OT: Buying vs. building your own computer

Renegade 13 · #1 July 30th, 2005, 01:35 AM

I think the T1 line is for the one residence building.
Would an "Integrated Gigabit Network Adapter" fit the bill?

Heh, well I want the modem for when I'm at home, since at home we only have dial-up

How important is a floppy drive to have these days in a new computer??

narf poit chez BOOM · #2 July 30th, 2005, 12:20 PM

I've found them usefull. Occasionally, you'll probably want to transfer something that's too small to bother using a whole cd.

Plus, if you like old games...

Fyron · #3 July 30th, 2005, 01:03 PM

Floppy drives are useless most of the time, but you can not use your computer without them on occasion... They are dirt cheap, so there is little reason not to get one.

DO NOT get anything labeled a "WinModem." These devices implement most of their functionality in software, which is a very bad thing. Splurge that extra five bucks to get a decent dial-up modem.

Would an "Integrated Gigabit Network Adapter" fit the bill?

If it has 10/100/1000 somewhere on the label (relating to connection speeds), yes. Your university is likely to still be using 100 base ethernet networks, since 1000 is still fairly new and a waste of money in a dorm network.

Atrocities · #4 July 30th, 2005, 03:00 PM

Buy cheap system - $300.00 then spend $400.00 to upgrade.

Hey, what is a RAID system? And if it is what I think it is, how do you connect extra HD to it?

Fyron · #5 July 30th, 2005, 03:52 PM

A RAID array is using multiple identical hard drives to both increase storage and make data loss more infrequent. The data tends to be located on multiple drives in the array, so one hard drive failing means that you probably won't lose much, if anything. At least, that is what I think RAID arrays are for... Might be just a specialized use for them or something.

Thermodyne · #6 July 30th, 2005, 04:03 PM

Quote:

Atrocities said:
Buy cheap system - $300.00 then spend $400.00 to upgrade.

Hey, what is a RAID system? And if it is what I think it is, how do you connect extra HD to it?

First you need a raid controller, either onboard or as an add on card. Then you connect more than one drive to it. With two drives you can do a mirror which keeps duplicate data on each drive. Down side, you loose half of the space on the drives, 2-20�s give you 20gigs to use. Loose a drive, you keep all of the data.

Or

You can do a stripe set which will write data to each drive at the same time. Very fast, but loose a drive, loose your data. You also get to use all of the space on the drives.

Or

You can attach three or more drives and do a Raid five. Raid fives maximize disk space, 5-20 gigs give you 80gigs to use/ 3-20's would give you 40 to use. And loose a drive, keep your data.

For storage of high value data, you can do a windows raid. Add two drives, convert them to dynamic and then mirror them. Loose a drive keep your data, and you only get to use half the space. Also, this set up is not bootable.

If you run Windows 2K or 03 server, you can also do a windows Raid 5 with three or more disks.

If you are truly worried about your data, then you need to move up to SCSI drives. If SCSI is the Benz of drives, ATA would fall in somewhere around a Yugo. You can pick up NOS 160 SCSIs for about a dollar a gig and a controller card is less than fifty.

PS: Buy a cheap POS computer, then you own a cheap POS.

Atrocities · #7 August 2nd, 2005, 08:50 AM

So a RAID system is really not worth the investment? Just do back ups onto CDRom or DVD and your ok. Thanks for the info guys.

Suicide Junkie · #8 August 2nd, 2005, 09:59 AM

I happen to be on HardDrive #7 and #8 due to a bad power supply.

However, due to the ability to read FAT32 partitions in floppy-booting DOS, I have not lost much. It may have taken a couple hours of power cycling, and copying like mad for 60 seconds before the disk destabilized and went whirr-scrape-clunk, but it was done

Backups are very important and will save you a ton of hassle when murphy inevitably comes to visit.

Thermodyne · #9 August 2nd, 2005, 03:23 PM

Raid is worth the money. It can save your data or give you speed, which ever you need. And SATA raids and drives are cheep these days.

Will · #10 July 30th, 2005, 06:19 PM

Quote:

Atrocities said:Hey, what is a RAID system? And if it is what I think it is, how do you connect extra HD to it?

Depends on the kind of RAID. When in doubt, check the wikipedia {link}.