RAID 0? WaterCooling? Overclocking????

[phucahwa]

Hi guys, Im planning to build a new budget computer and have some questions hopefully you guys can answer. Im not a very tech-know-all kinda person, i learn things by doing so these are new to me and please bear with me.

RAID 0?
After some reading, i wan to set 2 SATA150 HD in hardware RAID0 as system drive. However, my motherboard does not have the RAID controller build-in so i have to get one. The PCI controller im going to get has a CD which i think required installation before use. My question is if i am to set RAID0 with 2 brand new HD with no programs or OS, how do i get that PCI controller to work because i cant install driver for it yet?:hmmm:

WaterCooling?
How distilled water and UV coolant should i use? Mix them together? More distilled water than coolant or more coolant than water?

Overclocking?
Im going to get a Gigabyte motherboard and according to some reviews its "overclocking champ". SO im planning to overclock the Pentium Duo 2 Core 2.2 Ghz as high as i can go. Should I?

Anyway, here is what i plan to buy for this set up (round up to 700bucks) from newegg. Im just listing them from my memory and dont remember the exact models.

Gigabyte motherboard - FSB 1060-800
Duo 2 Core 2.2 ghz
2 gig DDR667
Some Radeon 2600XT PCIe 512mb
2 40gigSATA150
Some PSU 560W
A case
LG DVD-CD burner
Some PCI RAID controller
-----Will be overclocking the CPU and setting RAID 0.

So, would this system be an ok system? and able to run some games? or it just gonna be a waste of time and money? I know my knowledge is limited so i hope i could get some answers and suggestion from everyone everywhere on this board.

THanks...and patiently awaiting your help.

[Dick]

new budget computer

First off, budget computers don't use raid 0 and water cooling, it just diverts funds to somewhere you don't need. You'd be better of using fans and getting a 300GB hardrive.

Give a budget and we'll tell you what you need, how far are you willing to stretch your £700? Or is it $?

Overclocking?
Im going to get a Gigabyte motherboard and according to some reviews its "overclocking champ". SO im planning to overclock the Pentium Duo 2 Core 2.2 Ghz as high as i can go. Should I?

No, you should ditch the water cooling and get better core 2 duo and overclock that, you'll get a better performance increase.

Gigabyte motherboard - FSB 1060-800
Duo 2 Core 2.2 ghz
2 gig DDR667
Some Radeon 2600XT PCIe 512mb
2 40gigSATA150
Some PSU 560W

We need exact models to tell you if they're alright. Right off I can tell you to change graphics card to 8000 series, and possibly thr RAM needs changing. Definately need to look at your harddrive setup and CPU choice.

[ProneStar!]

1. RAID is bad for home use, you do not need it. It can cause more harm than good.

2.Overclocking if you dont know how, havent done it before, and you dont feel like buying a new computer then i highly suggest that you stay away from it. More than likely you dont need it, especially with a new core2 chip which i highly doubt you ever even use over 50-60% of the chip at a time.

3. Water cooling is bad, even if you know what your doing its not fun to mess around with, it requires a lot of maintenance on it, and initial setup is a real pain. However i suggest if you dont know a lot about overclocking then dont overclock and you dont need watercooling.

[Dick]

I disagree with Pronestar only on the stay away from overclocking bit. If you're willing, read the right guides and are careful then there's no reason you shouldn't in order to get that extra bit from your machine.

[Simetrical]

You likely don't need any kind of RAID, since disk usage is almost never a bottleneck for home PCs (whereas it's often a major bottleneck for servers). If you do want any RAID, you want one that gives you redundancy, not speed. RAID 0 is always a bad idea to use for your hard drives except for swap or other data that you don't care about losing in the event of a disk crash, unless it's combined into RAID 10.