New Performance/Gaming Computer Build, budget ~$1500 give or take

[Irony]

Originally Posted by vawrvawerawe

... and $500 more expensive

Not necessarily.

XFX Double D FX-797A-TDFC Radeon HD 7970 3GB 384-b...

$359, with a $30 mir gets it down to $329. Most 7950s are that price.

[vawrvawerawe]

Just got the G110. It has a nice feel, but I am disappointed because I thought you could change the colors. You can only choose between Red, Purple, and Blue, and shades in between. This factor alone, that I cannot have the color white, is the deciding factor into why I will not keep this keyboard.



Moreover, the backlight, although brighter on the keys than the Challenger Ultimate, only is brighter if you look directly overhead. Since most people do not hold their head directly over the keyboard and stare straight down, then the keys look rather dim. Another disappointment. Even worse is that due to the design, some of the keys only light up partially.



The culprit for this, is due to the fact that the print for the keys is not having light shined onto it. As you see below, the key has print outside of the area which shines light:



Also the problem is that the actual light source is deep into the keyboard, as shown below. This is also the reason the lights appear dim. The lights do appear brighter when fully depressed. However, that defeats the purpose of having a backlit keyboard.



Also, the wrist rest is actually a separate piece. It kind of feels cheap; although when attached to the keyboard and set on the table, it has a good and comfortable, solid feel.

Wrist rest pictures:





------------------------------

PICTURES:

Logitech G110:



Thermaltake Challenger Ultimate:



-

SATA power issue: Distance between SATA power plugs for HDD, along with the rgidity of the cables, makes impossible to be able to plug in more than 2 drives into the full 6 slots because you have to space them so far apart.

Do I need these or is there another solution?

Allow me to illustrate the issue with pictures:





As you see in the pictures above, I could plug them all in, but the back of the case could not possibly close. There is ZERO flexibility of the cables when plugged in like this.


What about removing the sleeve? Although I'm not sure that's possible without cutting it off; and that could be dangerous because I could accidentally cut one of the wires. And it would also probably void my warranty on the PSU. Moreover, cutting off the sleeve might not even work.

No one answered (probably because it's Thanksgiving), so I just bought 5 of those sata power extension cables

[Irony]

That looks like the only solution for multiple drives in that case

[vawrvawerawe]

Originally Posted by Irony

That looks like the only solution for multiple drives in that case

Thanks. Hopefully it works.

--

Worth buying this SYBA SY-PEX40039 PCI-Express 2.0 SATA III (6.0Gb/s...
for whenever I want to add two more hard drives?

My motherboard only has six sata ports. Also, only two of those are sata3. This would give me two more sata3 ports.
Currently, I have 5 hard drives and one DVD drive. There is all 6 of my ports. So, without having more SATA ports, I am maxed out to 10TB. And yes, I do want and could use more TB. If I got two of these I could add up to 8 more TB; and if I used 3TB drives I could add up to 12 more TB.

Not to mention if I wanted to add a SSD.

[repman244]

Originally Posted by vawrvawerawe

Worth buying this SYBA SY-PEX40039 PCI-Express 2.0 SATA III (6.0Gb/s...
for whenever I want to add two more hard drives?
My motherboard only has six sata ports. Also, only two of those are sata3. This would give me two more sata3 ports.

I wouldn't if I were you, only when you get to the point of actually needing more ports. Don't bother so much with SATA 3 if you will use HDD's, they don't even come close to SATA 2 limits.
And AFAIK the 2 SATA 3 ports on the MB are native and you get much better performance from them than these cheap cards.

[vawrvawerawe]

Originally Posted by repman244

I wouldn't if I were you, only when you get to the point of actually needing more ports. Don't bother so much with SATA 3 if you will use HDD's, they don't even come close to SATA 2 limits.
And AFAIK the 2 SATA 3 ports on the MB are native and you get much better performance from them than these cheap cards.

Ok then what do you suggest? I want to add a SSD and more SATA3 hard drives.

[cdawall]

Originally Posted by vawrvawerawe

Ok then what do you suggest? I want to add a SSD and more SATA3 hard drives.

Your HARDDRIVE will NEVER max out SATA2

[vawrvawerawe]

Originally Posted by cdawall

Your HARDDRIVE will NEVER max out SATA2

Fine, but What Do You Suggest? For adding More Hard Drives? If not that PCI-e card, then what do you suggest? A different PCI-e card? Another idea?

If you're correct, then you must have a better idea? Please tell me the better idea you have.

Anyways, as far as SATA3 is concerned, Yes, SATA3 Matters. Although, depending on the hard drive, how much it matters may vary.

Due to 8b/10b encoding, the maximum data transfer rates of SATA II and SATA III are 300 MB/s and 600 MB/s, respectively.

When choosing a proper interface for a drive, the concepts fully utilizes and can benefit from are quite different.

A drive with a maximum data transfer rate of 301 MB/s doesn't max out SATA III's 600 MB/s, but it will be limited by SATA II's 300 MB/s.

A drive's throughput (disk-to-computer transfer rate) is affected by both the internal (disk-to-buffer) and external (buffer-to-computer) transfer rate. The latter is determined by the interface (e.g. SATA III) and the drive, the former by the drive alone.

The interface should always be slightly faster than the drive itself or it might slow the drive down. REFERENCE LINK

--

Perhaps another person can confirm that I should not get this? (http://www.neweggbusiness.com/Produc...82E16816124045)
Because it looks like it will serve my purposes quite nicely.

[repman244]

Originally Posted by vawrvawerawe

Anyways, as far as SATA3 is concerned, Yes, SATA3 Matters. Although, depending on the hard drive, how much it matters may vary.

For HDD it does not matter, SATA 2 is enough. Even 15k RPM enterprise drives are around 200-220MB maximum sequential read/write.
The only thing that could be affected is the drives cache which isn't that important for a storage drive.

About the card, maybe something like HighPoint, LSI, Areca, Adaptec....

[cdawall]

Originally Posted by vawrvawerawe

Fine, but What Do You Suggest? For adding More Hard Drives? If not that PCI-e card, then what do you suggest? A different PCI-e card? Another idea?

If you're correct, then you must have a better idea? Please tell me the better idea you have.

Anyways, as far as SATA3 is concerned, Yes, SATA3 Matters. Although, depending on the hard drive, how much it matters may vary.



--

Perhaps another person can confirm that I should not get this? (http://www.neweggbusiness.com/Produc...82E16816124045)
Because it looks like it will serve my purposes quite nicely.

Look at your own link very closely



NOTICE those are not HDD those are SSD's AGAIN a HARD DRIVE AKA the thing with the spinny disk inside will NOT max out SATA II use the SATA II ports on your board and move on. If you want to get very specific short of dropping $200+ on a good 16x based raid card you will never get close to the latency provided by the onboard Sata II not to mention the speed in itself.

Using a higher end card on a 1x/4x slot. Are you going to be able to give up a 16x slot? NOPE you have yours populated...



Notice how it performs worse the SATA II onboard.

[vawrvawerawe]

Originally Posted by cdawall

Notice how it performs

Irrelevant. I am asking about what to get so I can add more hard drives. Throughput doesn't matter at all to me. Storage space does.

So can you please give a suggestion as to what to buy, if not that PCI-e card I gave the link for?

p.s., look at that picture more closely:



Clearly in the picture, the PCI-e card does not differ too much from the onboard speed. But again, that doesn't matter to me because I'm just looking to add more hard drives.

Moreover, for the sake of discussion, there is a huge difference between SATA2 and SATA3 speeds.

[cdawall]

Originally Posted by vawrvawerawe

Irrelevant. I am asking about what to get so I can add more hard drives. Throughput doesn't matter at all to me. Storage space does.

So can you please give a suggestion as to what to buy, if not that PCI-e card I gave the link for?

So you are running more than 6 drives total? If you are buy a motherboard that supports more drives.

This is what happens when you cheap out on motherboards

ASRock Z77 Professional LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SA...

[vawrvawerawe]

Originally Posted by cdawall

So you are running more than 6 drives total? If you are buy a motherboard that supports more drives.

This is what happens when you cheap out on motherboards

ASRock Z77 Professional LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SA...

1. I got an excellent motherboard which has excellent reviews.
2. No, I do not want to buy another motherboard. I am happy with the one I bought.
3. Yes, I will be using more than 5 drives total. (the DVD drive is using up sata port #6).
4. I Don't Care About The Speed. As long as it's over 50mb/s.

[cdawall]

Originally Posted by vawrvawerawe

p.s., look at that picture more closely:

http://s9.postimage.org/vr9tfw0rz/22103.jpg

Clearly in the picture, the PCI-e card does not differ too much from the onboard speed. But again, that doesn't matter to me because I'm just looking to add more hard drives.

Moreover, for the sake of discussion, there is a huge difference between SATA2 and SATA3 speeds.

Which 16x slot are you using the one with the 7950 in it or the one with the other 7950 in it. If you notice using the open 4x/1x slot you have available it is a good bit slower than the onboard SATA II.

Originally Posted by vawrvawerawe

1. I did not get that cheapo motherboard. I got an excellent motherboard which has excellent reviews.
2. No, I do not want to buy another motherboard. I am happy with the one I bought.
3. Yes, I will be using more than 5 drives total. (the DVD drive is using up sata port #6).

Use the USB3.0

[repman244]

Originally Posted by vawrvawerawe

So can you please give a suggestion as to what to buy, if not that PCI-e card I gave the link for?

I'll just quote myself:

About the card, maybe something like HighPoint, LSI, Areca, Adaptec....

[vawrvawerawe]

Originally Posted by cdawall

Use the USB3.0

No. I want internal drives. Otherwise I pay much more for a ton of crappy externals. And it would completely defeat one of the prime purposes of this build (be able to add a bunch of internal drives to save thousands of dollars). And USB 3.0 is Significantly Slower Than Sata (in real life use). From my experience, SATA transfers about 5 times faster than USB 3.0.

[Frick]

If only storage space matters buy a random controller card. Just get the cheapest.

[cdawall]

Originally Posted by vawrvawerawe

No. I want internal drives. Otherwise I pay much more for a ton of crappy externals. And it would completely defeat one of the prime purposes of this build. And USB 3.0 is Significantly Slower Than Sata.

Go look USB3.0 speeds up again because you are wrong. They are normally not more expensive by much if any. If you want 6 billion internal HDD buy another SATA card you have already proven you don't listen anyway. Buy the cheapest SATA III one you can and put it in your PCI-e 1x slot that only supports 250MB/s

[Frick]

Why are you even talking speeds when he said that didnt matter? Just grab a cheapo from ebay or something.

[cdawall]

Originally Posted by Frick

Why are you even talking speeds when he said that didnt matter? Just grab a cheapo from ebay or something.

I was trying to figure the same thing out since he brought it up at first as being important. Now its not because he was proved wrong. Same thing with this guy every time anyone tries to help him.

[vawrvawerawe]

Originally Posted by Frick

If only storage space matters buy a random controller card. Just get the cheapest.

Thanks! Yea, most of the drives aren't being used regularly. Just for storage and backup. So the drives on the slower ports from the PCI-e sata ports, I would use backups and storage.

Originally Posted by Frick

Why are you even talking speeds when he said that didnt matter? Just grab a cheapo from ebay or something.

I wasn't. I was trying to get other people to stop talking about it and just give a suggestion.
Thanks. I'll take your advice!

Originally Posted by cdawall

I was trying to figure the same thing out since he brought it up at first as being important. Now its not because he was proved wrong.

No, I was proved correct. Not wrong. Dunno why people don't listen sometimes.

[vawrvawerawe]

Originally Posted by cdawall

Go look USB3.0 speeds up again because you are wrong.

No, you're wrong. I said in real time use in my experience. I know what the speeds are supposed to be. I have never come even remotely close to 600mb/s on usb 3.0. The most I ever got was 80mb/s on USB 3.0. Part of that is being a seagate drive (junk). The other part is not spending $500 on a 2TB drive. Nonetheless, for the exact same drive, I got internal transfer speeds at significantly higher speeds.

[repman244]

Originally Posted by vawrvawerawe

No, you're wrong. I said in real time use in my experience. I know what the speeds are supposed to be. I have never come even remotely close to 600mb/s on usb 3.0. The most I ever got was 80mb/s on USB 3.0

After you added that part yes USB 3.0 has no problems of speeds around 3Gbps...

[vawrvawerawe]

Originally Posted by repman244

After you added that part yes USB 3.0 has no problems of speeds around 3Gbps...

Please post a screenshot where your computer is getting 384MB/s (3Gbps) real-life transfer speeds on USB 3.0 to a normal hard drive. I want to see this!!!

And if you really, can, please tell me how I can do it too, because I never ever came anywhere even remotely close to that on my USB 3.0 external hard drive!!!

[erocker]

Originally Posted by vawrvawerawe

Please post a screenshot where your computer is getting 384MB/s (3Gbps) real-life transfer speeds on USB 3.0 to a normal hard drive

No SATA II/III hard disk can reach those speeds on its own USB 3.0 or not.