Build Advice Crossfire, RAID 0, PSU and Case choice. Advice needed!

Crossfire
I have the Asus P8P67-M PRO motherboard. I also own the XFX HD 6870 Black Edition and SAPPHIRE X1600 PRO GPUs, the first was bought for my new build, the second is from my (very) old build.

My question is, can I crossfire them using my motherboard, and if so what does it require? Do I need more hardware or can I simply crossfire using the motherboard's hardware with some kind of BIOS or driver setting?

RAID 0
Again, using the same motherboard can I RAID 0 two hard drives together? I would like 1 or 2TBs of storage in total, whichever is quickest. I had intended to purchase the Samsung Spinpoint F3 (1TB) and would happily RAID 0 two for increased speed but would consider two quicker 500GB drives instead if they were quicker without being more expensive.

Do I need more hardware or is it again just a case of fiddling with BIOS or driver settings? Is it worth using RAID 0 on HDDs, do you get twice the read/write speed or less? Before anyone asks, I am not considering SSDs yet due to their high prices, hopefully in a year or so I can pick up a 64/128GB one to install the OS and programs on but for now I think it would be better value to RAID hard drives.

PSU
How do I know what spec PSU to get? I was advised to buy the Corsair 430CX, is that enough power for the following setup?

CPU Intel Core i5-2500K
GPU XFX HD 6870 Black and SAPPHIRE X1600 PRO (using Crossfire)
PSU Corsair 430w CX
M/B Asus P8P67M Pro
HDD Samsung 1Tb F3 x 2 (using RAID 0)
RAM Corsair 8GB DDR3

Case
Given that I'm using a microATX board I'd like to get this system into a microATX case. I have narrowed my choice down to either the Arc Mini or the Silverstone FT03. Firstly, will all my proposed items fit in those cases? (Pretty sure they do.) Does anyone have the FT03, if so what do you think of it? I think I prefer it but it would cost me £100 more than the Arc Mini (with the added price of having to buy a new DVD slot drive) and I don't like spending much money! That said, I want this to last me at least 4 years so I'd prefer I'm happy with whatever I end up getting. Any advice?

If more info is required to answer any questions just ask. Much obliged!

 

RAID 0 is pointless now because of the price of HDDs and the price drops of SSDs. Just either get a 1TB or 2TB HDD, don't RAID them, as the only think which will increase is the risk of failure...

 

With regards to crossfire, you can't bridge such disparate GPU's together, the latter is far too old. See this chart for details. It's pretty much a case of connecting the two cards via the crossfire bridge supplied with the card and enabling Crossfire in the drivers.

Your board should be quite happy with RAID 0, but I'd recommend against it due to the negligible performance benefits when compared with an SSD, and the increased risk of data loss. Personally I'd buy a single large drive and clone it later on when you can afford an SSD.

With regards to your PSU, this calculator will give you a rough indication of what you need, I'll leave you to fill in the details. You don't want to skimp on your PSU as many around here will attest, I've personally seen quite a few cheap OEM PSUs that have exploded.

I'll leave someone else to answer the case question, I don't have experience with either. Don't see any reason why your hardware wouldn't fit, might be worth checking out clearance for the GPU(s) and any large CPU coolers you may decide to use.

 

R0 isn't exactly pointless & its value has nothing to do with the pricing of HDDs or SSDs...

Now, to clarify, it's big advantage is with large sequential r/ws where it'll significantly out perform a single drive.

So, whilst they can be significantly faster, HDDs don't have the longevity issues that SSDs do -> so in a situation these sequential speeds were key & there was a huge data turnover then HDDs in R0 can be a very effective option.

& then, with R0ing SSDs, the gains that are gotten appear at much lower file sizes (& at very low ones with a reasonable QD) than HDDs, so again this shows that R0 isn't pointless.

[NB it's also worth remembering that nand channels & the nand devices per channel act as a R0 array within a single SSD, so a blanket statement that R0 is pointless doesn't exactly hold...

...& that's without looking at some of the pcie options & the ibis which use a raid controller for multiple SSD controllers.]


(& to the OP)

That said, as you've not included another drive in the build list then you're at least looking at having the OS, programs & data files on there + there is no backup so, whilst i disagree with the general statement that was made, it really doesn't appear to be the best option for you.

in your situation it would be much better to have 2 separate drives where one is the backup for all of your critical data.

Oh, & go for a 1TB F3 for the OS drive (the backup doesn't matter vastly) unless you fancy a SSD.

 

If you want it to last a long while get the ft03 as you could use it in many builds over time as they look well built.

For the psu you could get a corsair hx550 or an antic truepower 550

The corsair one comes with a larger warranty but antecs is reasonable. I think you would be better off with 500w+

 

I would echo the sentiment previously to get two separate drives - one for normal use and one for either backups or just general storage. RAID is nice if you see the benefits, but the chances are that it won't be noticeable to you in real terms. Further, RAID 0 will dramatically increase your chance of failure, as when one disk goes the entire array is gone.

 

Thanks for the replies, I'm having a look at the two links provided now. Just to recap, RAID 0 isn't worth it unless I intend to do long consequential read/writes (which I can't imagine myself needing to do). RAID 1 might make more sense as a backup procedure, I'm seriously considering that instead. Crossfire isn't possible with my two graphics cards but I could always buy a compatible card in the future if/when I need the extra grunt. I'll use the calculator to decide what PSU to buy and the FT03 is very well build. That said, I can't remember ever seeing a case that fell apart so I'm not sure if that helps me decide or not.

Thanks for the replies so far!

 

I'm not really sure what all the options on that chart mean but it is giving me a recommended 471W if I was to overclock my CPU to 4.7GHz (which I intend to do a year or so down the line). I guess a 500W PSU would therefore suffice?

 

RAID IS NOT A BACKUP!

If you get a virus the virus is copied straight across to the other disk.
If your computer is burnt in a house fire, both drives die.

The only thing RAID protects from is disk failure.

For backup you would probably want an incremental solution that saves versions of the data. Ideally it would be offsite, but this isn't always practical.
See here.

Dont be lulled into the false sense of security of RAID.

Sorry that was a bit of a lecture.

 

Thanks, now you say it, it seems obvious. In that case I'll probably stick to my 1TB Spinpoint and backup my important documents to my 500GB external HDD. Does that make more sense?

 

It does indeed.

 

OK, good. And how about the PSU: Corsair 500CX PSU instead?

 

Corsair are a good make and pretty much any PSU they make will be good. That PSU would be fine with the CPU at stock and a single 6870, however, if you want to go crossfire at a later date and overclock then you may push it. The PSU Calc says @ 1.4 vcore with an overclock of 4.5 (I know thats a fair bit voltage but better be safe than sorry) your gonna be close to 500. If it were me I would be looking at a 650w incase of even more future upgrades, but you could easily get away with a 550w.

Can I ask you budget for everything else you need?

 

Make sure you get the V2 of the Corsair Builders Series, they are actually 80 Plus certified since they upgraded the quality of some of the internal components.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/prods/components/powersupplies/Corsair/CMPSU-500CXV2.html

The 600w version is just a few quid more: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/600w...plus-80-eff-eps-12v-120mm-fan-single-12v-rail.

 

My budget was around 600 but it can stretch a little. I want a pc I can be happy with for at least 4 years so if a stretch is needed i'll make it.

 

For ~£2 more this is by far the better buy:
Antec HCG-520 80Plus Bronze £53
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/245671

Both it and the Corsair CX600V2 have a 40A 12V rail, so the Corsair is no more powerful. The Antec has higher efficiency, being 80Plus Bronze rated and using the very efficient and positively reviewed Seasonic S12II Bronze design. Finally it has a higher temperature rating than the CX series; 40C vs 30C, which indicates better internal build quality. Functionally, the Antec is just as good if not better, with the same number of connectors, apart from having two more 4-pin peripheral connectors.

 

Do you mean the CX500V2 or are you saying it's better than the CX600? Thanks for the information.

 

I meant the CX600V2, because the CX500 (and V2) has a 34A 12V rail.
It's slightly more hard to justify the HCG-520 over the CX500 because of the price difference, but if the CX600 is in the frame then the HCG-520 should be as well.

 

Doesn't the fact that the 600CX offers 600W and the 520 only offers 520W make the Corsair more versatile in terms of power?

 

With backups, it's better to have one of the full disk (sometimes called an image backup - see this comparison for free programs offering this) which can then be restored, in its entirety, giving you a running system within half-an-hour or so. Backing up key documents is fine assuming you can identify them all (i.e. do you know where all your downloads, saved games and application settings are held?) but in the event of a disk failure, you could easily spend a week reinstalling/updating/configuring Windows and all your applications to get back to where you were.

As the 500GB Spinpoint seems to offer similar performance to the 1TB model (see Tomshardware figures for 500GB and BitTech's for 1TB) I'd suggest 2x500GB in RAID-0 and 1x1TB for backups. That gives you improved speed (without the cost or capacity constraints of SSD) and space for multiple image backups. Consider an online backup service as well for your most important documents, in the event of a catastrophe like a house fire.

As performance seems to be a concern, perhaps you'd care to supply details on the amount of memory you're using? This could have a greater impact on day-to-day performance than the disk.