Plans for my circa triannual machine upgrade

[johnlgalt]

OK, so I'm kinda forced into a new machine upgrade. Long story short, something took out my PSU and fried all three of my HDs (SSD for OS and dual 500 GB Barracudas mechanical for storage).

I'm going with the following:

Intel Core i7 965 EE (bought 2 years ago)
A pair of Seagate barracuda 7200.12 1 TB drives: Seagate Barracuda 1 TB Internal hard drive - 300 MBps - 7200 rpm
ThermalTake level 10 GT case: Thermaltake Level 10 GT Full tower - No power supply (snow edition if I cn find it somewhere in the next week)
Mushkin PC20000 DDR3 3 x 4 GB: Newegg.com - Mushkin Enhanced Redline 12GB (3 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model 998981
Corsair Hydro H100 CPU cooler: Corsair CWCH80 Hydro Series H80 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler for Intel Socket LGA 775/1155/1156 /1136/2011 and AMD Socket AM2/AM3 Processors-Best Computer Online Store Houston Buy Discount Prices Texas-Directron.com
eVGA Classified 3 mobo: eVGA X58 Classified3 - motherboard - extended ATX - LGA1366 Socket - X58 - LGA1366 Socket

My rationale: Intel is warranty replacing my SSD, and I'm trying to see about getting data recovery performed on my Seagatte HDs b/c I really need that data back. After that I may get a Warranty replacement on them or may not, depends. I already have the 965EE, and while it is a bit old, and a new Core i7 2600K might go a long way to giving me more power, it also costs another ~$250, which I'm not ready to spend yet. As it is, I'm looking at about $1000, and I'm recycling a few components from the current build, like my Blu-Ray burner and brand new Black Widow PSU, not to mention my dual GTX260s (SLId) and GTS 250 (dedicated to PhysX).

Thoughts? I've not been paying a lot of attention to hardware lately, so I'm kinda out of the loop....

 

[andruoid]

Off the top of my head the only thing I'd change would be the 2 spinners you have listed. Top of the spinner charts right now are Western Digital 'Black' Series. Leaderboard - Best Hard Drives & SSDs | StorageReview.com

I had 2x 1TB WD Black Series, 7200rpm, 64MB cache in the system I built just a few months ago. They are the fastest non-SSD drives. You could go for the WD Velociraptor Series but then you are approaching SSD prices and not gaining that much more in performance. Just sold my system with 1 of the Black Series drives and kept the other for my laptop backup.

 

[ToastPwnz]

I'd agree with that. I have low faith in Seagate since the drive I bought from them was going to fail (hooray for S.M.A.R.T warning) about 6 months after I bought it.
It could have just been bad luck, but I get the feeling manufacturing at least had a little to do with it.

 

[johnlgalt]

See, my experience is quite the opposite.

Although WD took over the HDs I lived and died by 20 years ago (Conner) and Seagate took over the HDs I refused to buy (Maxtor), I've had no problems with my Seagates until now - and it's pointing to something non-Seagate related, as I had 3 drives fail in unison, indicating (to me) that my old OCZ PSU did something very stupid last week.

However, I have had plenty of failed WD drives, more than I can count. In fact, I have them right here with me - I can even give you pics. I have more failed WDs and Hitachi drives, and only 1 bad barracuda - and that one (120 GB 7200 rpm IDE) I drove into the dirt myself lol....

Also, since those dual 1 TB are going to be storage drives as opposed to system drives (since Intel is replacing my SSD) not sure if it will make a significant difference. At this point, with the 1 TB high speed drives being cheap, I may even decide to grab 3-4 of them for a RAID setup for keeping my data stored. Then again, if I can lose 3 at one time, why not 4?

I'll still look and compare the Black series, though, thanks for the suggestions.

 

[andruoid]

Seagate is a popular brand and a good product, the Seagate Constellation series looks really nice! I was just mentioning that, as far as the performance factor goes, the WD Black is tops at this time.

 

[mikedt]

My rationale: Intel is warranty replacing my SSD, and I'm trying to see about getting data recovery performed on my Seagatte HDs b/c I really need that data back.

This is why backup is so important. Multiple copies, preferably offsite as well as onsite. Data recovery is not always successful and can cost thousands (USD). Usually to recover data from a fried HDD involves changing the electronics board. The replacement board MUST be identical, be from the same batch as the original drive.

 

[johnlgalt]

Yup - Only problem is that I haven't made an offsite backup of *everything* in over a year now, and I only started the master's program 9 months ago.

Building a second machine (really using what's left over from the current machine) to be a WHS server, and that will be my off machine on site backup, and I might incorporate a tape backup that I can send to the bank's vaults on a daily / weekly basis.

 

[NYCHitman1]

It sounds like you have everything already figured out. The only thing I would change from your build is the mobo. Never been much of a eVGA fan besides their GeForce v-cards. Personally, I like MSi or Gigabyte for mobos.

 

[johnlgalt]

Yeah. I've ahd great success for the last 6 years running witheVGA mobos, not so much with MSI. Never tried Gigabyte, Asus, ASRock, or any other companies, other than stock Intel boards in pre-built machines.

I looked into the Caviar black drives, but they were almost $30 more per drive - and since I'm getting 4 (2 to replace the dead 500 GB in the old comp and 2 for the new build) that extra $120 was a bit more than I could afford, so I had to stick with the Seagates.

All the stuff has been ordered, as of last night, and now I get to play the waiting game. I hate waiting.

 

[NYCHitman1]

Yeah. I've ahd great success for the last 6 years running witheVGA mobos, not so much with MSI. Never tried Gigabyte, Asus, ASRock, or any other companies, other than stock Intel boards in pre-built machines.

I looked into the Caviar black drives, but they were almost $30 more per drive - and since I'm getting 4 (2 to replace the dead 500 GB in the old comp and 2 for the new build) that extra $120 was a bit more than I could afford, so I had to stick with the Seagates.

All the stuff has been ordered, as of last night, and now I get to play the waiting game. I hate waiting.

I currently have a Seagate 500GB in my rig. I think I have used all of maybe 150 total of it. I mostly use my 2 TB exHDD for my media storage which often times takes up the majority of space.

I have heard good things about the WD Black series drives but I have never had any issues with Seagate so I just stick with what I have experience with.

Nice price point for this puppy if you are in the market for some new RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-na&AID=10521304&PID=4169848&SID=38hfkhu2qw7z

 

[johnlgalt]

I bought the Triple Channel 3 * 4 GB (12 GB total) instead. My triple channel kit also has hella more aggrressive timings than that.

As an aside, and not saying anything about you, just in general, I can't understand why pplp still want to run only dual channel in mobos that easily support triple channel. I opted for gusto and speed without breaknig the bank - although my cost per GB was double what it is there, I have the satisfaction of knowing that I also have an unlocked QPI in my 965 EE cpu, so I can easily match it up to this RAM and watch things fly.

For Christmas I'll probably replace the 260s with 560s.

And, yeah, I've had no issues with Seagates thus far. I'm doubting this current issues is a HD issue, also, since 1) three different HDs were involved, one of a different manufacturer, 2) all three had independent power (not daisy chained) and 3) All my other Seagates still work.

 

[johnlgalt]

It seems I migt have a bit left over for an extra upgrade. I'm thinkign of acquiring a SATA III SSD - need to read some reviews and such and see which will give me good performance for the money on this system.

 

[andruoid]

One of the best sites for comparing HDDs; Leaderboard - Best Hard Drives & SSDs | StorageReview.com

 

[karandpr]

One of the best sites for comparing HDDs; Leaderboard - Best Hard Drives & SSDs | StorageReview.com

dejavu ehh .you already posted the link on July 20th .Check above second post

 

[andruoid]

dejavu ehh .you already posted the link on July 20th .Check above second post

lol, indeed ...studying like mad so I have forgotten what I posted.

 

[johnlgalt]

Lol thanks for the reminder. I also use AnandTech and THG for reviews, plus any other reviews that I find simply by looking around on Google.

 

[johnlgalt]

I'm comparing reviews and benchmarks now, and the OCZ Vertex 3 seems to be topping the list execept compared to Enterprise class drives. See:

OCZ Vertex 3 Review (240GB) | StorageReview.com

Leaderboard - Best Hard Drives & SSDs | StorageReview.com

AnandTech - Bench - SSD

Of course, with Leaderboard, they have a separate class of drives for jsut booting purpopses, but most of my apps will also reside on this drive, including (but not limited to) Office, WinRAR, 7-ZIP, VS2010, Visio, SAS, etc., so I want more than just a 'boot' drive.

The OCZ Vertex 3 MI seems to be the winner for me, although I cannot quite figure out the exact differences yet between it and the non MI V3- I'll check OCZ's website and see.

And, of course, this means that I can use the replacement Intel (when they ship it back to me) as the boot drive for the WHS machine I'm building....

Win-win situation for both machines, it seems

 

[andruoid]

And, of course, this means that I can use the replacement Intel (when they ship it back to me) as the boot drive for the WHS machine I'm building....

Win-win situation for both machines, it seems

..or make a win for both of us and send one of the SSD drives my way ;-)

 

[johnlgalt]

lol - if I could afford it I would - but then I'd have nothing left for the WHS that *needs* to be built. Needs as in mandatory.

 

[johnlgalt]

H100 came in - and there is damage to a small part of the fins on the radiator. Intel has already shipped out the replacement SSD. Seagate will be contacting me Monday with data recovery analysis.

Machine is currently using an H60 for CPU cooling.

 

[johnlgalt]

OK, I've managed to get a hold of the Win8 leak and I'm going to install it on the machine just for giggles. I'm bored lol

(and as for the touch interface, no worries - I have a Bamboo Touch pad here).

 

[johnlgalt]

Replacement SSD from Intel arrived - only 1

I've got it plugged into the Marvel SATA III port fo now - but I can't use my Intel SSD Toolbox utility on it on that port... grrrrr

 

[andruoid]

Replacement SSD from Intel arrived - only 1

I've got it plugged into the Marvel SATA III port fo now - but I can't use my Intel SSD Toolbox utility on it on that port... grrrrr

How is Win8 and the semi-new setup?

 

[johnlgalt]

Win 8 doesn't look nor feel any different than 7, thus far. Since the leak is still a 79xx build, though, I expected that - just as the real Win 7 builds didn't get cracking until after 7077, with builds before that sporting a new overlay UI over the basic guts of Vista, to me.

I'm still debating on getting an OCZ SATA III 120 GB HD for this machine and migrating this drive to the WHS machine. Time will tell....

 

[9to5cynic]

john, can I ask what you do? (Mainly regarding the possibility of tape backups being put into a bank on a daily/weekly basis)

That has left me quite curious.