I was thining about getting a second Velociraptor and going with Raid 0, but I've heard mixed comments about the ASUS Raid controller S/W and its compatibility with the Velociraptors. Also, trying to set up a Raid on my first build seemed like a complication looking for trouble.

:arrgh!:

Looks like you already have RAID forum posting going on :O:

So, how's it running? What have you loaded on it? Did you make your core backup? Did you know we have the exact same WD 1TB drive with Ghost?

Beginning to load apps now. First results are in: this thing is a beaut!

SH4 w/Trigger Maru, all maxed out graphics wise, runs smooth as silk. The real test was with the racing game rFactor. Again, graphics maxed and lots of cars on the track, my rig runs great and with stuttering at all.

:yeah:

The only thing I know about Raid is it kills roaches. :88)

With that "reactor" in there it better run great.:woot: how much did you spend on the whole thing?:D

Nice build man. Let me offer some advice, having done builds like this before:

1. RAID-0 is great with 2 drives but not with 3 or 4. Over time, fear will start to set in about failure, however. I would suggest you add extra drives if you haven't already and really, honestly and for true, back up your stuff. Ideally, Ghost your entire drive every week - like nuking stuff from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

RAID is fairly easy to set up, but can pose problems later when you decide to start re-partitioning, adding new operating systems, and generally moving things around. It starts feeling very fragile and paranoia starts to set in about doing anything, which will ultimately lead you to fully ghosting the entire drive before really doing anything, which is another reason I suggest setting up an arrangement like that (and testing it, ghost and restore with an OS) ahead of time.

2. The extra weight on the processor is a risk and you'll want to be careful moving it around.

3. Learn and use nHancer to really crank those graphics up

4. The Scythe S-FLEX fans with S-FDB (Sony Fluid Dynamic Bearings) freaking rock. I have like 7 of them in my monster PC and can barely hear it.

Glitch report:

Okay, after playing around all weekend with my new rig, I've found two glitches that I'd like to resolve.

1. When I select 'shutdown' in Vista (shutdown, not sleep), the computer powers down and then immediately re-boots. I've found some leads via Google on what the cause may be, starting with updating my Bios.

2. Loaded Call of Duty 4 last night. When trying to start the game, I get a message that says 'Cannot find DVD Drive' or something like that. Again, researching on Google gave me some leads (concerning the RealTek on board audio), but no joy there. I finally "solved" my problem by downloading a No-CD hack :o but that isn't a very satisfying fix.

Any suggestions are welcome!

:hmm2:

It's taken on a life of it's own. :DL

Keep your gun handy Bill. :haha:

Be careful when updating the bios. Don't ever do it from within windows. And most importantly be sure to have an ups because you never want the electricity to go out during those 30 critical seconds when you are updating the bios.


Wellcome to reality, where software houses and publishers will punish you for being honest. You have 2 alternatives to make COD4 work, either buy another dvd-rom drive and hope that the copyprotection is supported on that drive or use a no-cd.
This is one of those instances were using a no-cd actually makes sense.

http://www.vistax64.com/


This site should help resolve your two glitches.

That's a good site, Chris :yep:

Maybe something on the Microsoft help page can help

Bill, do you have the latest COD patch? Are your DVD drivers up to date?

Are you logged in as Administrator?

You may want to try clicking the Compatibility Mode: XP and then Apply.



I'll share this glitch story, I had a glitch installing Front Page on my XPS this weekend. I have been buying it since FP97 and all the upgrades, so when I installed it on my laptop, I installed FP97 (full program), the FP98 upgrade, then FP2000 upgrade, then FP2002 upgrade :dead:

On my new desktop, I put in the FP97 disk, the install menu came up, but when I clicked the install icon...nothing happened. I explored to the disk, clicked the setup file, nada. Wow, why would a MS program not install (other than it was made 5 years before the OS, lol).

Solution: I put in the FP2002 upgrade disk, began the install, it said it could not find the necessary program to upgrade. I then put in the FP97 disk and bam! Install complete :o It took about 45 seconds. Very weird but it seems to have worked.

http://www.vistax64.com/

Bill,

I did a quick search at the link above. You are not alone. There are a few answers to your computer rebooting after shutting down. There are several things to check and I leave you to looking into those since, well, the computer is at your house:D

Anyway, the key words I used are "computer reboots after shutting down".

It is like a small quirk I had with Vista. It would not connect to the internet upon boot. I went into power management and unchecked "shut down this device when not in use"(internet network card). I guess MS is going green:88) I suspect you will find your cure in the power management area of Vista. Anyway, all my questions and problems have been resolved at this site. Plus there are a few real Vista Gurus that moderate and answer.

Welcome to our newest member, SUBSIM :D

As was said the problem with COD 4 could be a vista glitch, or that the copy protection doesn't like your DVD drive (which does happen).

Anyhow googled the cod issue

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&sa...G=Search&meta=

I would also try googling your drive make (-review, etc)

Lots of copy protection schemes also hate many different types of dvd burning software (and virtual dvd drives) and will refuse to run if present.

Thanks all for the suggestions. I've been working on the re-boot issue thus far. Updated the BIOS, no joy. I've read in a couple of places that this issue happens with the ASUS P6T motherboard when two graphics cards are installed. That's exactly my configuration, so maybe there isn't a workaround, yet. Guess I'll just have to get used to punching the power button when I shutdown, before the PC has a chance to re-boot.

Regarding COD4 and my DVD drive, I did find a newer set of firmware and installed same. Don't know if it made any difference or not because I'm using the No-CD hack for COD4, and haven't had the problem with any other program thus far.

As you can tell, I'm having a blast :03: