Ermm, how exactly are you going to do RAID 10 with 2 drives? . You need 4 drives for that .

 

Troof!

 

An interesting question. In the simplest scheme, with data mirrored across both drives in exact per-track, per-platter config, reads could be twice as fast (i.e. read segment A from drive 1 and segment B from drive 2 simultaneously) but writes would be only as fast as to a single drive. Since each 74G drive actually has 4 internal platters, a controller *could* treat them as 8 separate drives and come up with other mirroring/striping schemes. I presume the actual result depends on the capabilities of the controller and the drives.

 

, owns that viper that burns out on the dyno.... *****in

 

I would say loose the second CPU because if you aren't doing anything that can utilize it you aren't gaining anything. Most programs won't fully utilize a second CPU anyway. Also the AMD processor does dual channel 32 bit sooo you will gain plenty there. More DDR RAM makes sence. 2 GIG should be fine and it will help a lot. Since you are saving money on the CPU I would suggest a 512 MB video card. Go ahead and splurge since games are getting to the point where they rreally can use them. Doom3 and Half Life 2 really can use the extra video card suport.

RAID is a funny one. I hate on board RAIDS because half the time they are useless. I would say get three drives at 120 GIG or bigger, and do a RAID 5. This will get you the best data security and performance. I would get a RAID card with 256 MB on it. If you have a faster front side bus on the Mother board this will be very noticable, as IO is your weekest link now days.

A bigger power supply with lots of cooling fans will also benefit in keeping temperatures in the norm.

You didn't mention a monitor but if you can aford it a nice 19 inch LCD with DVI input would give you great resolution. I am running a CRT but that is because I have the desk space, and in games you get less jitter and ghosting.


RC cars:
LOL I have a CEN on road touring and a GS Avenger off road buggy, and an OFNA Ultra 2 buggy. I am saving up for a TTR3 buggy now. Lets just say it is not cheep. On that note i am working with the Santa Clara County Fair grounds and RAMS RC club to get a huge complex built. This will have an on road and off road course and if we get aproal it should be the bigest tracks in the western region.

For RC trucks I would say the Traxx Revo is great out of the box, and the JATO is another new truck that just hit the market. It has lots of great bashing freatures, but less hop up parts because they changed the platform so much. Go to www.rc411.com for a review.

My kids aren't old enough to run nitro yet but they love going to the track and watching dad run.

 

What you are describing here is already defined. Its RAID 1. No controller treats a drive as individual tracks because you can't read from two different tracks at the same time, the drive armature can't move independently. Further, no modern drive reports its physical configuration accuratly (in terms of C/H/S) because of limitations in the sizes of the integers used to represent them. So, all a controller has to go by is size, with one drive being the smallest unit it can understand.

So, RAID 1 absolutely will give you great read speeds like you want and have the downsides that you mentioned. But in your case, you are describing RAID 1, not RAID 10. Just a nit pick.

Either way, thats going to be a rocking fast machine.

 

Treynor, looks like you've got a pretty sweet system there. What I'm more interested in seeing is how you put it all together. I've built numerous high end systems for myself and my friends, but the only "cool" ones to me were the ones that had cool stuff on them like glow in the dark water cooling or sweet polished aluminum cases.

 

http://www.topmicrousa.com/arc-1120.html

^ better then the 3ware (raid 6 = yummie)

just make sure to have at least 4 drives in your array

 

4 platters

1 head system

 

Pretty much everything is better than 3ware right now - their quality has gone way downhill.

 

does the tekram card have x64 drivers for it yet? I think that might be why the 3ware card was chosen?

 

x64 drivers?

pretty sure it does, the drivers are open sourced

 

My biggest CPU hogs are Photoshop CS2 and Adobe Premiere. I know CS2 will use multiple processors, though I do not know whether CS2 will take advantage of >2 processors. It *will* be nice to run CS2's background processing on a set of photos and still be able to use my computer in the interim. Ditto for a 1-hour WMV rendering pass in Premiere.

Besides, I always wanted a multiprocessor home computer

I use two 23" LCDs with DVI. They're great for photography & text work, and decent for gaming, which accurately reflects my priorities.

Heh. I wonder how many others who are into cars & computers also do RC? I have a pair of Traxxis E-maxx's (one stock, one with the Novak brushless) and a HPI Savage .21. I don't race (yet) but I have fun with my son going out to the park and driving 'em around.

 

I used to race SEI Racing's (imported FJ Modellsport) 1/5th scale gas powered CLK GTR (http://www.rctek.com/fg/catalog/thirty/fg_p018.htm). Very cool - 2 speed gearboxes, 4 wheel disc brakes, ABS systems, etc. Very cool cars. They were like $3000 for a race ready model.