="text-align:center"><br><!--EZCODE FONT START--><span style="color:red;font-family:Arial;font-size:medium;"><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>"Never, Never, Never Quit"</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> -Winston Churchill</span><!--EZCODE FONT END--></div><!--EZCODE CENTER END--></p><i></i>

You weren't listening, WC. I said the biostar mobo you had picked out supported SATA and/or RAID. <br><br>From <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.biostar.com.tw/products/main ... Grand">the description</a><!--EZCODE LINK END-->:<br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>2 x Serial ATA Connector<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br>and<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Storage (RAID)<br><br> * NVIDIA RAID Technology<br> --- RAID 0 disk striping for highest system and application performance<br> --- RAID 1 disk mirroring support for fault tolerance<br> --- Support for both SATA and ATA-133 disk controller standards<br> --- RAID 0+1 disk striping and mirroring for highest performance with fault tolerance<br><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>You're fine. <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :) --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/smile.gif ALT=":)"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> You just need to buy a SATA drive instead of a PATA one. Or you can get a couple and go SATA RAID. <br> <p><!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://www.xmenclan.org/xmengambit.gif"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--><br>XMEN member<br>Card-carrying DTM<br>OKL Fish-napper<br><br>Though a program be but three lines long, someday it will have to be maintained.<br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em> The Tao of Programming</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--></p><i></i>

You guys might want to look at the <!--EZCODE FONT START--><span style="color:yellow;font-family:helvetica;">DFI LANParty UT nF3-250Gb</span><!--EZCODE FONT END--><br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2198" target="top">Link</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br>Anandtech had this to say about it...and I have trusted their judgement for years....<br><br>"To put it simply, the DFI nF3 250Gb is the best overclocking Athlon 64 board that we have ever tested. The range of options in every area is superb, and no one will feel that they are left short with this DFI board. For best performance, you should use one DIMM, but performance with 2 DIMMs is also impressive, as the DFI is as good or better with 2 dimms than the best of the Athlon 64 boards that we have tested. If you plan to buy a Socket 754 Athlon 64 and overclock it, this is the board to buy."<br> <p><table border=0><tr><td><embed align=left src=http://www.thzclan.com/avatars/ezice.swf menu=false quality=high bgcolor=#000000 width=217 height=166 type=application/x-shockwave-flash pluginspage=http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/dow ... <td><table border=0 style='Filter: Shadow(Color=#BB1403,Direction=255)'><tr><td><span class='usertitle'>XMEN Iceman [DTM]<br>Founder and Leader of the Base Tribes XMEN Clan<br>Proud member of the Dragon Talon Mercenaries teamplayers Guild<br>Citizen of New Fenecia<br><br>You weren't much of a challenge - T2 bot after killing Iceman<br><br>- click on avatar for links - no, not sausage links!</span></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></p><i></i>

Not available for retail yet. <p></p><i></i>

The only other problem is this... I really do not like to over clock my stuff I get worried that I will do something wrong and then not know how to fix it. I am not that computer savay. <p><!--EZCODE CENTER START--><div style="text-align:center"><br>Proud Member of the<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>The Templars</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>Proud Member of <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>XMEN</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>Proud Sportscaster for the<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>TsN - The Team Sportscast Network</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>What we do today, Echoes in Eternity!<br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>ROMA VICT</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></div><!--EZCODE CENTER END--></p><i></i>

Quick note before I leave for home... how is this one?<br><br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.westerndigital.com/en/produc ... DriveID=59" target="top">SATA HDD</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> <p><!--EZCODE CENTER START--><div style="text-align:center"><br>Proud Member of the<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>The Templars</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>Proud Member of <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>XMEN</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>Proud Sportscaster for the<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>TsN - The Team Sportscast Network</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>What we do today, Echoes in Eternity!<br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>ROMA VICT</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></div><!--EZCODE CENTER END--></p><i></i>

Don't have to overclock just because you can. <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :) --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/smile.gif ALT=":)"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> Almost all mobos these days can do it a little.<br><br>That drive would work. I don't see the MTBF numbers, though (Mean Time Between Failures) that would give some clue as to reliability. Also, punch the model number into Google and add the word "review," you'll probably come up with something useful. <p><!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://www.xmenclan.org/xmengambit.gif"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--><br>XMEN member<br>Card-carrying DTM<br>OKL Fish-napper<br><br>Though a program be but three lines long, someday it will have to be maintained.<br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em> The Tao of Programming</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--></p><i></i>