Finally determined, after all my drives passed diag tests, that the one that I noticed was clicking was the 250GB, so I dumped and removed it. Now there are two brand new 1.5TB Western Digitals, the first of which I bought in fear that the failing drive was my 1TB... So now the old TB is a backup disk, and one of the new ones is media, the other a torrent seeding drive. Then there's an empty 200GB and a 70GB 2.5" hanging out in there. I might need a new case I guess, depending on what I do, I might use the 200GB as a clone disk. I think I'm going to use the 2.5" as a drivers / app setups archive.
Right now, the O/S disk is a 120GB with tons of space sitting open. I've decided, not only am I building the PC with Windows 7 Ultimate/Enterprise, as opposed to Vista (lol) {and will be dual booting OSX}, I will be purchasing a ~64GB solid state drive instead of a Raptor for the O/S disk. I'm looking at Corsair and Western Digital. I'll probably still use a 150GB VelociRaptor for program installation, however (possibly two in a raid).
The solid state drive will most likely be a 2.5" SATA II, though I am looking at two right now, and it's going to be a compromise between speed and integrity (which is hilarious, as neither will be an issue, I'm sure)
| Pros | Cons |
| Western Digital Advanced Wear-Leveling Advanced Error Correcting Native Command Queuing Data Integrity Protection ATA SMART 170MB/s write speed MTBF 1.4 million hours 3 Year Warranty It's a Western Digital Additional bracket is dual drive, and my old laptop disk is loose inside the case now. | 250 MB/s read speed Cost $250 Have to buy $30 bracket |
| Includes 2.5" to 3.5" bracket 270MB/s read speed Cost $184 | 130MB/s write speed 2 Year Warranty MTBF 1 million hours |
So as we can see, the good one is going to end up costing about $100 more. And the slower read speed is a jokingly small disadvantage. I think I'll continue my Western-Digital-only streak. Corsair can have my money for RAM. Probably. But this will be my next purchase after a graphics card.
I think I'm gonna buy either one of these tomorrow at work, actually:
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5750 or 5770, both are 128-bit 1GB GDDR5 PCIe 2.0 with 1080p HDMI out and 2xDVI, DX11, one 6-pinpower.
Then I'll start seriously pricing the rest. I'm estimating:
RAM (8GB DDR3) $250
Mobo (Intel 775) $130
CPU (wolfdale 3.0 or 3.16) $180
subtotal $560
Raptor $160 ea.
Cooling probably another $100
God, I can't wait to replace this board.
