My post deployment reward build.

[apslao]

i just wanted to say welcome home from Afghanistan ! what you guys go through out there is unimaginable and i truly respect all of you servicemen for what you do back to topic now , go with an atx board as the others have said it offers more upgrade potential and is a lot easier to work with

Hey I'm not home yet, but I do appreciate the recognition of the ducks we go through...hell paying $95/m for 50KB/sec download service is just the tip of the ice berg....never mind upload speeds.

[apslao]

I buy most of my stuff on Newegg but Amazon is getting more competitive so I still check there. Sales tax is definitely something to consider though.

 

Right now Amazon has a daily deal of SanDisk Extreme SSDs:

 

120GB - $80

240GB - $155 <<<

 

You could build a brand new full system easily for $1000 so if you are bring parts in that makes it much easier.

 

I'm still waiting for a keyboard to wow me so I have nothing I would recommend at this time. For mouse I prefer wired, so Corsair M60 is my favorite at the moment with the Logitech G500 being my second fav.

 

Right now I would say the HD 7950 is a much better deal for slightly more cash. AMD is starting to be very competitive with pricing.

you know, the only reason why I haven't jumped on that, is because I've already invested in the Kingston hyper x 120gb for $90. I figured I'd wait and see if they go down in price again, and just RAID a pair of the Kingston.

 

Here's a question. Does the RAID 0 concern of losing data apply to ssd's? Is it still not recommended to mix/match ssd sizes, or even manufacturers for an ssd RAID? Since ssd's are already fast...does it show any real world performance for a RAID 0 setup? Thanks for the input so far guys.

 

Last but not least...7950 vs. 660ti....Hmmm., that free copy of Borderlands 2 is very tempting...and if the 7950 falls to ~$300...then maybe =D

[Fogel]

you know, the only reason why I haven't jumped on that, is because I've already invested in the Kingston hyper x 120gb for $90. I figured I'd wait and see if they go down in price again, and just RAID a pair of the Kingston.

 

Here's a question. Does the RAID 0 concern of losing data apply to ssd's? Is it still not recommended to mix/match ssd sizes, or even manufacturers for an ssd RAID? Since ssd's are already fast...does it show any real world performance for a RAID 0 setup? Thanks for the input so far guys.

 

Last but not least...7950 vs. 660ti....Hmmm., that free copy of Borderlands 2 is very tempting...and if the 7950 falls to ~$300...then maybe =D

The 120GB drive can last you awhile if you don't have any large storage needs (movies, music, raw photoediting files, etc.) and no plans to install a bunch of software on it. Space does go quick though, which is why I bought myself a 256GB drive when it went on sale for $180. This is a better deal even.

 

When talking RAID 0, all concerns of data loss are always relevant regardless of the technology of the drive. The only reason to RAID 0 two SSDs would be to combine two smaller drives into one partition. Though as you point out, data loss is a concern. I personally wouldn't do it but I could see why some would want to raid two 120s for a larger partition for their O/S & programs. And yes, you would raid two drives of similar size and the manufacturers might matter. I say this because as different as SSDs are (asynchronous vs synchronous) I would stick with the same brand so the NAND types are the same.

 

Unless you really want to combine two SSDs into one parition I would avoid RAID.

 

Even with Borderlands in the equation, I probably still would go with the 7950 and just wait for a deal on Borderlands 2 ...but if the game = day 1 purchase for me I'd probably switch that up.