Hello

Before I start i had a look at hcl and its completely crap covering last decade hardware :/

So to be as brief as possible I'm trying to build a gaming&programming machine. I was thinking of getting 1TB HDD for linux as primary SATA and a SDD for windows as secondary drive to play some linux-incompatible games. So here comes my first question: Is it possible to get an RAID setup with HDD+SDD???

My second question is compatibility with the hardware. My current build includes:

CPU: Intel i5 2500k @ 3.3 Quad-Core - I already know it works great so you can skip that,

MOBO: MSI P67A-GD53 (B3) - I don't know if this will work well I need help with that,

Graphics Card: 1GB Asus GTX 560 Ti - I don't know that one either I only heard that NVidia cards are better choice over ATI (and more recent drivers OFC),

HDD: 1TB Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 - This probably will but again i'm not sure about RAID setup with a slave SDD,

Memory (RAM) 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 XMS3 - And also not sure about memory,

So that's the build i'm trying to build: main focus will obviously be gaming and programming and will also include operations in: GIMP (2D) and blender (3D, animations, modelling, skinning, etc...). One last note is that the build will be overclocked (both GPU and CPU).

Many thanks for any help!!!

Janek566

This question seems a little weird considering you just said you want them for different OS's (assuming you meant SSD not SDD) .. chances are the answer is no, a raid controller will only be able to use devices that are attached to it and software raid won't work for a dual boot system.

As far as the other components go I don't think you'll have any trouble, but there's no guarantee until you actually put it together.

Yeah what i meant was SSD sorry. Hmm i didn't know that RAID controller cares about disk contents. I thought it's just a normal access protocol just like AHCI. But further reading on wiki states: "combining multiple disk drive components into a logical unit, where data is distributed across the drives in one of several ways called "RAID levels"". so i guess not. So dual booting on dual master/slave setup removes the option to use RAID and forces AHCI or SATA? Is that so also for SSD's?? (sorry i only possess PCs with HDDs).

Thanks
Janek566

Not quite in line with your terminology but let me try to clarify ...

Whether the disk utilises solid state storage or disk platters is irrelevant, the disk access protocol and connection is important. So you couldn't create a hardware raid configuration across an internal sata disk and a sata disk attached via a usb port. It's usually beneficial to use identical disks in a raid set.

If you had a raid controller in your pc and you had successfully set up raid1 (mirroring, 2 disks are presented as 1), then you should have no issues setting up a dual boot system. By creating a raid1 volume you're no longer saying "disk1 is for linux and disk2 is for windows".

ok i understand. But what about One, primary HDD holding linux as primary system and then secondary SSD holding windows. Will the windows interfere in the contents of the other disk and will GRUB see both systems on 2 separate different disks?

Looks good to me, no compatibility issues that I know of with any of those. Why do you want to overclock ? The system looks like it can handle pretty much anything ATM.

1. I want to squeeze as much out of it as i can for the money I pay,
2. Linux will be even faster which makes me happy even if there is no use for extra juice since it will be x100000 faster than winshit.
Thanks for any suggestions guys!!!

Well, squeeze to much and ... your money may go up in blue smoke.

LOL dw ive done it already and i have a sense of when to stop. + If you go too high you end up just resetting CMOS how far do you have to go to fry the chip???

I don't know, but only overclock as much as you need to. If you can't run a game or app, then you overclock, otherwise there's no real point.

They won't interfere, it's easier if you install linux second then grub will add windows to the boot menu during install.

1 members found this post helpful.

I dont think data busses are a bottleneck anymore so increasing the clock speed will result in a visibly faster performance. Therefore i dont see a point of not overclocking if any task will be done faster on heavily overclocked i5 (I'm aiming for around 4.8 - 5GHz). Instead of looking at it from the point of single applications i look at eg: compilation times, responsiveness, etc.

Nope,data busses still have an impact.

4.8-5.0GHz? Better get a aftermarket cooler, and I would seriously consider a 'better' board than the MSI P67A-GD53 (B3). Even then you'll be running enough voltage at 4.8GHz+ to shorten the lifespan of the CPU.

AFAIK linux can have some issues with late model overclocked CPUs (stuff like not dropping the core MHz at low loads, etc.)

BTW, just because you can run at X.XXGHz does not make it faster than Y.YYGHz. Quite often the 'max' overclock for any given setup is slower than a more reasonable overclock.

To instafry the CPU? Depends, its not so much the MHz as the voltage (and heat) that kills CPUs, and I'd say that anything over 1.525v or 85-90C is just asking for CPU death. That doesnt make 1.52v or 80C 'safe'.....

Yeah sorry i didn't mention other details:

The CPU cooler: ThermalTake Frio CL-P0564
The case: Silverstone Raven RV02B-EW
The PSU: 650W Corsair Enthusiast Series 650TXV2UK (Non-Modular)

The overclock will be done incrementing the multiplier (the FSB will stay at 100MHz), the Vcore will be incremented UP TO 1.3v AND NO MORE! I expect around 70-75C since this case has a perfect setup of 3 fans with air filters to stop dust, blowing cold air up throught components twisted at 90 degrees (since the mobo tray is twisted to improve air cooling) and a massive fan on the top of the case to remove hot air. Amazing case design + a great air cooler and a stable Vcore of 1.3 - i think i can get 4.6GHz easily. BTW that P67 i chose is being praised for stable and big overclocks can you back up your post with facts???

Thanks for your responses guys!!!

Janek566

Quite a large difference between 4.8-5.0GHz and 4.6Ghz.......

What exactly do you call 'proved'?

Not all P67 boards are capable of the same level of overclocking. Just because you've found a 'review' (or even a few forum posts) on the MSI P67A-GD53 (B3) saying its capable of 'big overclocks', etc. does not mean its as good as other P67 boards.