How's this look guys?

[Karrde]

Ok here's the deal, I need a PC for the following:

1)School
2)Programming
3)Entertainment(Games)

Here's what I'm thinking:

1) HD - Western Digital 160GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive x2
2) RAM - Mushkin 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200
3) MB - ASUS "K8V SE Deluxe" K8T800 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 754
4) CPU - AMD Athlon 64 3200+, 512k L2 Cache
5) SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9800 PRO Video Card, 128MB DDR, 256-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP

I'm primarily interested in longevity, I don't upgrade much, I generally just wait until the software gets where my current system can't deal with it anymore (This just happened with Doom 3). Any Suggestions? Keep in mind I'm kinda scrapped for cash.

Also I'm kinda looking into getting a flat panel monitor to save some desk room, is this a decent monitor?:
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=24-112-148&DEPA=1

P.S. I'm planning on getting 2 of the above drives and putting em in RAID 0, how hard is that to do with SATA drives?

P.S.S. I also have 2 60GB IDE Drives, there shouldn't be a problem with them and the SATA drives should there?

 

[Buckus]

1) HD - Western Digital 160GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive x2
2) RAM - Mushkin 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200
3) MB - ASUS "K8V SE Deluxe" K8T800 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 754
4) CPU - AMD Athlon 64 3200+, 512k L2 Cache
5) SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9800 PRO Video Card, 128MB DDR, 256-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP

Keep in mind I'm kinda scrapped for cash.

This is what you can afford when you're "Strapped for cash?" Dang, I need to get friendly with your parents or something. The only thing my computer has up on that is the 1GB RAM, and my computer cost me $1000, easy (course, everything was bought at different times, so maybe if I bought it "right now" it might be more like $600-700.)

 

[ryuji]

you can get 200 gb barricudas for about $130 instead of 2 wds and you will have more reliability with seagate you could even wait for the 16 meg cache drives seagates going to release soon think there 300 or 350 gb

your ears will thank you wds are usualy a hell of a lot louder then barricudas

<edit> just noticed sata.. i dont think wd even does native sata its just a strapped on bridge.. barricudas and i think nowdays the raptors do it native
200 gb sata is $140
for apples to apples 160 gb sata seagate is $113</edit>

 

[Karrde]

This is what you can afford when you're "Strapped for cash?" Dang, I need to get friendly with your parents or something. The only thing my computer has up on that is the 1GB RAM, and my computer cost me $1000, easy (course, everything was bought at different times, so maybe if I bought it "right now" it might be more like $600-700.)

Well to be fair, this'll probably be the only computer I'll have for the next 2-3 yrs. and it's at approximately $930ish at newegg.

 

[Karrde]

you can get 200 gb barricudas for about $130 instead of 2 wds and you will have more reliability with seagate you could even wait for the 16 meg cache drives seagates going to release soon think there 300 or 350 gb

your ears will thank you wds are usualy a hell of a lot louder then barricudas

<edit> just noticed sata.. i dont think wd even does native sata its just a strapped on bridge.. barricudas and i think nowdays the raptors do it native
200 gb sata is $140
for apples to apples 160 gb sata seagate is $113</edit>

I'll take your word for it on the Seagate hard drives, the reviews for them look positive and it's only $2 more then the WD drive.

 

[Talon]

Needs more RAM, go for a gig.

 

[xphantg0d]

2x 512mb

 

[darktiger]

More ram

 

[Buckus]

Well, back to plain old advice. I'd ditch the extra hard drive and spend the $$ on a GB of RAM. You won't miss the extra hard drive until your first one is full, and then it's an easy matter of adding another drive. However, you will wish you had 1GB of RAM in about 3 minutes after starting up the computer.

And as for the performance difference between one drive and two drives in a RAID, the performance difference isn't going to be something you'd really notice except on benchmarks. Plus, remember, 2 drives in a RAID 0 = 2x as likely to fail and take all your precious school work with it.