Yikes

I agree that the Green drives are not ideal in a performance oriented RAID environment. My application is a little different. The RAID array will only be for streaming music and maybe video for one user, me. So I like the trade off of efficiency vs speed.

Concerning the PSU, remember that the PC currently has 5 Hard drives (3 x WD 2TB and 2 x WD 1 TB) and at some point I will probably upgrade the Video Card to a more up to date more powerful (and Power Hungry) model. Not to mention that if I decide to Rip my DVD collection I have the facilities to add three more hard drives to the RAID 5 array. For another $420 I can make this a 10 TB RAID 5 NAS unit.

The first Motherboard was bad, it still worked but just all F-d up. Got tyhe replacement, works like a charm. One of the WD20 drives was bad, got a replacement, works like a charm. I'm proud of my little system. Case: COOLER MASTER ATCS 840 RC-840-KKN1-GP Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-870A-UD3 AM3 CPU; AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor Memory: 4 GB of kingston (Easily expanded to 8 GB, max of 16) Video: GIGABYTE GV-R467ZL-1GI Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x1 System Drives - 2 WD 1 TB Green drives in RAID 1 configuration for 1TB of redundant System storage. NAS drives - 3 WD 2 TB Green drives in RAID 5 configuration for almost 4 TB of storage (With room for two more drives) Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower XT TPX-775M 775W Monitor: Viewsonic VX2739WM 27" The desk is new and wicked inexpensive. I chose it to fit the monitor and it accommodates my B&W DM601's for nice near-field listening. It does have 4 convenient USB ports right under the monitor. Amp for the B&W's is a NAD C 326 BEE (Highly recommended for those on a budget) I'm waiting for my Music Hall DAC 25.2 to be modded by Exemplar Audio to use as the source. In the mean time a Nuforce uDac serves as the DAC. In the last day I've ripped 53 CD's to the system (Full WAV), only 3800 some odd CD's to go. Internal Pictures. I tried to be neat. The case is HUGE with room to grow. Followed by a Picture of the entire system. I'm going to be pissed if the Bridge Sucks, this entire exercise is specifically for use with the bridge. Thanks for the help. Oh and sorry I posted this over there as well.

I remember explaining to fellow sailors that statistically an Aircraft Carrier has a gay community around 500 strong. They usually couldn't believe me. I think some suspected that I was gay. Maybe it was my pat comeback to the insult "Suck my Dick!" I'd reply: "You wouldn't like it, my technique is terrible, but I do have enthusiasm!!!" the looks on their faces were priceless.

Steve, I'm glad that you feel comfortable enough here to "Come Out". I'd like to use this opportunity to also come out, I'm a heterosexual male. There, now that that is out in the open I feel much better; Now there is no room for ambiguity. I don't care about anyones sexuality, what I care about is whether or not a person is easy or not. In all seriousness what Steve's choosing to come out to the Head-Case community and its reaction to that coming out tells me is that I should be spending more time here. Oh.... The other thing it tells me is that I have to make the next National because I'd wager that I'd give Colin some decent competition. Out of 150 guys on my Submarine none could best me at arm wrestling. That's right, I was In The Navy (Actually when that was a current song), and on-board Submarines. So please remember that when I go Down, it's for three months at a time, and that as a Submariner I do it deeper. I'm sorry I missed the meet, maybe next year. Yikes Ethan

I've heard of the Samsung drives being a little unreliable, not to mention the f3 has 32 mb of cache and the WD20EARS has 64 mb for the same price. The entire computer functions as a big RAID NAS. NAS's are basically little computers that run an operating system and software. I'm just building my own, oh and the computer part of mine will actually be worth using.

Well I made up my mind and ordered the parts. Stuff should arrive on Monday. It's not a gaming rig, but it's still reasonably powerful. Primary use is as a RAID server and a general purpose PC. I cheaped out as far as the video goes with a HD 4670 card. If anyone is interested here's what I ordered: Motherboard

Sorry I'm not really looking to troubleshoot the old PC, just asking if anyone knows about the Video Cards (Chipsets) that I mentioned.

Hello All, My office PC is Dying, about half the time when booting it

I picked up a 16 gb Wi-Fi iPad yesterday. I got it basically to use as the remote for my PS Audio PWD/Bridge music system. Since the Bridge won't be out for a month or two I decided to use it as a remote for my Exemplar Music Server (that currently uses a Nokia N810 running VNC Viewer), so I paid $10 for the VNC app and of course it doesn't work. Why do I get the feeling that this thing is going to be a money pit? otherwise it's a cool toy.

I picked up a 16 gb Wi-Fi iPad yesterday. I got it basically to use as the remote for my PS Audio PWD/Bridge music system. Since the Bridge won't be out for a month or two I decided to use it as a remote for my Exemplar Music Server (that currently uses a Nokia N810 running VNC Viewer), so I paid $10 for the VNC app and of course it doesn't work. Why do I get the feeling that this thing is going to be a money pit? otherwise it's a cool toy.

I'm feeling much better, thanks. I'll post opinions in another thread. Funny thing is that I do have my priorities; I was barely able to stand but I made sure that before I left for the ER that both my new HE-5LE's and the PWD were playing on repeat so that they would break in while I was hospitalized.

when I'm feeling poorly I buy stuff. In the last 3 weeks I've purchased: PS Audio Power Plant Premier PS Audio PerfectWave DAC PS Audio Duet (2 of them) Oh... For the last 6 days I've been in the Hospital. For the last several weeks I have apparently been suffering from a GI Bleed, I was sort of bleeding to death. 6 Days, 12 units of Plasma, 10 units of Red Blood Cells, Scoped from both ends, Two bleeding Ulcers ---- Priceless! I was released last night, so I must be feeling better. Hang on, I'm typing this on my new iPad that I bought today so maybe not.

Last night the Habs played Much better. Hell they could have won if it were not for Leighton. Leighton is seriously in the zone. So the Habs played much better, they only lost 3-0 instead of the previous 6-0 shellacking Halak also looked seriously rattled, he's got to settle down or this will be over quickly.

If the Flyers manage to beat Montreal I think I'm going to try and score some tickets for the finals. The last Flyers game that I saw in Philadelphia was at the old Spectrum in 87, it was game 6 of the Finals against Edmonton (I also attended game 4). The Flyers won! Thereby forcing a game 7 back in Edmonton. It was by far the Highlight of my experience as a fan of any sport. i couldn't talk for several days afterward, I had screamed my voice away Pity the Flyers lost in Edmonton, but I consider it a victory to force a game 7 against that Oilers team. The Oilers had only lost two games in the entire playoffs leading up to the finals. That Oilers team was one of the best teams ever. The Flyers goaltender was the reason they were able to force a game 7. Ron Hextall was so good that he was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs MVP (I believe only the 4th time a member of the losing team reveived it). Sorry, incase you can't tell I'm really excited that the Flyers are still in it.

Spearit closed the Boston Store, so now it's just the Northampton store. I haven't been to the new store that opened up at 870 Commonwealth Ave. I hear it's a cross between a high end audio store and a high end furniture store.

Wow! that was an amazing game. The East conference finals should be amazing. Montreal manages to outplay and beat the best regular season team and the defending Stanley Cup winner and Philadelphia manhandles their arch rivals New Jersey and then comes back from being 3 games down to force a 7th game and then comes back from 3-0 to defeat Boston. Both teams are teams of Destiny. Go Flyers!

Doing well after the surgery, down to 337# as of this AM, thanks for asking. Although this week I have apparently come down with Gout, and it sucks!

Did anyone else notice that Stereophile listed the number of dears as 4. It use to be that they wouldn't publish a review unless the product had a minimum number of dealers, of course YBA is imported by Audio Plus Services (Focal and Cambridge Audio) which spends a lot on ads so it's no surprise that it got the positive review. Still the YBA looks interesting, I'm tempted. It seems that a dealer that I use to work at is one of the 4 dealers. Spearit Sound in MasNoNoNoNoNoNosetts is selling the WD202 for $795. (I'm not shilling for them, I haven't worked there since 99). I am in the market for a new DAC, but I'm aiming a little higher. I will probably pull the trigger on a PWD this Monday. Oh... is that Scarlett Johansson? Fucking mesmerizing, I can't take my eyes off of her. Am I crazy, or does she make eating popcorn sexy?

Sorry, not many experienced headphone users would classify the DAC1's Headphone amp as being "very good". Very mediocre comes to mind.

FUCK! It just never ends. Now I have Gout, and it hurts like a MF! So at this moment I'm eating Percocets

Thanks for the info. I'm sure that I can borrow one sooner or later. I'm also sure that there will be one at CanJam, but unfortunately I won't be. Not to mention that I'm considering the PWD for my speaker rig so that how it sounds with a headphone rig has little bearing on my intended application

Any further thoughts concerning the PWD's sound quality and use? I love my Exemplar XD-1 DAC, but it doesn't allow Native for High Resolution files. I dislike having to put a High Resolution signal through the XD-1's SRC and having it converted to 96 or 192khz. The Bridge is also an interesting feature (If it ever appears). I recently added a PS Audio PPP to my system and I like what it's done to the sound. I think that PS Audio makes some decent cost effective kit. It's just tough buying a fairly expensive DAC without hearing it first. Maybe I'll try to borrow one first.

Hang on... I wasn't at Can Jam.

With the B52 pretty good. With my Phoenix, not so much. With the Phoenix (Stock balanced cables) I thought that the 800's sounded kind of flat and dull (Dynamically speaking). They do have an open character that some might find addictive, but not me. With a Balanced M3 they were somewhere between my Phoenix and the B52. IMO they share the same dynamic issues that hold back the 600/650's. They all need to be turned up louder than I normally listen to come alive dynamically. I can certainly understand why someone would like them, but the hero worship that is building up is IMO totally unmerited.