vince3 opened this issue on Jul 04, 2007 ยท 35 posts
fiontar posted Thu, 05 July 2007 at 8:20 AM
Looks like a good setup, similar to one I configured in my head yesterday. :)
Only thing I might consider different is having two SATA drives instead of one. I have two SATA 250GB Seagate Barracuda HDs on my current system (built a year and a half ago). I have them each plugged into different channels, with my Pagefile on it's own partition on the second drive. I also use a partition on the second drive for back ups.
When you do get your system together, to save some hassels later, plan out how you want to partition your drives. I always create two seperate Primary partitions, one for my main OS and one for my secondary OS. I'm currently using the second trying out the 120 day free trial of Windows XP Pro X64, but in the past I've also used it to allow a fresh install of my Primary OS when needed, with out over-writing the original, (which I only get rid of once the transition is completed and everything is running smoothly). This could be helpful in your situation for adding Vista 64 "once the kinks are worked out", or if you want to maintain a 32 bit and 64 bit OS on the system until you are certain that all your programs run fine on a 64 bit OS.
Of course, having the secondary HD is also nice if you lose your primary one to a hardware failure. No rushing out to Best Buy or Staples to find something to stick in your machine because you don't want to go with out for the time it will take to receive a replacement through the mail. :)
(Some people, rather than buying identical drives, will buy a smaller, faster (more expensive per GB) HD for their OS and primary software, and a larger, more economical HD for their secondary. That's another possibility).