A question about building my own PC

[cantab]

This topic would be better off in the main computer megathread.

I concur that RAID is not backup. What RAID (discounting RAID 0 which isn't redundant at all) is for is availability. It's for systems that need to keep right on working when a drive breaks. If you want that out of your desktop PC then that's fine, heck if you're routinely working to deadlines then RAID might be a good idea, but it's no substitute for real backups.

[EzinX]

SSD is totally optional, though. It's only really useful for the OS. Hybrid drive is probably a better choice for the game drive, but we are starting to get into not-so-mid-range sort of prices.

K^2 knows nothing of which he speaks. SSDs are mandatory and you do not own a 2010+ era computer without one. He's right on everything else but the SSD comment. SSDs are now $120 for a 240 gig. You cannot go wrong with an Intel SSD, they have the best reputation and reliability. Samsung SSDs are a close second.

TLDR, conventional hard drives have something called a "seek time". That's the time for moving the arm on the mechanical system to a different point on the platter, and then waiting for the platter to revolve to a particular position. It's only about 8 milliseconds, the problem is that some games and some applications depend on thousands of tiny files that end up scattered in different physical locations all over your hard drive. This in turn means that loading applications is several times slower with a hard drive than an SSD.

TLDR I didn't read the first TLDR : an SSD makes the largest perceptible difference for day to day computer usage. Nothing says "I just bought a fast new computer" than the feeling of being able to start instantly any application installed to the SSD. If you have to skimp on the processor and video card to afford an SSD, do it.

[Camacha]

K^2 knows nothing of which he speaks. SSDs are mandatory and you do not own a 2010+ era computer without one. He's right on everything else but the SSD comment. SSDs are now $120 for a 240 gig. You cannot go wrong with an Intel SSD, they have the best reputation and reliability. Samsung SSDs are a close second.

I would currently rank Crucial as the most reliable brand, also because of the used technologies (MLC instead of TLC and power protection). Samsung seems to be a reliable player too, but focusses a little more on performance than just reliability and often is a bit more expensive. Intel has a good name too, but tend to be expensive and/or outdated and I am not too sure about the Sandforce move - even if they tested the snuckmiggels out of it. In reality you pretty much cannot really go wrong with any modern SSD from those brands.

I agree with the rest - even low-end systems should come with SSDs nowadays. Live is so much easier with one and pretty much every facet of your computing life improves by having one. Only if you need much space and budget is ultra tight I would consider just having a HDD, but even then I would just advise to save up a little longer. There is just little excuse for going the HDD route any more.

Of course, hybrid set-ups still are viable, where the OS and applications are on the SSD and your bulk storage is on a HDD.