How is my setup?

[Tzling]

Case: LIAN LI PC-V350A
PSU: Corsair 450W (already bought)
Mobo: DFI P45-T2RS mATX
CPU: E8400
Heatsink: Intel retail
Video: GT9600 (already bought)
HDD: 2 WD 640GB Raid 1

Not looking to overclock much, need a small, quiet, reliable rig, any thoughts on this setup?

 

[MightyDiomed]

Looks pretty decent...I would definetly get an aftermarket HSF regardless of if you OC or not.

 

[lowteckh]

1. Motherboard is much overkill
2. You don't need an aftermarket HSF - stock is plenty fine for no o/c.
3. Why not just a e7200 since you're with a 9600GT
4. Raid 0 or 1? Doesn't 1 slow it down a bit since it's basically a back up? If it does slow down then why not just use it as a back up and auto back up every now and then.

 

[mrmylanman]

RAID1 does not slow it down at all, as it writes to both hard drives at the same time, the information is split up to both drives. Read speeds are actually a little faster, since it reads from both hard drives at the same time.

RAID1's a good idea given that hard drives will always eventually fail, but I just never got on that yet.

 

[Tzling]

I just want an automatic backup.
I am thinking to downgrade to E7200, makes more sense.
The DFI mobo is probably overkill, but I can't find any mATX board without onboard video.

 

[Ang]

I just want an automatic backup.
I am thinking to downgrade to E7200, makes more sense.
The DFI mobo is probably overkill, but I can't find any mATX board without onboard video.

Can't you find one WITH on board video? What is the difference if it has it or not?

 

[Skott]

The P5K-VM and the P5E-VM HDMI are both good overclockers and cheaper than the DFI. Not sure if they have the features you want though. This is just me but the only real reason I see getting the DFI is if you plan to run dual cards even if it turns out to be the best overclock of the bunch. That's just my opinion though.

 

[Tzling]

I have no interest in SLI, I like the DFI cause it has no onboard video, it is so much more expensive than the others, probably not a good value. I guess I can just disable onboard video on P5E-VM, performance should be the same, right? I'd like to run the CPU at stock speed but undervolt as much as I can, does Asus board give undervolt options?

 

[lowteckh]

Well when you stuff a card into the PCIE slot onboard video is automagically disabled.

 

[C4RB0N]

everything looks good to me. I like the

case

 

[space@pe]

if your not going to overclock much then the "ASUS P5KPL-CM" is cheap and can easily oc the e8400 to 3.6ghz. I Like my "Samsung SpinPoint F1" harddrive.

Both the Asus P5E-VM HDMI and the DFI are great overclockers..but since you arent gonna use them for that anyway..its just a waist of money

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[mrmylanman]

I just want an automatic backup.
I am thinking to downgrade to E7200, makes more sense.
The DFI mobo is probably overkill, but I can't find any mATX board without onboard video.

RAID1 will do that, and will even still work if one hard drive fails, so you'll have time to get a new hard drive, and then when you do, swap hard drives out, and rebuild the RAID. I'd suggest getting larger hard drives for this though, as RAID1 halves your storage capacity.