Computer parts:)

[Liquid]

Right so I'm building a f@h rig to help support some of the good things coming from this project:)

I need suggestions for cheap computer supplies I have a fairly set list but I'm open to shopping around:)

hey if I save enough money I could run two machines:(

Ill happily share specs if people are interested but I'd imagine it would bore most haha

So suggest some good quality sites for me:)

[perksie]

That's true, it used to be very handy if you were stuck for older parts no longer being made, loads of second hand stuff too.

Plenty of mother boards, power supplies. cables just about all you could need really.

[Liquid]

The misses is always bugging me to take her shopping. I might have to give in finally and take her to Manchester mwhaha;)

•soon to be single•

[jonsie]

Bowlers is a great afternoon out, fully recommend it.

[sheepdog]

I don't mind being bored with specs. I'm a bit of an expert at finding really obscure parts that are slightly off the beaten track that I tend to think of  and that I really need. Got a pci-e esata card for external drives I thought I needed for my server project ordered from America via ebay. But then once ordered, I managed to find a couple cheap pci-e SAS interface cards (real bargain if you know what they're for). Ironically, its now sat in my cupboard awaiting funding for the new motherboard I decided I need to cater for them. 

But best not ask me for advice as I'll get the bug to build another system just for the sake of it!

[Liquid]

Amazing:) £56 saving from that site:) now just to try and find the more specialist stuff cheaper might be able to turn this into a dual core machine:)

Talking big numbers:)

[Liquid]

Well sheepdog:) nice to hear your knowledgeable on servers could help:)

Currently own
•i7 3930k watercooled
•2 xmsi 7970 lightening watercooled
•1500w corsair psu
4 x 360 mm 45mm thick radiators
•enough fans to cool an average nuclear power plant haha.

I'm considering another two 7970s and another 3930k will probally be getting 32gb of ram, a SSD for speed and a few large HDD for data.

Any suggestions would be appreciated:)

[Anonymous]

You can always get a good curry in bradford liquid if you decide to visit ccl

[sheepdog]

I take it SSD will be your boot drive? Not that I've tried it myself yet but ever considered using a couple of SSDs and then having an SSD cache? If you're doing a lot of read operations that could speed things up.

If you haven't considered it yet, then you might want to think a bit about backing up your data or using RAID for speed. A combo of SSD boot + raid should give you a decent system plus backup of course. Though watch out on raid as it tends to be card specific if it breaks thus you lose everything. Unfortunately thats another complex subject!

[Liquid]

I was under the impression SSD cache had a higher fail rate?(I'm probally wrong haha)

I will be running a raid 5 using 1tb Samsung greens apparently very low power devices.

SSD will be the primary boot drive I was considering useing it as a raid but they still seem rather extortionate:(

[sheepdog]

SSD cache might be a bit cutting edge for the consumer market but worth having a bit of fun experimenting with if the funds allow. SSD's are not something you want as a RAID device to be honest as the read/write operations would probably shorten the lifespan.

If you think current SSD's are expensive try looking at enterprise SAS 2.5" drives on ebay. Price per GB is, er a lot, but you're paying for long term usage and higher speeds. I have 4x 10k 146GB in a ZFS raid (read that as 3x 146 for space as one is parity) more as a staging area for copying files onto before they get moved onto the slower 7200rpm consumer drives for long term storage. Works nicely for ripping and ftp but I think I'm digressing dangerously into nerdism!

BTW, watch the 'green' settings on the drives. Apparently they may power down when not active and in a RAID array that could be catastrophic.

This going to be running windows or Linux?