IS this PSU enough?

[sephirothjr]

I am getting Antec 3700BQE which obviously have 350W SmartPower PSU. Here is what I am palnning on having for my "building" system:

Mobo: MSI Neo2 Plantium
Processor: 3000+ or 3200+
RAM: 1 GB (512x2 on dual, either musklin or cosiar (suggestions?))
VC: EVGA 6600GT
DVD: NEC 3500A (just one opticial drive which will be that one)
2 or 3 HD, havent decided on that. is SATA on raid worth, or better off having just one? it will be 80 gb. suggestion on that will be appericated.

thanks in advance

 

[akira34]

If you're not going to OC, it could/should be good. I prefer either the neo or true power line from Antec.

As for RAID being worth it... HELL YEAH!!! I started with IDE RAID controllers a few years back and I haven't gone back to just IDE/SATA since. I'm using SATA RAID now, and do so with just about every system I build. I'd go with some 120GB (or larger) SATA drives and use them on RAID 0. That way, you leave all four IDE ports open for future expansion... I'm using both the IDE buses on my mobo for burners.

I like the SATA RAID so much that I'm even condsidering backing up everything I need to, getting another pair of 250GB SATA drives and making one large RAID 0 volume on my system. That will make me a member of the TB club...

 

[sephirothjr]

akira. Stupid question, but what will fill your hard drive?! if i get 80, that will make 160GB total and I have no idea how to fill that big... MP3 will be out of question as im not into that kind of stuff... (I assumed that mp3 is the most memory eatter on HD?)

JR

 

[akira34]

I've got about 120GB of recorded tv still stored on my drives. I moved about 70GB over to my second array (the 500GB volume) to make some more room on the boot array (the 320GB volume). Right now, I'm using about 100GB on the boot drive, and 144GB on the other drive.

There was a time, a couple of years ago, where I thought similarly to you... Who could ever fill up over 100GB of space on drives? Well, turns out it's not all that difficult depending on what you use your computer for. I use my pc for downloading, recording tv, holding files that I share with my other computer (a laptop with only a 100GB hard drive inside) and also 'archiving' my dvd's... Plus, I have a decent amount of software installed, as well as a few games. It's a mixture of what many people use their computers for, but nothing too extreme.

Also keep in mind, I recently deleted a bunch of recorded tv. I had almost 200GB saved and not watched. I was able to watch and delete a bunch, but I also kept some more for future burning to dvd.

Oh, and I also have about 460GB worth of external storage (between five different drives). I probably have about half of that full (the 200GB desktop size drive has under 50GB free) with important stuff. Included on one of the drives is a backup image of my laptop before I installed the OS I'm running... Just in case I needed to restore it to as it was before (without having to reinstall everything again).

 

[sephirothjr]

okay, how much do I need for this... I will be using it mostly for downloading, (10 gb max per month), gaming (Unreal 2004, Warcraft 3, etc) and internet errands. Thats it. DVD and record wont be happening here. (unless i get PVR 150 which wont happen till h iave the money)

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: sephirothjr
okay, how much do I need for this... I will be using it mostly for downloading, (10 gb max per month), gaming (Unreal 2004, Warcraft 3, etc) and internet errands. Thats it. DVD and record wont be happening here. (unless i get PVR 150 which wont happen till h iave the money)

What you have is fine unless you have plans on getting a high end video card or taking on some serious overclocking.

 

[akira34]

With drives being as cheap as they are, why not get a pair of 120GB SATA drives, or larger? In fact, you can get a quality 200GB drive for under $135... With two of those, you won't worry about runing out of space for some time to come. Even when you get the PVR card later. I always plan for at least 1 year expansion/growth when I build my own system. For customers, I usually make sure they'll be good for at least 1-2 years before needing to install more storage.

When the WD 250GB drives come down the that low, or below, I'll be hard pressed to not pick them up. Then I'll be going to a full TB for drive space.

 

[Mik3y]

yes, it'll be perfectly fine.

 

[MWTungsten]

I would be interested to know if the PSU on the 3700BQE has been updated with SATA connectors ... ?