My build...

[itschris]

It's been my experience that it makes for smoother system in even everyday use.

The worse that can happen is you spend $50 and have some extra storage.

I'm not opposed to that at all. It'll be part of the plan!

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I'm not opposed to that at all. It'll be part of the plan!

That was my initial plan as well.

But then I thought, "Man, since I'm going to have two HDDs, make it two 2TB HDDs!"

Because I'm thinking, "$50 for a 160GB HDD? I might as well pay $75 for 1TB or $150 for 2TB!"

My Sapphire Radeon 5750 is $149.

So if a Radeon 5650 is $99, that's just $50?

Bottom line is, you will NEED all the storage capacity you can get.

 

[itschris]

That was my initial plan as well.

But then I thought, "Man, since I'm going to have two HDDs, make it two 2TB HDDs!"

I think the consensus is that most of us have 2 internal HDDs in our PCs. And since you are one of us, you are required to have 2.

I'm thinking about getting two to those 2 TB drives!

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I'm thinking about getting two to those 2 TB drives!

Hey, are you copying me?

I paid like $300 each for my 5400RPM WD drives = $600 for 4TB.

The Hitachi 2TB is 7200RPM and is half the price!

Good things come to those who wait.

 

[Adam]

Good things come to those who wait.

Yep, so don't buy the HDs until you're ready to build! (Maybe that was already stated...I haven't read the whole thread). They just keep getting cheaper.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Keyboard/touchpad

What about USB or bluetooth keyboard/touchpad:

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-PlayStation-3-Cordless-MediaBoard-Pro/dp/B000W5RBQE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1262224449&sr=8-1

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=209608864&listingid=30542704e

I actually prefer the USB type over the bluetooth. I have both.

 

[itschris]

Hey, are you copying me?

Why yes... yes I am. I'm lazy. I'm not here to reinvent the wheel. I'm more than happy to benefit from you and anyone else's suffering.

 

[itschris]

What about USB or bluetooth keyboard/touchpad:

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-PlayStation-3-Cordless-MediaBoard-Pro/dp/B000W5RBQE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1262224449&sr=8-1

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=209608864&listingid=30542704e

I actually prefer the USB type over the bluetooth. I have both.

Isn't that Logitech keyboard geared towards gaming? Then again... does it matter? I'd actually prefer the USB type as well. It's my understanding the response it better? Is that why you like them? Either way, I like that keyboard a lot. I just want something sleek, but it has to work too.

 

[itschris]

Yep, so don't buy the HDs until you're ready to build! (Maybe that was already stated...I haven't read the whole thread). They just keep getting cheaper.

Agreed. The HDs will be the last thing I buy. I totally lied to my wife about how much this was going to cost. I told her "oh... around $500." So it actually works in my favor to do this more piecemeal, plus it's drags out the fun and excitement a bit and keeps me from getting my a-- kicked by the Mad Cow.

 

[itschris]

What about USB or bluetooth keyboard/touchpad:

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-PlayStation-3-Cordless-MediaBoard-Pro/dp/B000W5RBQE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1262224449&sr=8-1

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=209608864&listingid=30542704e

I actually prefer the USB type over the bluetooth. I have both.

Did some googling - even though this is a bluetooth keyboard it's got solid reviews... the only negative ones are from gamers, but all the stellar commentary is from straight up general PC use. Saving $60 over the dinovo is money towards storage. Great suggestion!

 

[GlocksRock]

You can just get two 2 TB hard drives and create a small partition on the second drive for you swap file, that would still give you extra performance while maximizing your storage capacity.

 

[jinjuku]

You can just get two 2 TB hard drives and create a small partition on the second drive for you swap file, that would still give you extra performance while maximizing your storage capacity.

Actually you don't want to do that. Partitioning creates a separate physical zone on the HD.

If your read/write head is on the inside track doing something and a paging operation comes up, the head now has to swing to where ever the partition is to fulfill the paging op.

Don't place your page file on a partition on the same physical drive.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Did some googling - even though this is a bluetooth keyboard it's got solid reviews... the only negative ones are from gamers, but all the stellar commentary is from straight up general PC use. Saving $60 over the dinovo is money towards storage. Great suggestion!

The ONLY reason I liked the USB-type better is because I'm lazy and the bluetooth-type requires me to manually link to the PC, but the USB is a simple plug and play.

In addition, you have to buy one of those bluetooth adapters for your HTPC, which is another $15-$30.

A few months ago I was able to find and bought a silver color Logitech PS3 USB keyboard/touchpad for only $30 on amazon!!!

It looks almost exactly like the sleek black one, but it's silver/grey color and about half the price-- and it's USB.

If you can find that one, it would be nice.

So I have both a silver USB Logitech PS3 Keyboard/touchpad and a black bluetooth Logitech PS3 Keyboard/touchpad. I like them both a lot.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Actually you don't want to do that. Partitioning creates a separate physical zone on the HD.

If you read/write head is on the inside track doing something and a paging operation comes up, the head now has to swing to where ever the partition is to fulfill the paging op.

Don't place your page file on a partition on the same physical drive.

So if you had just ONE HDD, you would NOT recommend Partitioning the HDD?

The only problem with that is if you had to do a Fresh REINSTALL of the OS, you would wipe out everything on that HDD.

But if you partitioned a 100GB space just for the OS, and you had to reinstall the OS later, you would not mess up anything less OUTSIDE of that partition.

 

[GlocksRock]

Actually you don't want to do that. Partitioning creates a separate physical zone on the HD.

If you read/write head is on the inside track doing something and a paging operation comes up, the head now has to swing to where ever the partition is to fulfill the paging op.

Don't place your page file on a partition on the same physical drive.

I was suggesting creating a separate partition on a separate hard drive that does not contain the OS for the page file. Like if you were using a second hard drive for storing movie .iso files, just cretae a partition on that drive for the page file. Would that not work well?

 

[jinjuku]

So if you had just ONE HDD, you would NOT recommend Partitioning the HDD?

The only problem with that is if you had to do a Fresh REINSTALL of the OS, you would wipe out everything on that HDD.

But if you partitioned a 100GB space just for the OS, and you had to reinstall the OS later, you would not mess up anything less OUTSIDE of that partition.

That is why I am a big proponent of backups. In most cases a HD requiring a wipe could be mounted in another machine and the data still backed up.

 

[jinjuku]

I was suggesting creating a separate partition on a separate hard drive that does not contain the OS for the page file. Like if you were using a second hard drive for storing movie .iso files, just cretae a partition on that drive for the page file. Would that not work well?

It would work better since all your applications would be on another drive. I wouldn't partition the drive that the .ISO's and page file are on. Again this is all based on $50. People spend more than that at the movies, or going out to dinner.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Again this is all based on $50. People spend more than that at the movies, or going out to dinner.

$50 is not a lot.

But where does it end?

For ONLY $25 more, you could get a 1TB HDD - that's breakfast right there.

For just $100 more, you could get a 2TB HDD - that's dinner right there.

So what you are saying is that putting anything (ISO files) on the same HDD as the OS will slow down the performance of the PC? How significant? Are we talking about a 10 seconds, 30 seconds, or 30 minutes delay?

So you recommend getting something like a $39 160GB Barracuda just for the OS and NOTHING else plus getting something like a $155 2TB Hitachi for EVERYTHING else?

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Barracuda-ST3160318AS-Bare-Frustration-Free-Packaging/dp/B00272NHPO/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1262270957&sr=8-7

http://www.buy.com/prod/hitachi-deskstar-7k2000-2tb-sata-3gb-s-3-5-7200rpm-32mb-desktop/q/loc/101/211236326.html

 

[GlocksRock]

It would work better since all your applications would be on another drive. I wouldn't partition the drive that the .ISO's and page file are on. Again this is all based on $50. People spend more than that at the movies, or going out to dinner.

I guess in some instances it's not about the money, but if you have a small case that can only accomodate 2 hard drives and you don't want to mess with external storage, then is it worth the extra bit of performance to sacrafice what could be 2 TB worth of storage for a small hard drive just for the page file? Probably not, but then again it all depends on what the user is going for. I think for the average person just having one drive for the OS and applications and a second drive to store all their media on is all that's really needed.

 

[jinjuku]

I am not saying you have to do it. I am not philosophically inclined one way or the other.

Like in audio, try it out. Heck Best Buy has a return policy. Get a drive and try it out. If you like what it does for you great, if not return it.

What I am saying is that your mileage may vary.