tbourner

I thought all RAID setups were dependant on the controller, and if you swapped it you'd need to delete the arrays and start again?

I did look at those little PC things but I think I'd rather stick with a normal desktop - I at least want a CD/DVD drive anyway and I don't really want to bother with plugging in an external drive every time. Do we think Windows 7 home or pro? Why is 64 bit better than 32?

This thread's great, wish I had a Supra. *Roadkill*

Nothing in spirited driving yet.

Scott, which m-board with onboard graphics would you recommend then? Rather than me buying a graphics card? How about this one: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/187987 For a fiver more? Without me playing games or doing any rendering or anything is it really worth getting a graphics card?

Novatech do a motherboard bundle for £125 with: Intel Pentium Dual Core E5400 2Gb 240Pin DDR2 800Mhz Intel G31 Intel ICH7 Is that better than buying everything seperately?

I was thinking something more like this. But will my current system deal with Windows 7? I wouldn't trust it to run Vista no matter how much RAM I crammed in!! Come to think of it I don't know how much RAM my m-board can handle. It is 4-5 years old now. From Scotts list I could just get the CPU, motherboard (does it have onboard graphics chip?), case and PSU, and with the extras for cooling it comes to £187. I then need to buy Windows 7 (how much?) and wipe my current system and use my current HDDs for now. I've got a DVD-RW drive which is fine and my monitor/keyboard/speakers etc. do what I need them to.

We're developing a 5U84 system at the moment, which can house 84 SAS drives, and we're getting 2.5TB drives in this year!! That's a LOT of storage.

We've got some 200GB SSDs in work at the mo, we stuck Windows Server 2003 on one of them and put it into an ATX Server system (quite a quick dual quad-core with 4GB RAM) and it was quite brilliant how much quicker it was than the standard 2.5" HDD! Things like the 'add/remove programs' list came up straight away, so I'd love to go SSD eventually especially for the boot drive - prices are dropping rather quick - another reason to stick with the drives I've got? Mind you HDDs are so damn cheap now for 1TB or bigger I suppose it's not really worth waiting.

Wow lots of replies!! I knew you guys wouldn't disappoint on this kind of thread! Looks good! I can actually build it all myself as I do work with computers believe it or not! We only have high spec servers at work though so I know how to set up 10G iSCSI cards and 6GB SAS HBAs but not a basic CHEAP home PC! If I didn't bother with the HDDs I'd need to keep mine - I've currently got a 60GB as my C and a 400GB as my media, and I've got 260GB free on it! So maybe I'll just upgrade to the bigger RAID at a later date. It is only pics and music and stuff that I don't want to lose, nothing massively important - I suppose I should backup all that stuff anyway. What about an OS? I've got my old original copy of XP Home, is it worth getting 7? I'm not into 'aquiring' copies of stuff any more - admittedly my Office is an old copy of XP that I 'aquired' from work but it does the job for now, I'm happy to stick with XP Home as well but I guess it'll go the way of 98 soon and be pretty useless? Maybe save money on HDDs and get W7. I keep considering putting Linux on as well but I just don't feel comfortable with it yet (using it at work more now so maybe one day). Budget? CHEAP! Seriously; the cheapest it can be. REALLY don't need power in this system. As long as it can run Word, iTunes, Internet and email all at the same time I'm happy.

I really need to sort my PC out, it's years old and the system on it has never been reloaded I just bodge it from 1 PC to the other - I have 4 HDDs (only 2 installed) so I just ghost and copy from one upgrade to the next!! Basically I think I need to sort it out. So I'm planning on building a better system (still very basic by some of your standards though), loading a fresh system and just having one other drive in as my media drive. Is this a good idea? I know Windows and other software (like iTunes which I don't like) always want to store stuff on the C drive in My Docs and stuff which I find quite annoying - so is it better to just have 1 drive and work from it? I never thought it was very safe to do that (and I've survived a few BSoD over the years doing it my way!!!). Also, should I attempt to have 2 media drives in a RAID of some kind? Windows software RAID control good enough? Maybe just have 2 drives RAID as my C drive and let the software have its way? I'd need 2 drives the same size then though which at the moment I don't have. Next big thing is the build itself, I always get confused with which motherboard I can install in which case, and which PSU I need. Last time I upgraded I got a relatively cheap case and PSU from Novatech and it's the loudest thing in the world - which has banned it to the spare room for the last 3 years!! Can someone recommend a CHEAP setup? Case/PSU/m-board/CPU&fan/memory? Should I go Intel or AMD? I only use it for surfing, the odd video (mostly youtube type but very occasionally something bigger), music (syncing iPod etc.) and admin stuff (just Office - typing docs and creating spreadsheets). I NEVER use it for gaming or anything like that although I'd like to get a mic and camera and get Skype. At the mo I only have an Athlon 64 3800 with 512MB of RAM so that shows you how fast it (doesn't) needs to be!

Funny.

Well duh. IME people only pick on mistakes in peoples grammar/punctuation/pronunciation/etc. when they know they're losing the argument and they can't think of a better retort. Obviously not true in this case though.

I like the McLaren shark fin.

Racists are people too.

You're all racist for not allowing a race of rascists to speak their minds.

I always try to argue both sides of a heated debate, and not actually voice my own opinion, people regularly assume I'm on one side or another though.

They're cracking down on the rather subjective law of not being in proper control of a motor vehicle - which applies whenever you are sitting in the car with the key in the ignition (doesn't even need to be running). So if you're completely pissed and listening to the radio parked up you can be done for drink driving (or drunk in charge of a motor vehicle), similarly if it's reasonable to assume that you are about to drive (like when sitting in traffic) you can be done for not being in control - if you were eating a sandwhich whilst sat at the lights they would have to assume you would continue eating it when you drive off - same principle for this case.

Get an uprated one. IIRC my RPS street was about £600 fitted. //edit: IF that's the problem - obviously - don't go changing it until someone has confirmed.

Morning Roses. If you PM him won't he get an email?

Maybe he was supposed to stop the engine and take the key out before blowing his nose, then hope he was finished before the traffic moved off.

Surely the stone can be considered touch screen as well? //edit: Someone at work just made a good point - at the moment you see people in the canteen with their iPhone in one hand and Starbucks in the other - but with the iPad they'd have to hold it with both hands and rest the coffee on top - so it should be called the iTray.

Nope, it'd be pants boost below 4K.

If I was in a position to buy right now I'd be coming to see you - it's exactly what I'll be looking for.

Have you inadvertantly set up the electronic TTC mode? I have no idea how you do TTC with wires but I'm betting it's in the same set of ECU connectors as the FCD?