Need tech advice on abit kt7a raid board

[damnlimey]

I've just been given an abit kt7a raid board along with a 800mhz athlon .
Rather than spend hours or days searching the net for advice I thought I'd throw it
out to the techs at FR first.My questions are:

Is there an appreciable speed advantage to using the raid technology and 2 drives?(stripping?)
What video card should I get?
Are there any heatsink/fan choices that work better than others?(dual fans?)
What type of memory ,I know this board supports pc133 but is it DDR compatible.

Any other advice would be greatly appreciated,
Thanks.

[RadioAstronomer]

I would gowith the Geforce2 Pro instead of the MX for the vid card. Much higher performance and not a great deal more expensive.

[damnlimey]

Thanks everyone,I knew FR wouldn't let me down,
Lots of good advice and good links.

[eggman]

You're right, RAID 5 is best

Best for low cost redundancy but worst for performance. If your looking to improve performance, use RAID 0. This provides no redundancy as the failure of any one of the drives will result in loss of data. RAID 1 will allow for redundancy with only a slight performance hit on writing as the data needs to be written to both drives to provide redundancy.

RAID 5 provides good performance on data that is rarely updated but it sucks for writing as it needs to read and write the full stripe plus the parity even if you are only updating a small portion of the data. Depending on what database engine you are running and what you are using the data for the performance hit could be worse than running on separate drives.

RAID arrays will only protect you against loss of data in the event of a disk failure but won't protect you against data loss from accidentally deleted files or a poorly written update query. You still need to back it up every day.

[Oschisms]

Actually it could seem slower in comparison to my workstation because of other things, too- I'm going to shut up now.

[Brett66]

DDR RAM is fairly inexpensive. Get as much as you can afford, it can be a critical element for performance. Forget the 133 stuff. Your system will be useful for a longer time if you load up with RAM. If your board only works with the PC1600 DDR RAM you can plug the PC2100 into it and it will scale down to PC1600 speed. PC2100 DDR RAM is going for $43 at Pricewatch right now.

Pricewatch

[DonnerT]

Kind of dating yourself aren't you?
Was it Commodore-64 or Vic-20?

[tjg]

Thanks for the link.

[tbeatty]

I think Raid 1+0 should be okay but I htink it requires more than 2 drives (3 minimum, I think). That will give him some redundancy.

[RadioAstronomer]

I have never used this board or even looked at one. Does it support DDR ram or is it a PC-133 only?

[RadioAstronomer]

I am using dual channel RDRAM-800 in my systems.

[billbears]

We lived on the wrong side of town I guess. Couldn't get a Commodore, only a TRS-80 Coco with a cassette drive. Oh, how I remember getting a 5 1/4 floppy. Had friends for weeks just to come over and look at it. LOL!!

[RiVer19]

I've got a lot of experience building computers for myself, family and friends. CS degree, and worked for a large computer company for 14 years. ....so for what weight that add's, here goes.

Video card: If you want to play 3D games like Quake3, Unreal Tournament, Tribes, etc.....The best price, performance, stability and gorgous picture - 64MB GeForce2 MX400. Looking at $68 + shipping @ shentech.com If you don't plan on playing demanding 3D games, go with the 32MB GeForce2 MX200 at $54 (@ same place). I've bought and installed both these cards in the last month for different people. You won't be disapointed.

RAID: No, don't do it. Unless you are just wanting to complicate your install....There's no real reason. Just get a 7200RPM/ 100MBs UATA hard disk for the speed. 40GB Seagate (brand) drive like this for $98 right now. I've installed several of these over the last couple of months. Very fast and reliable. No need for RAID on your home PC in my opinion. But, if you want to complicate things and spend more money go for it. ...I do realize it's not THAT complicated. But, it's unnecessary for a home PC in my opinion.

Memory: Just get the PC133. Don't waste your money on the DDR stuff. Price/Performance...It's not worth it. You can get 256MB of PC133 for $29 right now. Three weeks ago it was down to $22. But, the price is always up and down. 256MB should be plenty. But, hey if you want to spend the money 512MB would be sweet. Get two strips of 256MB.

FAN: Humm, this one's tricky as it depends on if your processor is a Slot-A or Socket-A. The bigger the better when it comes to CPU fans. But, I've got a few AMD 1.2GHz Athlon Thunderbirds out there with just $8.99 fans in them playing demanding 3D games and not overheating. On the Slot-A systems I think you get more heat and need a bigger fan. I've used a $15 big fan on a few of those with no overheating playing demanding games.

My kids systems are my best test systems. They give them the severe workout continuously over hours playing 3D games. Well, that's my 2 cents worth. I can at least speak from a lot of system building experience. ...don't mean to sound cocky I swear. Just trying to be helpful to a freeper.

RiVer

[THEUPMAN]

Whenever I feel my processors are moving too slow I simply remember the days of the Commodor,cassette tape programs and 2400 baud modem.

when men where men

[RadioAstronomer]

Question. Why the MX over the pro? on the vid card. Not a huge price diff and there is a huge performance diff. I finally installed Gforce3s in my systems. Love them.

[Brett66]

Did some checking at Abit's website. This board does not support DDR RAM, only 3 slots for 100/133 SDRAM.

[RadioAstronomer]

Check with Comp USA. I am building a computer for a fellow Freeper, and I was able to populate the computer with 512Megs of PC133 for free. :) Not sure if that rebate is still in place but its worth checking out.

[Brett66]

Be careful on your fan selection. Athlons can be very sensitive to any damage on the insulating interface on the fan/cpu interface. I was messing around with the insulator on a cooling orb because it was running too hot and installed it on the CPU. After about thirty seconds the thing died with a little streamer of bluish smoke during boot-up. What a painful lesson that was. The AMD approved fans work better than the non-AMD approved cooling orb from my personal experience.

[fso301]

I know this board supports pc133 but is it DDR compatible.

No it isn't DDR compatible and DDR isn't even compatible between vendors. The pc133 is dirt cheap now. The manufacturers are selling it at a loss. Eventually, DDR will replace pc133 as low end memory once the bugs are worked out of it. Until that future date, buyer beware of DDR!

[RiVer19]

Well, the best price I see for the 32MB GeForce2 Pro is $112. Compared to the $68 for a 64MB GeForce2 MX 400. Big difference to me and the other people I'm building systems for. Usually it's most bang for the buck they (and I) are after. The 64MB GeForce2 Pro is $149. So, price is the only reason. I do realize that they are faster. But, for the things the user is doing the GeForce2 MX cards are super. My two kids really push their systems playing the most recent games and the MX 400 class card really still holds up well at the resolutions we use (800x600, or 1024x768). If you've got the money, go for it. The GeForce3 is a fantastic card. I just won't buy one until the next generation card comes out and I get one for cheap. But, I'm just that way. I find what works for me and wait on the cutting edge stuff. ...as long as the current stuff does its job. ...which it does.

[RadioAstronomer]

Also be very carful installing the fan. It is not terribly difficult to damage the CPU with too much force.