Storage
I network our household computers through a home-built server unit that features 4TB of storage capacity so I have not been that concerned about disk space on the local machines. However, after a total meltdown with Windows Home Server earlier this year, I have become a bit more interested in keeping backups of critical files on the local machines, plus game and application installations are multi-gigabyte affairs now. Windows Server 2008 has replaced WHS and an upgrade to 8TB is coming online after Computex, so the network storage requirements are set for the near future.
I have always favored a fast hard disk on the local machine and the 150GB WD Raptor has been my favorite drive the past couple of years. However, after looking for the best balance of price, performance, and storage, one drive stood out from all others - so much so that the majority of my home machines are now sporting the Western Digital Caviar SE16 640GB hard drive. At $99 it is pretty much a no brainer purchase if you are looking for a new hard drive on the desktop. The WD SE16 640GB is one of those drives that offers a near perfect blend of capacity, performance, acoustics, and thermals at an incredible price point. The one exception I have is in my HT machine that utilizes a couple of the Seagate DB35.3 750GB drives dedicated to video recording activities.
Considering my daughter's machine will need to perform BD (Blu-ray Disc) playback at various times plus the need for the standard DVD burning activities, I decided to get a BD combo drive for her. Another pressing need for a combo drive stems from the SG03 case only having a single 5.25" external slot. I already have the LG GGW-H20L drive in my HT machine and just recently traded a couple of ATI 2900XTX cards for the LG GGC-H20L drive that is seeing duty in the server now.
Yes, I can stream HD video through the network so I do not truly need a combo drive, but my daughter's friends like to bring over BD discs and it is just easier for me to let them play the titles locally. The LG GGC-H20L would be the logical choice as we still have several HD-DVD titles (about 45 or so - thanks Toshiba) but even the very reasonable street price of around $170 is out of reach thanks to my earlier budget busting activities. We utilize the Sony BDU-X10S drives in our test beds and it is a terrific drive. Once again, the average street price is around $170, putting it just out of reach for us, as I needed to purchase a standard DVD drive for my machine. One would think I would have something in the closet of lost dreams, but for whatever reason I tend to be hard on optical drives and actually have several that need to be disposed of shortly.
I ended up getting the ASUS BC-1205PT drive for $150. After a firmware update, this drive has actually impressed me and BD playback is flawless even with the BD-R DL playback locked at 2x. Seek times seem to be a little high to me compared to the LG and Sony drives while overburns are limited along with the inability to set book type on DVD+R or DVD+RW media. Overall, write quality is very good and that was my major concern. Of course, it is a SATA drive so cable management is a big plus in our cramped case. The LITE-ON DH-401S-11 drive was available at $130, but the last one I bought did not last very long. Those things happen, but I did not want to go down that path again.
I did not hesitate in purchasing the Pioneer DVR-215D 20x DVD-R/+R drive for my system. Fortunately, I got the black OEM version for $27 on sale; otherwise, my next choice would have been the Samsung SH-S203N or the new Samsung SH-S223F drive. One thing I have learned as of late is the need for a multi-card reader what with everyone in the household having various camera and camcorder formats, so it was about time to purchase a couple of additional units. I was able to snag two Transcend M3 units at a local store for $9.99 each - a heck of a deal on a top-flight unit.
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jay401 - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - link
Gary - where can I read more about this card being cancelled? I wasn't aware it was cancelled and didn't see any news to that effect anywhere but sure enough it's no longer listed on Auzentech's products page. Thanks.Badkarma - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - link
Hi Gary,Have you heard anything from Nvidia as to why 5.1 LPCM via HDMI has been removed? Also, have you seen the posts on AVS stating that a Phenom is required to get BD playback? Do you know if Nvidia will be updating their drivers to allow X2 cpu's to playback properly?
Thanks.
royalcrown - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - link
Nice build, but I think you should have shopped more carefully for your video cards...http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a...turesmx-...
I got this ECS 8800 gts for 159.00 ( I asked for $10 off because it went up by ten.)
It would give you an average of 10 percent over the 8800gt for free and dump the heat outside the case, so maybe cooler even; most certainly it would kick the crap out of that radeon.
Don't be in a hurry next time when you buy video cards ;)
FYI- I am running mine on a 450 watt kingwin w no probs...
masouth - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - link
Do people bother to actually READ these articles before posting?This looks like a great deal but it seems fairly clear to me that he wants a single slot cooler.
FITCamaro - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - link
I just bought two of those cards for my system. Terrific value at that price. I replaced the cooler though with a Accelero S1 Rev. 2 w/ the turbo fan. Extremely quiet. Haven't seen temps yet though cause I only just got Vista loaded late last night. I was going for a near silent gaming system. Went with those coolers, a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme, and 4 16db 54cfm 120mm fans(3 case, 1 cpu cooler). With the case open I barely hear everything.autoboy - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - link
My favorite cheap cooler is the Arctic Cooling Alpine 7 (or 64 if you want a 3 pin fan). You can find it for around $10-$13, and it is much quieter than the stock fans you get with the processor. They are not the greatest coolers for high heat processors, but for anything less than 65W with some fan control they are inaudible even in completely silent computers. I use them in all my regular builds except for my gaming rigs that see overclocking. I cannot recommend them enough and everyone that uses them (in 65W and lower rigs) loves them. I put one on a 95W Athlon at one time, and while the fan had to ramp up to where you could hear it, it was still much quieter than stock coolers and cooled the processor enough to keep it under 60C which is my cutoff.bauser - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - link
Interesting read, especially because I just built 3 mATX systems in a row. Total cost varied from $800 to $1000 CDN for each system. The tradeoff for the lower end system was the lack of a video card and sound card. Some savings were offset by the need for keyboard/mouse (at this price range 20 bucks makes a big difference).Your findings highlight that sacrifices must be made to save money. In this price range, every decision you make will have a cost/benefit consideration. Personally, I'd sacrifice the sound card and 5.1 speaker system and spend the extra dough on a better processor (E8400, Q6600) and motherboard. I'd also go for an 8800GT over the ATI. Good stuff, looking forward to part 2.
BPB - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - link
"I had bought new monitors for each of us last year so that major expense was out of the way. We both upgraded from first generation Acer 22" LCD panels (Ed: wonder what the parents will get for Christmas this year…) to the Gateway 24" FHD2400 we recently reviewed. I ended up purchasing a couple of under 30 day open box returns for $279 each, a major expense yes, but about $200 less than street price along with a new warranty."How the heck did you get two open box Gateways? I'd love to do the same.
poohbear - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - link
the AMD 4850E is relatively overclockable compared to a e7200? it wouldn't provide anywhere near the same overclock as an e7200. just fyi.Lightingguy - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - link
Good article! But as a builder of mid-range systems for friends and family, I've got to point out that your budgets/actual expenses don't include entries for the OS. While I'm sure that you can get a good deal given your connections, that is a major budget item for those of us out here who don't want to use a Linux release.