Brand New Build, Suggestions Welcome

Hi all,

So it has been a very long time since I built a PC from scratch, last machine I built was a CompuPro S-100 system running Concurrent CP/M ! I am building a new box primarily for doing video & photo editing using the new 64 bit versions of Photoshop and Sony Vegas. I have just about finished the physical installation, today I will run the pump for 24 hours to check for leaks and tomorrow I would like to begin setting the box up.

Configuration: I have an Armor LCS cabinet w/ CPU and GPU cooling blocks, 750 watt Corsair PS, Intel DX38BT mobo, Q9550 CPU, 8 gig of Kingston 1333 DDR3 ram ( the only one actually recommended for this mobo), 1 Sony & 1 TDK DVD/CD RW drives (ATAPI), 4 Seagate 650gig SATA drives for a raid 5 storage array, 1 150gig SATA Velociraptor for the system, and 1 WD 150 gig SATA Cavier as a scratch drive, an EVGA 8800GT video card ( Vegas does not take advantage of a GPU except for some effects add-on packages ), HP 24" widescreen digital monitor, and Sony 19" analog flat screen monitor, and Full Vista Ultimate package.

My questions start with:

Once the Hardware is all installed what NEXT? I have heard that I can only put in 1 stick of memory until the OS is installed then add the others, but even before that what are the steps for configuring the mobo once the power is added? How hard is it to set up the RAID and is the built in RAID controller any good with Vista64?

Next the scratch drive currently is full of data from an XP system. The plan is to configure the RAID, move the data I want to the RAID, and then set the drive as the scratch drive, so should I install the scratch drive right away or set-up the RAID first, move the data in using the scratch drive in an external USB cabinet, and then adding the drive back into the system?

This is my first Vista install what do I need to know to make it go right?

Finally I have a scanner (Epson Perfection 3200 Photo) and printer (Epson 1270 Photo) that do not have drivers specificly listed to support Vista 64. What is involved in doing a dual boot machine and is it worth the hassle or should I just scan and print off of my old XP box? ( Eventually I will upgrade both pieces, but for now I have spent enough on this rig ) I also have a Contour ShuttlePro II input device that currently does not support Vista64, that one I may just have to leave on a shelf for now as it is only useful for Vegas!

Any and all help is appreciated, I feel like a kid with a new toy again, lol.

Best regards, -Harry

Just a few comments from a retired computer builder.

SATA2 is mandatory for any new system today, but why RAID?
That's a killer if it goes sour on you.

I was given a Dell XPS 400 that Dell wrote off as "Broken and beyond repair" just because the two-drive RAID system was corrupted.
I reprogrammed it to operate on single drives and set up Vista Ultimate on the little PC.
I doubled the original 1 gig of ram and Vista is running satisfactorily on the PC today.

Over the years I've tried a RAID setup on several occasions and every time I've torn it down and gone back to a single drive for my OS. For the home computer user there is NO advantage to using RAID, except to tie up more drives to do the same job.

With so many drives and all that ram, you're going to have one heck of a heat problem. And, you can't stack those drives or the bottom ones will roast the top ones.
Also the current draw on the PSU will be considerable. A 750w supply won't produce that much power 'all day' so I'd want to go higher yet on the PSU.

You're also going to want to increase cooling as much as possible.
I'm currently running five case fans in my own system to bring in fresh air and to exhaust the heat from my three HD's and 3 gig's of ram. I had to do some cutting and drilling to get that many fans installed.
Every one of my three HD's has its own Two-Fan cooler and I've added a larger cooling fan to my 128meg Video card.

Also, Video cards today, generate a LOT of heat, that must be removed from the case.
It appears that you're setting yourself up for a "Furnace" of Mt St Helen's proportions!

If you actually build that system as you've said, it should make a nice heater for your computer room this winter!

I work very hard for my money and I'd not want to waste it by adding more ram and more HD's than really necessary.

Vista Ultimate runs beautifully on my computer with an AMD 3800+ dual core CPU and three gigs of DDR2 ram.

By the way, you couldn't run fast enough to GIVE me any Kingston ram.
I work with a professional ram seller who tells me that Kingston ram is about 85% refurbished ram that's actually FAILED the original manufacturers final testing.

Good Luck!

Well thanks for the feedback. The reason for the raid is simple, I cannot afford to loose data due to a HD failure, This whole build was started when I recently lost a wedding video due to a drive crash in the middle of a render and only thru the grace of God found the original tapes to start again, but I cannot recover the hours of editing I lost. I have been running raid in all of my servers at work for at least 15 years and they have saved the data more then once. However these are pre-built boxes running MS or Unix server software.

I agree that heat is a potential issue, hence the liquid cooling and the Armor case. Currently it has 5 fans in addition to the water cooling and room to add one more if needed. I have to say the Armor case is really well done, the drives have a full bay between each other so there is plenty of air moving past them. The Raptor is off to the side with what is a pretty much dedicated fan pulling air past it.

I did a wattage calculation and the system specs out at 480 watts steady state so I think I will be OK with the 750.

I would have gone with another vendor of RAM, but again the Kingston is the only 2 gig, 1333mhz dimms certified for this board at the moment. I do find the claim that Kingston is refurbed ram a little hard to believe, that would be flat out fraud and I am sure after a failure or two it would be prosecuted by some of the major corps that use their product.

Finally I would not have gone in this direction had I not needed the horsepower for Vegas, video rendering has to be the most resource intensive thing I have ever done on a PC.

Again, thanks for responding, I am just trying to get al the info I can before I switch this bad boy on.

-Harry

Hi Doombuggy, may be there is something I can add that may help.

Before you do anything please check to see if your MB able to configure raid 5. If not, you need to get a raid expansion card. Most MB built in raid controller only offers two options of strip (raid 0) and mirror (raid 1). Of course raid 0 is the choice for gamers who is hunger for speed, and raid 1 is for professionals who's data equals money like you. Then raid 5 is for professional gamers, I guess :D, whos needs the speed and reliability.

As my opinion base on your usage, I would suggest you raid 1 two pairs of 650GB would be more sufficient on heat, power, and disk space management. (Double check if your MB is able to raid 1 two pair or just one pair)

As tips on installing Vista, I would install all the drives needed, but connect the ones needed to raid and where to install Vista. Install 2 gig of ram and begin installation.

First go into bios and enable drives for raid setup then go to raid setup after you come out of bios. Select mirror option in raid setup, select bootible on the ones for OS. Exit when done and continue to install Vista. I would download the newest raid driver just in case. Insert raid driver disk or floppy when prompt. from this point on, the rest would be a relax.

I would wait till window updates are all done usually after SP1 then install the rest of rams and connect the other drives following by transferring data from other drives and so on. Take your time and relax. If something stuck, calm down and think it out, everything are pretty much common sense.

Good luck and hope it is going to be an excellent experience for you.

Thanks Bruce,

That is the type of post I was looking for! I have been doing research on the latest drivers ( the mobo does support raid 5 and 10 ) and with your guidance I now have an order in which to do things. I have to admit, this is turning out to be much more fun then plugging in a prebuilt box!

Best regards, -Harry