New computer. Have I forgotten anything?

[Belmondo]

I'm have a new PC built, and it should be ready tomorrow. Here's the rough outline of what I chose:

3.0 GHZ P4
1 Gig PC3200 DDR400 RAM
2 120-Gig Maxtor HDD
Gigabyte MoBo with 875P chipset
DVD burner
Matrox Parhelia 128MB High Fidelity Graphics

I expect this to be primarily a dedicated system for post processing and image editing.

I would appreciate opinions on what I might do differently (it might not be too late to make changes).

Do you see any significant weak areas?

Thanks.

Thos.

[TeraGram93013]

If my husband were to review this configuation he'd be screaming...

"NO MAXTOR! GET THEM OUT! NO MAXTOR! I'm not supporting those P.O.S. drives! NO MAXTOR!"

Other than that, looks good to me.

[iwatkins]

There is a lot to be said for a dedicated very, very fast small disk purely for scratch space for Photoshop. It makes a big difference.

Nice choice on the graphics card.

Cheers

Ian

[Pekka]

No no no no, no Maxtor! Get Western Digital instead. SATA if you can afford it.

[Boosting1Bar]

For my own curiousity, why not Maxtor drives? I've got a couple scsi Seagates in the machine I use for intense stuff, but my other desktop and two servers here both have Maxtors in them. I have 4 of them ranging from almost 5 years old to less than a year and have never had any problems with them. I've always seen people who adamantly recommend against Maxtor, and likewise with WD based on their own experiences (which usually consists of a drive that failed).

Any specific particular reasons to avoid? Thanks for any light you or your hubby might be able to shed on this!

[MediaMagic]

Hey TOm,

That's pretty close to the system I have. Looks good. One suggestion. I would try for an Intel board (I have the PERLK865) with the raid 0 (or 1) support integrated into the chipset. Then, you can stripe two serial ATA drives (before windows even sees them, using the Intel drivers) for quite astonishing drive performance.

If you are unsure of RAID, here is the quick scoop. The acronym stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks and here is the quick explanation:

RAID 0: two drives are combined together as one volume, say drive C. The computer can simultaneous read and write to both drive for absurd levels of data throughput. caveat: if one drive fails, both technically fail, because the two drives work together as one... backups of data are essential.

RAID 1: two drives are mirrored, meaning that all the information is written to both identically.. so, you have a mirror image of your stuff. This gives a moderate improvement as the two drives can be READ sequentially (making loads quite a bit faster), but write to disk has no real perceived gains.

That's the Cliff's notes version. I prefer the Intel boards for the RAID set up, though your gigabyte board may do the same thing..

For serious digital editing (photos, videos, audio) you simply cannot beat the performance of a RAID 0 setup, or the security of a RAID 1 for a digital darkroom.

At least ask those building the computer about a RAID setup, and that your hard drives are SATA rather than IDE, you'll gain some improvement (plus you have your IDE ports open for data backup drives)

Good luck!
David

<edit> also, in the newer chipsets, two 512m DDR modules will gain speed improvements over 1 1G module. You place them in the first slot of each bank.. the two can be read/written simultaneously. The key is to match the bank slots with identical memory. You don't have to do this, but it will give optimal performance.

[Belmondo]

I have changed the order to Western Digital drives (cost me $30.00 extra for the pair, but this way I don't have to listen to Teragrams93013's husband and his anguish over Maxtor drives---precisely the kind of input I was looking for. Thanks.)

I didn't want to wait for the SATA drives, although they sound like they should be a bit faster. They only had one in stock, and it was the wrong size. I'm not going to use either RAID array right now even though the MoBo will support it....I want to get my scratch disk onto a separate drive, and I want it to be internal. There's room in the case for another 5 1/4" drive, so someday I might add another. The mirrored drive sounds interesting.

Thanks. Anyone else?

[evilenglishman]

--

[Belmondo]

If my husband were to review this configuation he'd be screaming...

"NO MAXTOR! GET THEM OUT! NO MAXTOR! I'm not supporting those P.O.S. drives! NO MAXTOR!"

Other than that, looks good to me.

See above. Your husband deserves some peace.

[PacAce]

If my husband were to review this configuation he'd be screaming...

"NO MAXTOR! GET THEM OUT! NO MAXTOR! I'm not supporting those P.O.S. drives! NO MAXTOR!"

Other than that, looks good to me.

I have nothing BUT Maxtor drives (all 7 of them) in my system and they work perfectly fine. Haven't have any problems with them. Not even a dropped bit. So, if I may be so bold as to ask, what's wrong with Maxtors? From what I've read, they seem to be one of the leaders if not THE leader in new HD technology.

[Belmondo]

You know, Leo, I suspect it's very much that way. We all have brand loyalties based on past experience, and occasionally heresay. When I inquired of the fellow who's building the system for me, he said he thought WD drives were well worth the extra $15.00. apiece. I asked him why he hadn't said something before when it was obvious I wasn't trying to cut corners with the system.

The fact is, drives usually fail fairly early, or they last a long, long time. I've been generally lucky, and have probably owned just about every brand including Seagate (when it was call Shugart), IBM, WD, Maxtor, and so on.

Sometimes when I don't know the real question to 'which is better,' I'm heavily influenced by which one costs more. That's stupid, I know, but when it's all you have to go on, it becomes the determining factor.

Thos.

[TeraGram93013]

My husband is the systems manager for our regional paper. He supports at least 400 computers, of which probably 40 are servers or RIPs.

His experiences with Maxtor are, let's say, less than optimal. He's generally a very easy going kind of guy (the yin to my yang) but in regard to Maxtor drives he just goes ape! He has absolutely nothing good to say about them.

He's not here now and my daughter's sleeping here on the couch (she fell asleep in my arms... all at once now, "awwwwwww") or I'd call him and ask for his more specific concerns.

[Belmondo]

My husband is the systems manager for our regional paper. He supports at least 400 computers, of which probably 40 are servers or RIPs.

His experiences with Maxtor are, let's say, less than optimal. He's generally a very easy going kind of guy (the yin to my yang) but in regard to Maxtor drives he just goes ape! He has absolutely nothing good to say about them.

He's not here now and my daughter's sleeping here on the couch (she fell asleep in my arms... all at once now, "awwwwwww") or I'd call him and ask for his more specific concerns.

No need. The deed is done and we're getting Western Digital. Thanks for a 'qualified opinion.'

BTW, awwwwwww. Wish there was someone there with a camera right now.

Thos.

[IanD]

Tom,
The system looks good but I would change the motherboard to a ASUS P4C800 Deluxe. Gigabyte boards can have issues.
Do not spare on the RAM. Corsair TwinX is probably the best out there today.
The rest rocks.
P.S. Don't forget to get a good cooling system at the same time. You are going to need it in that desert heat :lol:

[Belmondo]

Tom,
The system looks good but I would change the motherboard to a ASUS P4C800 Deluxe. Gigabyte boards can have issues.
Do not spare on the RAM. Corsair TwinX is probably the best out there today.
The rest rocks.
P.S. Don't forget to get a good cooling system at the same time. You are going to need it in that desert heat :lol:

Mother boards are relatively cheap. If there turns out to be a problem, I'll replace it. Unfortunately, I'm limiited to what this guy has on hand.....ordering anything else adds days, and I'm much too impatient for that.

BTW the case has three fans, so that should at least help.

[PacAce]

You know, Leo, I suspect it's very much that way. We all have brand loyalties based on past experience, and occasionally heresay.

Thos, you are absolutely right about that. AAMOF, if you were to listen to one of my officemates, you'd be doomed to install a WD in your machine. He hates WDs with a passion. And he works with computers for a living. :D

But, like you said, it boils down to they either work or they don't, and they usually do when they come from any big brand company although a bad batch may get through QA on rare occassions.

But, that's neither here nor there. :)

Good luck with your system.

[MediaMagic]

I'm not going to use either RAID array right now even though the MoBo will support it....I want to get my scratch disk onto a separate drive, and I want it to be internal. There's room in the case for another 5 1/4" drive, so someday I might add another. The mirrored drive sounds interesting.



Okay, if you think you may someday want to convert to a RAID setup, you can do the installation as "RAID ready". What this basically means is that the computer is set up for RAID but not actually implemented. If the computer is set up as RAID ready, at a later time you can select two drives and convert to either a raid 0 or raid 1 volume. If you do not set up as RAID ready, then you would have to do a reinstall and start over to convert later. There may be some third party software that can handle the conversion later, but if you think there is some possibility you'd want to convert to RAID, then it's best to set up as RAID ready at install time, then the conversion is a piece of cake.

David

[CyberDyneSystems]

Sounds good Tom,

Gigabyte make great boards,. Maxtor and WD make great drives,. Matrox makes the BEST cards.. your all set.

It is good that you have a matched pair of drives too.. as if, or when you decide to do a mirrored RAID, you will want a matched pair,. so when the time comes,. get a cavernous 200 gig or something as the 3rd drive, copy all the data from the second 120 to the new 3rd drive and then use the second 120 as the mirror to your primary drive.

Despite allready doing multiple drives,. you may want to think about having the Boot drive broken into partitions as well.

I'd break the boot drive into something like a 40 -50 gig C: drive and a 70-80 gig D: drive (make it a logical drive on an extended partition)

Then ask your guru to move the "My documents" folder to the D: drive.

Then put !ZERO! Data on the C: drive... C: is for OS and apps only.. D; for Data only!

(I actually do this with three partiitons. C: is OS, D: is apps, and E: is data,. but getting WinXP to seperate apps from the C: drive is not worth the hassle in most cases)

Anyway,. I highly recomend this option.. There are dozens of reasons why it is a good idea..

If you are interested,. I can explain further.

[TeraGram93013]

I actually do this with three partiitons. C: is OS, D: is apps, and E: is data,. but getting WinXP to seperate apps from the C: drive is not worth the hassle in most cases)

Unless XP is significantly different than w2k, there is no big hassle.

When you install an app you simply opt for custom install and direct the application installation to the drive of your choice.

Also, the biggest advantage to having apps on one drive, data on another is the ease of backup/reinstall.

If apps and system go belly-up it isn't a big deal, they're all easily replaced and not really worth the time/money to backup.

Your DATA however is irreplaceable.

I've got three hard-drives. C is dedicated to Opsys, and somewhat partitioned. This is legacy from older systems from which this drive was transported.

D: is apps.

E: is data.

I only ever backup E.

On important work, I routinely copy my working folders over to F (the C partition). I figure if the system were to ever tank on me, ONE drive might go bad, but two? Naw.

(Good God Almighty have mercy on me for my arrogance and please do not strike my machine dead during the night. Amen.)

[boboettinger]

I know it's too late but I would change to:

Macintosh G5, Dual 2.0ghz, 2 gig Ram and a 23" Apple Cinema display :D

Photoshop will scream :wink:

[evilenglishman]

--

[CyberDyneSystems]

I actually do this with three partiitons. C: is OS, D: is apps, and E: is data,. but getting WinXP to seperate apps from the C: drive is not worth the hassle in most cases)

Unless XP is significantly different than w2k, there is no big hassle.

When you install an app you simply opt for custom install and direct the application installation to the drive of your choice.



It sounds like we do similar set ups for the same reasons. (back up,. and disaster recovery both are easier when they are totally isolatd from eachother)

The tricky part with XP that I refered to is figuring out the registry hack that will change XPs default install directory.. that way,. you don't have to tell it NOT to install to "C:\Program Files" ... and allways have to browse to the preferred directory. The way I have it set up is the OS default is to install to D:\Program Files...

Setting up Win98 to this was a simple task,. as I recall it took me about a week to figure out how to do it in XP but that was really just because because at the time the XP registry was so new to me... I'm sure i could figure it out again in a short time now.

[CyberDyneSystems]

I know it's too late but I would change to:

Macintosh G5, Dual 2.0ghz, 2 gig Ram and a 23" Apple Cinema display :D

Photoshop will scream :wink:

Yes,. your right,. Photoshop will be ALMOST as fast on that dual G5 as it will be on Belmondo's system! :wink:

[samdring]

I actually do this with three partiitons. C: is OS, D: is apps, and E: is data,. but getting WinXP to seperate apps from the C: drive is not worth the hassle in most cases)

Unless XP is significantly different than w2k, there is no big hassle.

When you install an app you simply opt for custom install and direct the application installation to the drive of your choice.



The tricky part with XP

CDS

Understood but have been thinking about doing this for some time - can you move apps to another partition post installation to OS partition please?

[CyberDyneSystems]

Found the registry entry again..

This is what I did. Mind you I did this prior to installing ANY apps,. so I have no first hand experience of whether this will work 100% after apps are installed.. but it should.

Go to Run.
Type: regedit

Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion


In the righthand window, find the key "ProgramFilesDir" and modify it to the desired path.

[Sketcher]

Hey Thos,

You might already know about these tweaks but these are some of the first things I perform on new builds. (as has been mentioned) A benefit of partitioning the OS/APPs from the data is that you have a relatively smaller partition which can be rebuilt, restored or imaged giving you the ability to reinstall the OS w/out losing all your data with a wipe of the drive. I use Powerquests’ Drive Image to create a CD Image of my OS partition once I have everything tweaked the way I like it. We use Norton Ghost to do the same thing at the shop. From that image, I can completely restore my OS partition to perfect operation in less than 15 minutes. XP has an excellent Restore Point service but there are some areas of the registry which do not correct when re-written.

I’m a techie minded soul so I just can’t leave well enough alone. You’ve got some horsepower there so not like you ‘need’ to tweak for better performance just yet ;). But some day you might want to tweak around.

Performance – Control Panel\System \Advanced Tab\Performance

XP Visual effects, all I run are Drop Shadows & XP Style. Also in the System Properties area I shut off Error Reporting, Auto Updates and Disable Remote Assistance. Those are just my preferences, however there are good reasons for/against each of those.

There are quite a few unnecessary services that run by default which can be configured in Control Panel\Administrative Tools\Services but lack of discretion there could result in an unpleasant experience. Some services which I typically disable are: Messenger, Task Scheduler, Fast user Switching (unless you run multiple users), Secondary Logon, Remote Registry. Most of the services have a decent description and dependencies/relies upon info so you might find your interests to exclude/include other than what I mentioned.

The other thing I usually do is reconfigure XP’s Default Bandwidth Reservation.

Start\Run type in: gpedit.msc

Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Network\QOS Packet Scheduler

Right-Click on “Limit Reservable Bandwidth” and select “Enable” and configure for “0%”. There’s a ‘help’ tab which explains that XP reserves 20% NIC bandwidth by default for System services; though consumer PC XP services require little if any bandwidth reservation for optimal operation.

There’s a lot of stuff you can configure in the Group Policy Editor but as with the “Services” config there is much which can cause an unpleasant experience too.

Enjoy!

[CyberDyneSystems]

Cool 8)

Some new tweeks in that list Sketcher,. I think I may borrow a few 8)

I've been using Drive image since Win3.1!!!! Vesion1!!!

And that is exactly why I keep three partitions,.. easy recovery of OS using Drive image with no feart of loosing data,. and easy back up data. without bothering the OS.. etc..

Nice tips.

[MrEWorm]

I just got a new PC yesterday. I had the shop install my old hard drive in the unit so I'll have two 80 gig drives.

I was thinking about doing all photo/music/video saves on the spare hard drive (D) while running programs off of the main one (C).

Does this make sense?

[CyberDyneSystems]

YES!

If all your apps and the OS are on the C: drive,. do try and keep the data seperate.

Also,. look at Runtime software's "Mirror folder" for a very flexible backup/Mirroring solution for your data. With this you could keep all your Data on D:,.. and then mirror all the important data back to a backup folder on the C: drive at the same time.. so if one hard drive dies,. you'll have a copy of your important stuff on the other drive.

[Sketcher]

Thanks CDS,

I’ll borrow some of yours as well if you don’t mind :). Are you referring to “Techsofts” MirrorFolder? Looks good.

I have a Novell Netware 6.5 Server in my SOHO running iFolder; performs the same tasks as MirrorFolder and I can sync laptop/Desktop/Server folders on LAN and over Internet. Of course, I don’t recommend that anyone build a server or buy into infrastructure to perform low level tasks. I just happened to have iFolder capability in my existing system. Had I not that option, MirrorFolder would be the ticket. In fact, I may try it out anyway for my non-networked gear. Thanks for the tip.

‘Been running DI since Win 3.1!? Whoah :). I got my feet wet w/3.1 but didn’t begin playing around ‘till 95. I was beside myself with joy the first time I restored a Sys partition with DI. It only took 10 minutes from dead to running whereas the typical rebuild took 45 minutes not including patch downloading and personalizing! Money very well spent!

Another product I like is Partition Magic. Very slick program for quick partition creation, resizing, merging, data moving etc. Handles NTFS partitions w/out issue.

But that’s more talk of spending money. There’s sooooo much that can be done in gpedit.msc, Admin Services and msconfig and other ways w/out spending a dime. Gotta love it! :D

[samdring]

Agree the sense of all this but is there any software that will move programme files from c:\program files to your new partition?

[CyberDyneSystems]

Agree the sense of all this but is there any software that will move programme files from c:\program files to your new partition?

Xcopy :)

Or simply cut and paste,. then do my registry hack.. you'll need to redirect all the short cuts too.