Review my Upgrade Please

oceanclub

Am about to drop a grand on doing a full upgrade, would appreciate any
feedback on the following:

http://komplett.ie/k/shoplist.asp?mode=receive&si=458126&su=F1626162-AD5A-4C46-9646-FD7DEBDC6E6A

Decided to go with this particular model of 975X for stability/silence/relative cheapness over the 680i dodginess/expense.

Case is an existing Sonata II.

Question: Is it possible to install _1_ SATA drive initially, then
install a second and convert to RAID?

Regards,

P.

SwampThing

I won't comment on the components but as for the RAID - yes, you can use a single drive now and implement RAID later.

However, depending on the RAID controller and the type of RAId you intend to use, you may not be able to configure RAID on the fly - you may need to clone/blow away/build raid/restore the primary partition.

Becasue of the nature of RAID 1, it might be more likely to work on the fly. I'd be dubious about RAID 0 or RAID 5 (if you go that route)

Shouldn't be too dramatic. Use Ghost or Acronis to clone the primary partition (this is important - clone the partition, not the drive). Build the raidset, create a logical volume and set it a the boot partiton. Then restore the cloned partition to this new partition.

Anti

It all looks fine, apart from your motherboard. For c2d processors it is best to go with a 650i/680i or a intel 965 chipset. You will benifit from increased performance, more bios options.

oceanclub

Anti wrote:

It all looks fine, apart from your motherboard. For c2d processors it is best to go with a 650i/680i or a intel 965 chipset. You will benifit from increased performance, more bios options.

Hi there,

Isn't the 965x the budget version of the 975x? I would have thought it was the other way around.

For example, this implies that 965X only comes close to the P5W DH.

http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/975X-P965-ftopict198762.html

"All the benchmarks/reviews I've seen say the Asus P5W DH Deluxe is the best core 2 board on the market today; the P965 chipset, however, was designed "from the ground up" for Core 2. A recent BIOS update has improved the overclockability of the P5B Deluxe to near-P5W levels, although I've heard that the P5W is all set up for a BIOS revision that will improve overclockablility for it also. "

If you can point me at any benchmarks 975x vs 965x, would appreciate it.

Regards,

P.

Anti

I cant point you to any benchmarks sorry. As i dont know of any. But people in the know will go for 965 over 975 anyday. And im sure a few lads here will agree to me.

Preferably i would go for a 680i board. And i dont know where you get the impression that thay are loud. My evga 680i is passivly cooled. It does come with a few add on fans, but i never bothered with them.

oceanclub

Will look into 965x more. What's the cons to use them over the 975X?

My concerns about the 680i is purely about the stability and maturity (and expense, admittedly; didn't want to spend more than €200).

Thanks for your advice,

P.