Sean Kearney: Sitecore and Stuff

In my last post I wrote what I planned on building for my home developer rig.

A few changes were made.

* I went with an extra hard drive and I will run RAID 0.

* I measured the compartment in my desk where I planned on putting my case and lo and behold it was too small for the Antec case I Picked out. I had to settle on a smaller box, which will probably mean more noise, but no option here.

* I went with an nVidia card as opposed to an ATI card. Too many people I talked to had problems with them.

* Swapped out the PSU for one that is supposed to be quiter.

Here is the system I ordered. If UPS stays on track I will be having a Friday geek night!

Qty.	Image	Product Description
1		COOLER MASTER Gladiator 600 RC-600-KKN1-GP Black SECC Body ; Mesh Front bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail Model #:RC-600-KKN1-GP Item #:N82E16811119206
1		ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail Model #:P6T Deluxe V2 Item #:N82E16813131365
1		ZOTAC ZT-98GEY3P-FSR GeForce 9800 GT 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail Model #:ZT-98GEY3P-FSR Item #:N82E16814500079
1		COOLER MASTER RS-700-AMBA-D3 700W ATX12V V2.3 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Retail Model #:RS-700-AMBA-D3 Item #:N82E16817171037
1		Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920 - Retail Model #:BX80601920 Item #:N82E16819115202
1		CORSAIR XMS3 12GB (6 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model HX3X12G1600C9 G - Retail Model #:HX3X12G1600C9 G Item #:N82E16820145235
1		CORSAIR Flash Voyager 16GB Flash Drive (USB 2.0 Portable) Model CMFUSB2.0-16GB - Retail Model #:CMFUSB2.0-16GB Item #:N82E16820233042
1		SABRENT CRW-UINB 68-in-1 USB 2.0 Internal Card Reader w/ USB 2.0 Port supports SDHC/VISTA - Retail Model #:CRW-UINB Item #:N82E16820300608
2		Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS 300GB 10000 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM Model #:WD3000HLFS Item #:N82E16822136322
1		ASUS VK266H Black 25.5" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail Model #:VK266H Item #:N82E16824236046
1		Sony Optiarc 24X DVD/CD Rewritable Drive Black SATA Model AD-7240S-0B - OEM Model #:AD-7240S-0B Item #:N82E16827118030
1		COOLER MASTER V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail Model #:RR-UV8-XBU1-GP Item #:N82E16835103055

In honor of Windows 7, and my increasing frustration with my 4 year old DELL computer, I figured I would pony up and build myself a nice developer rig. Even though it is my home computer my typical usage is work related; Visual Studio(s), SQL Server, IIS, Virtual Machines, etc... My wife's typical usage is email and web browsing. We are not gamers at all; not even solitaire! The most graphic intense application I use would be Google Earth.

I was initially thinking RAID 0 15K rpm SAS drives with the new ASUS MB, but that bumped my cost up way too much. Plus, the performance benefit of RAID 0 doesn't outway the issue of losing one drive loses all data factor. So I decided to go with a single 300GB 10K RPM SATA drive. I don't need much in the way of disk space since all music, video, doc's, etc... are sitting on a file server (that needs to be upgraded).

The last PC I made was about 7 years ago. It was a beast of a machine with Dual SCSI CD drives and a DVD drive. Does one really need more than one optical drive these days? I don't remember the last time I needed to duplicate a disc.

Here is what my initial thoughts are. Starred rows are the upgraded components that I am not sure are worth it for my usage. This doesn't include monitors, which I desperately need, but will be holding off on.

Any comments would be appreciated. I want to get this project rolling ASAP!