Pick out components of my next POKER computer get $25

[Buccaneer]

[ QUOTE ]
You plug both your monitorpower cables into the same computer? LOL. I've never had a PC that even had outlets for two power cables for two monitors.

This is just way beyond dumb.

[/ QUOTE ]

Let me try again.

First the Earth cooled!

Then the internet was invented by Al Gore and the following page was published: http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/128/4

Lets see what it says! >>>>>>480 Watt Power Supply Recommended
Now it's time to scare you a little. For GeForce 6800-based graphics cards, NVIDIA recommended we reviewers use a power supply with a rating of 480W or higher. GeForce 6800 Ultra boards will have two standard disk drive power plugs on the back end of the card. You must attach two independent (not shared or split with a y-cable) hard disk drive power dongles from the system’s power supply to these plugs.

Blarg if you do better with pictures rather than words I suggest you look at this pretty picture of the card: http://graphics.tomshardware.com/gra...e_6800-01.html

Look carefully and you will see the big a$$ fan and heat sinks as well as the plugs for the power to the card just like I tried to explain to you.

I hope this helps.

[Jeff W]

Is it possible to just two cheaper video cards with 1 DVI output each instead of one dual dvi card?

[grandgnu]

[ QUOTE ]
Let me be clear, like my response was in the first place.

This is not only unnecessary for his purposes, it actually goes against them.

Raid is stupid for what he needs. It gives him nothing valuable for a poker player, costs extra, and takes away data integrity(valuable for a poker player). Lose one disk, you lose them both. You do not talk about one disk for back-up, but explicitly for striping.

Forget it. Terrible advice. This is computer geekiness for the sake of pure computer geekiness. This is the kind of advice to stay away from.

Your bringing up what other people recommend as a way to try to say your way isn't really worse(which it STILL actually is, by the way), couldn't be more ridiculous.

Again, truly terrible, thoughtless advice. Trying to justify it just does more to prove the point.

[/ QUOTE ]

You're the one supplying "truly terrible, thoughtless advice" by recommending Western Digital and Asus. They have both been hit with a variety of reliablity issues over the years, more than the manufacturers I'm recommending.

Data Striping will improve performance when you're running multiple applications, like he said he plans to do. A single drive or a RAID 0 array with two drives both provide the exact same level of data redundancy, which is zero. Are you recommending he utilize a RAID 1 array with mirroring?

I think he's better off taking the extra speed and either backing up to an external drive or to the DVD RW drive that I've mentioned, if he only needs specific data. Quit being a dink bro, get a clue before you start trashing my suggestions, geesh.

You said I never talked about backup disks, but if you actually read what I wrote:

RAID Card: HighPoint RocketRaid 1520 SATA PCI $51 + $4.99

If you truly want performance on your system, you'll want to setup a RAID 0 array (striping). This will take two hard drives, and combine them into one (at least, that's what your system will see). This will improve the speed of your systems access to programs, but be aware that should one drive fail, you will lose everything since the system is not "redundant". And a "redundant" system would slow you down a bit.

So, if you have important data on your system that you'd like to keep, regular backups is a good idea. You can accomplish this with an external backup drive, or just burn onto the DVD burner I've selected for your system.

[grandgnu]

[ QUOTE ]
Is it possible to just two cheaper video cards with 1 DVI output each instead of one dual dvi card?

[/ QUOTE ]

It might be possible, but the savings would be minimal and you'd be drawing more power and generating more heat in your system. Plus you'd wind up having an AGP and a PCI graphics card, and they'd need to be similar for software purposes I believe (ATI vs. Nvidia's dual-monitor software)

[whiskeytown]

personally, I won't get too deep into this discussion or too far...

but I would recommend an ASUS motherboard with an intel 875 chipset - for myself, I will be purchasing the Asus P4C800-E Deluxe 875P Mainboard for my next computer, with a 3.2 Gig Pentium chip - I have been doing research, and it's one of the best according to www.tomshardware.com - run a search on it and it gets you the editor's choice award.

reliable technology - better cache on the prescott chips, and not so bleeding edge as to have bugs/issues -

and I've had personal experience with ASUS motherboards - very good, easy to overclock if you're into that (I recommend you don't) and so forth.

That is all I will recommend.

RB

[grandgnu]

[ QUOTE ]
personally, I won't get too deep into this discussion or too far...

but I would recommend an ASUS motherboard with an intel 875 chipset - for myself, I will be purchasing the Asus P4C800-E Deluxe 875P Mainboard for my next computer, with a 3.2 Gig Pentium chip - I have been doing research, and it's one of the best according to www.tomshardware.com - run a search on it and it gets you the editor's choice award.

reliable technology - better cache on the prescott chips, and not so bleeding edge as to have bugs/issues -

and I've had personal experience with ASUS motherboards - very good, easy to overclock if you're into that (I recommend you don't) and so forth.

That is all I will recommend.

RB

[/ QUOTE ]

Again, I'd say that I don't care much for Asus and their reliability over the long-haul. The reviews are usually based on a short-time with a product, and don't always factor in the longevity of the items.

And I'd recommend the Northwood chips over the Prescotts due to heating issues with the newer chip designs. And the 3.2Ghz isn't going to perform much better than a 3.0, but price-wise I believe there's still a pretty significant margin between the two.

Recommending avoiding overclocking is a good idea, unless the OP is experienced with it, but then, why would he be asking us for assistance?

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You plug both your monitorpower cables into the same computer? LOL. I've never had a PC that even had outlets for two power cables for two monitors.

This is just way beyond dumb.

[/ QUOTE ]

Let me try again.

First the Earth cooled!

Then the internet was invented by Al Gore and the following page was published: http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/128/4

Lets see what it says! >>>>>>480 Watt Power Supply Recommended
Now it's time to scare you a little. For GeForce 6800-based graphics cards, NVIDIA recommended we reviewers use a power supply with a rating of 480W or higher. GeForce 6800 Ultra boards will have two standard disk drive power plugs on the back end of the card. You must attach two independent (not shared or split with a y-cable) hard disk drive power dongles from the system’s power supply to these plugs.

Blarg if you do better with pictures rather than words I suggest you look at this pretty picture of the card: http://graphics.tomshardware.com/gra...e_6800-01.html

Look carefully and you will see the big a$$ fan and heat sinks as well as the plugs for the power to the card just like I tried to explain to you.

I hope this helps.

[/ QUOTE ]

Cute try, but you still don't know the difference between a video card and a monitor. Stop trying to change your story midstream and just admit you [censored] up.

Sarcasm really doesn't help your cause. You've given some exceptionally crummy, mixed up advice.

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Let me be clear, like my response was in the first place.

This is not only unnecessary for his purposes, it actually goes against them.

Raid is stupid for what he needs. It gives him nothing valuable for a poker player, costs extra, and takes away data integrity(valuable for a poker player). Lose one disk, you lose them both. You do not talk about one disk for back-up, but explicitly for striping.

Forget it. Terrible advice. This is computer geekiness for the sake of pure computer geekiness. This is the kind of advice to stay away from.

Your bringing up what other people recommend as a way to try to say your way isn't really worse(which it STILL actually is, by the way), couldn't be more ridiculous.

Again, truly terrible, thoughtless advice. Trying to justify it just does more to prove the point.

[/ QUOTE ]

You're the one supplying "truly terrible, thoughtless advice" by recommending Western Digital and Asus. They have both been hit with a variety of reliablity issues over the years, more than the manufacturers I'm recommending.

Data Striping will improve performance when you're running multiple applications, like he said he plans to do. A single drive or a RAID 0 array with two drives both provide the exact same level of data redundancy, which is zero. Are you recommending he utilize a RAID 1 array with mirroring?

I think he's better off taking the extra speed and either backing up to an external drive or to the DVD RW drive that I've mentioned, if he only needs specific data. Quit being a dink bro, get a clue before you start trashing my suggestions, geesh.

You said I never talked about backup disks, but if you actually read what I wrote:

RAID Card: HighPoint RocketRaid 1520 SATA PCI $51 + $4.99

If you truly want performance on your system, you'll want to setup a RAID 0 array (striping). This will take two hard drives, and combine them into one (at least, that's what your system will see). This will improve the speed of your systems access to programs, but be aware that should one drive fail, you will lose everything since the system is not "redundant". And a "redundant" system would slow you down a bit.

So, if you have important data on your system that you'd like to keep, regular backups is a good idea. You can accomplish this with an external backup drive, or just burn onto the DVD burner I've selected for your system.

[/ QUOTE ]

RAID IS STUPID and does not fit his needs. It couldn't possibly be more unnecessary for a poker player. Where's the army when you need them? KISS. Keep it simple, stupid.

My god, what a dumb post. He didn't ask you to rave about what you thought were neato computer thingies, but for what worked best for poker. Regarding which, you completely dropped the ball and made a totally worthless suggestion.

And btw, the present Western Digitals are a completely different design than the ones WD used to put out. As a matter of fact, they were designed by IBM and WD bought a license to use them from IBM. They are now regularly among the top rated HD's out there.

If you're going to come up with crackpot "facts" to match your crackpot theories about what a poker player needs in a system, it would be better if you didn't post at all.

[Buccaneer]

I am sure that you are more informed than anyone about computers on this thread.

I would be interested in the system you would suggest building for the OP.

[grandgnu]

[ QUOTE ]
RAID IS STUPID and does not fit his needs. It couldn't possibly be more unnecessary for a poker player. Where's the army when you need them? KISS. Keep it simple, stupid.

My god, what a dumb post. He didn't ask you to rave about what you thought were neato computer thingies, but for what worked best for poker. Regarding which, you completely dropped the ball and made a totally worthless suggestion.

And btw, the present Western Digitals are a completely different design than the ones WD used to put out. As a matter of fact, they were designed by IBM and WD bought a license to use them from IBM. They are now regularly among the top rated HD's out there.

If you're going to come up with crackpot "facts" to match your crackpot theories about what a poker player needs in a system, it would be better if you didn't post at all.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oy vey. First off, the OP asked for a system that could handle having multiple applications open at one time, which a level 0 RAID array would help with.

In addition, setting up a 2-disk level 0 RAID-array is not complex or all that expensive, given the price of components nowadays. I'm not suggesting he setup a Level 5 RAID array with an external docking bay, geesh!

I would have recommended that, and dual-processors, and an SLI-graphic card array, and OCZ DDR2 overclocking memory and Pentium 3.8Ghz Extreme processors with 30-inch dual-plasma displays if I was trying to recommend the ultimate in geekness.

Western Digitals are getting great reviews lately because of the speed they deliver (especially the raptors), but this does not take into account how long they will last.

I've heard plenty of horror stories about people buying WD, even their top-of-the-line raptor drives, and having them fail within a few months or a few weeks. I'm not saying this is the case with ALL of their drives, but I do believe their drives have a higher failure rate than Seagates.

Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it, right? Western Digital has a history of bad drives. You mention they've turned to IBM for their drives now, so that should solve the problem? So, turning to the company responsible for the Deathstar (IBM Deskstar) fiasco is going to suddenly make WD drives more reliable?