Need advice on HTPC/Media Server & Audio/Video Distribution

[rfdesq]

My local computer shop priced a system for me and I can't seem to buy the parts cheaper than he can build it. Here are the specs, please let me know what is wrong.

1. Core 2 Duo E4500 processor.
2. Intel DQ965GFEKR motherboard.
3. 2GB DDR2 Ram 800mhz.
4. (2) Western Digital 160GB HD's 7200 rpms.
5. (2) Western Digital 500GB HD's 7200 rpms.
6. 16X DVD/RW.
7. 3.5" Floppy.
8. 8 Port serial card.
9. Windows XP Pro.
10. ATX Mid Tower Case with 450 watt PS.

Put together, Raid 1 configuration, with warranty $1,100.00.

 

[IVB]

At $1100, that's not actually cheaper - my parts were $700. Granted, this has

1) RAID1 160GBs, which is a total waste as you'll never use that for programs and you shouldn't be putting data on the boot
2) Two 500GB HDs, but those are $100 each, or $135 more than my specs
3) 8port serial card, those are mebbe $50ish on eBay
4) floppy & DVD, total of $30ish

Hence, if you want to clone that setup, it's ~$950ish build-your-own.

Then again, for $150 incl warranty, I'd pay someone to do it all for me no questions asked. BTW, I'd recommend having him set up the 2 500GBs as a RAID1, even though you only get 500GB total disk space, so you have a backup HD so you don't have to re-rip CDs. Damn that sucks.

 

[rfdesq]

Both sets of HD's will be Raid 1 as we discussed at EHX. I went with 160's instead of 80's because they were the same price. $150 is two hours of labor. I could probably have him extend the warranty on everything for three years. It's worth it just in case I get something dead in the box and then have to wait for a replacement.

Edit:

Here's an article on building a PC http://techreport.com/articles.x/13671/1.

 

[autoidiot]

Quick status update...
Just wanted to let you all know that I received all my parts, and as of last night have a functioning computer with XP loaded. I still need to load (I think) all the appropriate drivers.

Thoughts/comments for any other newbies considering doing this themselves:

• Overall, the assembly process was quite straightforward. Using the instruction manual from the case, the quick guide for the motherboard and an online tutorial, it all went pretty smoothly
• I would suggest purchasing a ground strap and using it during assembly. I plugged the power cable into the case and "jumpered" the ground pin ONLY to the ground pin on the wall outlet, then connected my ground strap to the case. Probably better ways to do this, but that's what I did...
• I did need to purchase 1 extra SATA cable , since case came with 2 and Hard Disks did not come with cables (I think because they were OEM version)
• Connecting floppy disk was most confusing for me: connector nearest "twist" goes to drive, line up colored stripe with pin 1, then there should be only 1 way to connect at motherboard end
• Power connections for SATA drives had me confused for a bit--80gb drives had connections for both SATA & standard 4-pin power, 500gb and CD (SATA version) only had connection for SATA power. 4 SATA power connectors come from power supply (2 sets of 2 "daisy-chained), but could not reach all 4 devices. I ended up connecting SATA power to cd & 500gb drive, and 4-pin to 80gb drives. Took me a while to confirm that using 4-pin power to SATA drives was OK (if they have connector), but it is and they work fine. I believe you can also purchase adapters to go from 4-pin to SATA power, but that would have required another trip to the store.
• Starting up computer had me stuck for a while--thought I needed a "system disk", but couldn't figure out how to create one. Eventually realized I just needed to put the XP CD in the CD ROM drive, and that would allow system to boot (probably obvious to many of you, but it wasn't to me at the time--told you I was new to this).
• With XP CD in CD ROM, I was able to access BIOS, although other than time & date I didn't need to change anything (at least that I'm aware of yet)
• Per motherboard quick guide instructions, and floppy included, I was able to load RAID driver
• At this point, instructions said to go back into BIOS and enable RAID, although when I did this it was already enabled (but definitely check it at this point)
• Next step was to configure RAID drives. For this, I recommend pulling up the full version of the product guide from Intel's website (if only to realize you have to do it prior to installing OS, and that you need to hit Ctrl-I during startup to access)
• Now it was on to loading XP. You can partition drives at this point and select where to load OS. Note that 2 drives configured for RAID (RAID 1 in this case--"mirroring") show up as a single drive. I believe the "best" way to do this is to partition something like 10-20gb and load OS there. I would love to hear some thoughts on this, because in my case I made 1 big partition, which took a long time and I don't think is the bet way to do it. Can I reduce the partition size, now that XP is already loaded?

That sums up where I am at the moment. If anyone sees anything I've done incorrectly, or could have done better, please post for the benefit of myself and others who might come across this in the future. Thanks to all who put me on this path, and hopefully this write-up is of benefit to others.
Autoidiot

 

[68sting]

How's the computer been doing? Everything working fine?

 

[autoidiot]

How's the computer been doing? Everything working fine?

I haven't actually touched the thing since my last update. The little "play time" I've had has been devoted to setting up new surround sound system. I'll post again as soon as I've actually made any more progress.