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Pastimes : Dream Machine ( Build your own PC ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Clarence Dodge who wrote (2811)	10/8/1998 5:45:00 PM
From: Dave Hanson	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 14778

Clarence, The configuration you propose raises a number of issues. It isn't that it should be hard to make work, rather there are lots of trade offs and choices to be made RE price/performance, expandability, etc. on which opinions vary. I think most of the general issues (SCSI vs. IDE, the role of what ZP has called KOT drives, backup strategies, etc.) have already been covered well on this thread. I'd be glad to try to give you my opinions on specific trade offs you might decide to face, though I'm sure others will disagree. I'll summarize just a couple: -Fast 5400 IDE drives from Maxtor and IBM are generally better bets than hotter, louder, more expensive 7200 drives unless absolute top performance is critical. (see storagereview.com for excellent discussion on this.) -SCSI HDDs aren't generally worth the cost. You'll pay a big premium for performance that isn't noticably different. This makes sense only if you need lots of drives. Also, new IDE formats, USB formats, and eventually FireWire formats are the future; they will supplant SCSI on the mainstream desktop. -don't worry about getting a sufficiently small KOT drive. Just format it into seperate partitions, and make sure your KOT drive is large enough to hold the critical ones. Other questions for you to consider: How much can you afford to spend on your system (or is this a "whatever it takes within reason" purchase?) What gadgets will you likely attach (scanner, CD-R, video camera, other goodies, or pretty much a no-nonsense trading machine?) What apps do you run? What OS? What are the implications for the storage space and performance you'll need? In my consulting business, these practical issues are the kinds of questions I try to help clients wrestle with before settling on a configuration for them. Unfortunately, hardware sites on the net rarely have this focus--there is a preoccupation with getting every last nanosecond of benchmark performance or of having the latest and greatest technology. I'll stop for now. Feel free to pose specific follow-ups to the thread. Regards, Dave

To: Clarence Dodge who wrote (2811)	10/8/1998 8:03:00 PM
From: Zeuspaul	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14778

(3) As per ZPs specs for KOT configuration, I need (1) a mobo which permits boot drive selection, which the BH6 does (2) a mobo which permits choosing between SCSI and IDE boot drive, which I am currently trying to find out. (3) a SCSI controller with boot target ID selection which so far I've found only the Adaptec 2940. Clarence, Dave's comments are all right on. Dave has a better eye to value and overall system design than I do. As Dave said SCSI boot target ID is an option that is only necessary if you have multiple SCSI harddrives and want to select between them for boot drives. In your proposed setup SCSI boot target ID is not necessary. I reuse my SCSI cards as I upgrade my computers. I overbuy as I do not usually know where I am going next. Given adequate RAM (128 MB in NT) I do not think harddrives will noticeably affect your performance. A faster harddrive will call up or save or transfer files quicker. Program operations will operate mostly in RAM. IDE is a first design consideration IMO. One needs to consider the four device limitation. You could have two harddrives and a CDROM and have room for one more device. I have four harddrives and three CDxxx's and a scanner so SCSI works well for me. Zeuspaul

To: Clarence Dodge who wrote (2811)	10/8/1998 8:57:00 PM
From: Zeuspaul	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14778

(2) a mobo which permits choosing between SCSI and IDE boot drive, which I am currently trying to find out. From the ABIT BH6 manual abit-usa.com 3-12 Chapter 3 When the computer boots up, it can load the operating system from floppy drive A:, hard disk drive C:, SCSI disk drive or CD-ROM. There are many options for the boot sequence: A, C, SCSI C, A, SCSI C, CD-ROM, A CD-ROM, C, A D, A, SCSI ( At least 2 IDE HDD can be used ) {{???}} E, A, SCSI ( At least 3 IDE HDD can be used ) F, A, SCSI ( At least 4 IDE HDD can be used ) SCSI, A, C SCSI, C, A A, SCSI, C LS/ZIP, C