Anymore the most expensive single part of a low end system is the damn hard drive
Truth. I priced out system based around a Radeon 6850 and an X3 455 for $399 shipped -- but was only able to do that because I skipped the case and the HDD. Should have at least some overclock potential (although I think the 450watt PSU limits it a bit). Pretty crazy though that you can build a rig for around $500 that should be able to handle whatever is out in the world right now.
MB: MSI 760GM-P21 (FX) AM3+ AMD 760G Micro ATX - $49.99 CPU: AMD Athlon II X3 455 3.3Ghz AM3 95W -- $79.99 RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) -- $41.99 PSU: Antec VP-450 450W -- $37.99 GPU: ASUS EAH6850 Radeon HD6850 1GB -- $130 after MIR
Total w/ shipping to CA: $399.38
I think have something like 5TB of drives sitting in a now abandoned Windows Home Server that I picked up when they were giving away hard drives in cereal boxes. Whodathunk that would actually be an investment.
it levels out fairly quickly. most of the cost seems to be in each unit not how much that unit holds so a single 2tb drive is about the price of two of those 250s.
I think have something like 5TB of drives sitting in a now abandoned Windows Home Server that I picked up when they were giving away hard drives in cereal boxes. Whodathunk that would actually be an investment.
Don't even talk to me right now. Newegg was basically giving Spinpoint F3s away, there was a sale like every other week. I should have like a billion of the damn things. I have an empty 15 drive server laughing at me, because 2TB drives cost 50% more than they used to.
Well, it's a good thing that I've been slowly conditioning myself to use less space. All my media lives in the internet these days, so honestly my data footprint is pretty much nothing outside of my recording MBP, in which I've installed things like Komplete 8 Ultimate which takes up something like 280GB when fully installed. Plus, all my sessions account for another 80GB or so.
And it's allll backed up to Backblaze. And a 2TB Time Capsule.
Who's got two thumbs and the IT's collection of old 5400rpm drives? this guy
About 8TB of storage, looks like project NAS Box is go!
(Are all the cool kids using FreeNAS?)
I will cut you.
FreeNAS is nice, you need a significant amount of RAM (like 8GB at least) to get RAID-Z really humming, but FreeNAS will work with a standard RAID array as well, if you like.
If you don't mind paying, unRAID and FlexRAID are good software level options that give you drive pooling and redundancy (unRAID uses a RAID 4 style single parity drive with no striping, FlexRAID is very similar, if I'm not mistaken). Overall they probably aren't as robust as FreeNAS, but they're nice for simpler, less resource intensive redundancy.
You can also always use any flavor of Linux you like to set up a home server.
Still waiting for either Kepler news or for the the MSI R7870 HAWK to actually drop -- one of the press releases cryptically lists the 20th as the release date. That in forever.
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AlectharAlan ShoreWe're not territorial about that sort of thing, are we?Registered Userregular
edited May 2012
With the way Kepler is looking at the moment, everything old seems to be new again, as far as performance comparisons are concerned. AMD will adjust prices to compensate for the differential, so I foresee the lines shaking out very much the same as they did with the 6000 and 500 series cards. NVIDIA will dominate the truly high-end, the mid-range cards will be very competitive with each other in both price and performance, and AMD will probably still have the strongest low-end card selection.
Agreed -- my issue is that since I am very much in the market for a card right now that the $350 I've budgeted for a video card now will buy me something significantly better in a few months, but such is life in tech. Honestly, if the HAWK was out right now it'd be on a truck heading my way, Kepler be damned.
Yeah I'm good thanks, I had to take some time off for some crazy work stuff, but it's all settled down now.
I've inherited an old HP Pavillion case from a friend that I'll reuse but with a new mobo, CPU and ram. The FreeNAS FAQ sets recommended specs at 6GB ram but as an ardent proponent of MOAR HARDWARE I'll probably go with at least 8.
Robust sounds like a real selling point for me, as my brother will want to pull stuff off of the NAS too. The more idiot proof I can make it, the better.
Yeah I'm good thanks, I had to take some time off for some crazy work stuff, but it's all settled down now.
I've inherited an old HP Pavillion case from a friend that I'll reuse but with a new mobo, CPU and ram. Robust sounds like a real selling point for me, as my brother will want to pull stuff off of the NAS too. The more idiot proof I can make it, the better.
This is exactly what file permissions are for.
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AlectharAlan ShoreWe're not territorial about that sort of thing, are we?Registered Userregular
Yeah I'm good thanks, I had to take some time off for some crazy work stuff, but it's all settled down now.
I've inherited an old HP Pavillion case from a friend that I'll reuse but with a new mobo, CPU and ram. The FreeNAS FAQ sets recommended specs at 6GB ram but as an ardent proponent of MOAR HARDWARE I'll probably go with at least 8.
Robust sounds like a real selling point for me, as my brother will want to pull stuff off of the NAS too. The more idiot proof I can make it, the better.
How many drives make up the 8TB? I'd probably just buy a case too. If you see yourself expanding and improving it going forward, the right case to start off with is a good investment.
Oh my god I just discovered Bitfenix cables. Ohhhh I need to stop this right away.
I own a set of their Molex to 3-pin splitters, and the sleeving is fairly good quality (paracord, I believe) but the actual sleeving work was only adequate, in my opinion. I have a couple NZXT sleeved extensions that I prefer.
Also, keep in mind that any extension you use is just more spaghetti you have to hide behind the motherboard tray in the end.
Oh my god I just discovered Bitfenix cables. Ohhhh I need to stop this right away.
If you've got a modular corsair psu they sell full sets of individual sleeved cables too
I'm very tempted by the sleeved sets, but I'm not sure of the quality. Corsair is pretty good about returns and exchanges if there's an issue with a purchase, though, so I might risk it.
Oh my god I just discovered Bitfenix cables. Ohhhh I need to stop this right away.
one of us one of ussss
I have a CoolerMaster 932 sitting on my workbench which I should probably use. I think it's a bit too garish and big for the living room. I'm thinking I might pull out the mobo tray and 3.5" cage and build a really basic wooden box for them
So whoever was talking about the silverstone FT03 the other day? Thanks a fucking lot. I ended up picking one up. Just got here today and it is a thing of beauty.
Okay computer thread lets all head to australia to beat up tef and take his hard drives
Eh, we probably can't use them. I'll bet they spin backwards or whatever they do down there.
hahaha
Dot bee, do we need to call Hoarders? I can see it now, sitting in your underpants in a sea of sata cables, IDE ribbons and EKG waterblocks. Suffocating under the weight of discarded Seasonics, Antecs and Corsairs. Their molex chains dragging you ever deeper
DON'T LOOK AT MEEEEEE
ahem, on a serious note, what are you using the mATX build for? I'm really feeling the new z77 mATX boards; they're most definitely a viable alternative to ATX
Backup/LAN rig. Running a MIV Gene z68 with a 2500k and a 480GTX. Plays whatever I wanna play at modest settings
That reminds me though, since you were off the boards did you miss the pic dump of my horrible excesses?
And yeah if I took a picture of my office area right now well
theres a lotta hardware laying around.
double edit mATX is sexy as hell unless you REALLY need a lot of drives and/or two GPUs and a sound card and some other pcie cards. plus the boards tend to be a fair bit cheaper.
hey all! I'm planning on replacing my old athlon 64 rig. I use my desktop to play games, which has been Skryim and will be Diablo 3 after my MCAT (ugh). I have a 1650 x 1080 monitor.
My goal is to build a machine that will play something like Skrim at high settings at 40+ framerates, and will be able to play games at medium settings for a few years. I do not overclock. I'd like my machine to use as little power as possible, and be somewhat quiet. I am also not a rich man.
I currently have a Radeon 4650 which will go into the new machine, as I can't afford to buy a new card right now. I was thinking of getting a Radeon 6850 HD when the time comes.
OK, so here are my proposed parts:
PSU: currently have a 480W Thermaltake which seems like it has enough connections for the new rig, so I'll keep using it
and I need to buy windows 7 64. shame they don't offer upgrades from 32
Thoughts? the motherboard is the one thing that I can't figure out. I just want something that will have enough USB ports, support a mid range graphics card (like the 6850 HD), and not be crummy. I don't care about OC'ing capability.
I would also like to be able to upgrade my processor down the road. Thanks if you decide to take a look!
If possible can you toss out the model of your PSU? We're kinda anal about PSU's around here, just don't want you to throw some cash down on a brand new rig only for it to go kaput six months down the line due to a part that might have been insufficient.
I'm known to be an ASUS fan regarding motherboards, but gigabyte's been putting out some solid boards lately so they're also a solid pick.
If you aren't OCing at all you really just want to make sure the mobo has sufficient features in the way of stuff like number of USB ports, extra pci/pcie slots for add ins you're likely to want, enough sata6gig for the drives you're planning and the like.
As far as power savings go, it kind of depends on if that's worth actually spending more money for lower clocked parts. You can get a 35watt i3 that's clocked at 2.5ghz, which is a pretty significant reduction in power from the i3-2120's 65watt tdp. But it's also a big hit in clocks and also runs a few bucks more.
If possible can you toss out the model of your PSU? We're kinda anal about PSU's around here, just don't want you to throw some cash down on a brand new rig only for it to go kaput six months down the line due to a part that might have been insufficient.
I'm known to be an ASUS fan regarding motherboards, but gigabyte's been putting out some solid boards lately so they're also a solid pick.
If you aren't OCing at all you really just want to make sure the mobo has sufficient features in the way of stuff like number of USB ports, extra pci/pcie slots for add ins you're likely to want, enough sata6gig for the drives you're planning and the like.
Thanks for the response. I'll have to check the model when I get home, but it has been running reliably for 6-7 years now. Maybe that means it's time to replace it. any sub 50$ PSU's that are generally recommended? I like quiet and low power consumption and things not exploding.
Interesting--- so what is the deal with Micro-ATX boards? They seem to be cheaper and have the same features. Will they fit in a mid sized case/be able to fit a larger graphics card?
They fit just fine in standard atx cases, they're just smaller boards. They'll have 4 total PCIE/PCI slots, and generally fewer sata ports and fan headers. Some of the nice ones are more full featured than mid range atx boards.
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Just_Bri_ThanksSeething with ragefrom a handbasket.Registered User, ClubPAregular
PSA: Computer hardware has lots of rough and/or sharp edges. Please to not be putting the hardware in your pants.
Taking a ride in a loudmobile isn't all it's cracked up to be. And for that, the laughter will never stop.
...and when you are done with that; take a folding
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
Posts
Truth. I priced out system based around a Radeon 6850 and an X3 455 for $399 shipped -- but was only able to do that because I skipped the case and the HDD. Should have at least some overclock potential (although I think the 450watt PSU limits it a bit). Pretty crazy though that you can build a rig for around $500 that should be able to handle whatever is out in the world right now.
CPU: AMD Athlon II X3 455 3.3Ghz AM3 95W -- $79.99
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) -- $41.99
PSU: Antec VP-450 450W -- $37.99
GPU: ASUS EAH6850 Radeon HD6850 1GB -- $130 after MIR
Total w/ shipping to CA: $399.38
EDIT: JESUS $70 for a 250GB? I knew it was bad, but I hadn't looked at prices in earnest. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136771
it's... slowly righting itself
damn it's sold out now. i guess that happens when slickdeals front pages something.
Don't even talk to me right now. Newegg was basically giving Spinpoint F3s away, there was a sale like every other week. I should have like a billion of the damn things. I have an empty 15 drive server laughing at me, because 2TB drives cost 50% more than they used to.
Battle.net
About 8TB of storage, looks like project NAS Box is go!
(Are all the cool kids using FreeNAS?)
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better
bit.ly/2XQM1ke
And it's allll backed up to Backblaze. And a 2TB Time Capsule.
Fuck you tef
(what's up tef you ain't been in this thread in what feels like forever
I will cut you.
FreeNAS is nice, you need a significant amount of RAM (like 8GB at least) to get RAID-Z really humming, but FreeNAS will work with a standard RAID array as well, if you like.
If you don't mind paying, unRAID and FlexRAID are good software level options that give you drive pooling and redundancy (unRAID uses a RAID 4 style single parity drive with no striping, FlexRAID is very similar, if I'm not mistaken). Overall they probably aren't as robust as FreeNAS, but they're nice for simpler, less resource intensive redundancy.
You can also always use any flavor of Linux you like to set up a home server.
Battle.net
No, don't soften the blow, he got exactly what he deserved.
Fucking free 5400 RPM drives. I hope they're all PATA.
Battle.net
I'll hold him down.
Bar soap - Check.
Passport - ...
fuck.
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
Don't worry, I know a guy. He also knows a guy who can do the makeup you'll need to look like the 90 year old Hasidic Jew in the actual passport.
You speak Hebrew, right?
Battle.net
Albeit potentially untrustable.
Still waiting for either Kepler news or for the the MSI R7870 HAWK to actually drop -- one of the press releases cryptically lists the 20th as the release date. That in forever.
Battle.net
Yeah I'm good thanks, I had to take some time off for some crazy work stuff, but it's all settled down now.
I've inherited an old HP Pavillion case from a friend that I'll reuse but with a new mobo, CPU and ram. The FreeNAS FAQ sets recommended specs at 6GB ram but as an ardent proponent of MOAR HARDWARE I'll probably go with at least 8.
Robust sounds like a real selling point for me, as my brother will want to pull stuff off of the NAS too. The more idiot proof I can make it, the better.
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better
bit.ly/2XQM1ke
This is exactly what file permissions are for.
How many drives make up the 8TB? I'd probably just buy a case too. If you see yourself expanding and improving it going forward, the right case to start off with is a good investment.
I own a set of their Molex to 3-pin splitters, and the sleeving is fairly good quality (paracord, I believe) but the actual sleeving work was only adequate, in my opinion. I have a couple NZXT sleeved extensions that I prefer.
Also, keep in mind that any extension you use is just more spaghetti you have to hide behind the motherboard tray in the end.
Battle.net
If you've got a modular corsair psu they sell full sets of individual sleeved cables too
I'm very tempted by the sleeved sets, but I'm not sure of the quality. Corsair is pretty good about returns and exchanges if there's an issue with a purchase, though, so I might risk it.
Battle.net
one of us one of ussss
I have a CoolerMaster 932 sitting on my workbench which I should probably use. I think it's a bit too garish and big for the living room. I'm thinking I might pull out the mobo tray and 3.5" cage and build a really basic wooden box for them
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better
bit.ly/2XQM1ke
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
Eh, we probably can't use them. I'll bet they spin backwards or whatever they do down there.
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
Gonna throw my mATX build in there.
Dot bee, do we need to call Hoarders? I can see it now, sitting in your underpants in a sea of sata cables, IDE ribbons and EKG waterblocks. Suffocating under the weight of discarded Seasonics, Antecs and Corsairs. Their molex chains dragging you ever deeper
DON'T LOOK AT MEEEEEE
ahem, on a serious note, what are you using the mATX build for? I'm really feeling the new z77 mATX boards; they're most definitely a viable alternative to ATX
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better
bit.ly/2XQM1ke
That reminds me though, since you were off the boards did you miss the pic dump of my horrible excesses?
And yeah if I took a picture of my office area right now well
theres a lotta hardware laying around.
double edit mATX is sexy as hell unless you REALLY need a lot of drives and/or two GPUs and a sound card and some other pcie cards. plus the boards tend to be a fair bit cheaper.
My goal is to build a machine that will play something like Skrim at high settings at 40+ framerates, and will be able to play games at medium settings for a few years. I do not overclock. I'd like my machine to use as little power as possible, and be somewhat quiet. I am also not a rich man.
I currently have a Radeon 4650 which will go into the new machine, as I can't afford to buy a new card right now. I was thinking of getting a Radeon 6850 HD when the time comes.
OK, so here are my proposed parts:
PSU: currently have a 480W Thermaltake which seems like it has enough connections for the new rig, so I'll keep using it
CPU: i3 core 2120 R
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 LGA 1155 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s DDR3 2133 ATX Motherboard
Case: this thing
memory: budget corsair, 8gb
SSD for OS and current games: crucial 64gb
and I need to buy windows 7 64. shame they don't offer upgrades from 32
Thoughts? the motherboard is the one thing that I can't figure out. I just want something that will have enough USB ports, support a mid range graphics card (like the 6850 HD), and not be crummy. I don't care about OC'ing capability.
I would also like to be able to upgrade my processor down the road. Thanks if you decide to take a look!
I'm known to be an ASUS fan regarding motherboards, but gigabyte's been putting out some solid boards lately so they're also a solid pick.
If you aren't OCing at all you really just want to make sure the mobo has sufficient features in the way of stuff like number of USB ports, extra pci/pcie slots for add ins you're likely to want, enough sata6gig for the drives you're planning and the like.
As far as power savings go, it kind of depends on if that's worth actually spending more money for lower clocked parts. You can get a 35watt i3 that's clocked at 2.5ghz, which is a pretty significant reduction in power from the i3-2120's 65watt tdp. But it's also a big hit in clocks and also runs a few bucks more.
Thanks for the response. I'll have to check the model when I get home, but it has been running reliably for 6-7 years now. Maybe that means it's time to replace it. any sub 50$ PSU's that are generally recommended? I like quiet and low power consumption and things not exploding.
Interesting--- so what is the deal with Micro-ATX boards? They seem to be cheaper and have the same features. Will they fit in a mid sized case/be able to fit a larger graphics card?
Yeah I think I did miss those. Last time I was here I think your waterblocks for your 7970s had arrived?
oh @alecthar I had a look and it's 7.5Tb in 10 750GB seagate drives
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better
bit.ly/2XQM1ke
Taking a ride in a loudmobile isn't all it's cracked up to be. And for that, the laughter will never stop.
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.