32 MA XIMUMPC SEPTEMBER 2006
Two WD Raptor 150GBs, three Seagate 7200.10 750GBs
HARD DRIVESThe Dream Machine’s storage confi g went
through several iterations before we adopted
the fi nal “both of best worlds” approach. We
originally considered six 10K Raptors in RAID
5 for 750GB of redundant storage. Sure, it’d be
fast, but let’s be honest—it doesn’t pass Dream
Machine muster. This is the ultimate rig. The
Big Boy. El Jeffe Muchacho. Mere gigabytes
ain’t gonna cut it: We need terabytes, with a T.
So we considered running six Seagate 750GB
Barracudas. But that would have exceeded the
2TB volume limit in 32-bit Windows. Harumph.
So, fi nally, we decided to run a mix of both
drives. The 10K drives for our boot sector, andthe fatties for storage. The
Raptors are confi gured in
RAID 0 as a boot drive, and
we’re running three 750GB
Barracudas in RAID 5 for
1.5 terabytes of redundant
storage (we lose one of the
drive’s capacity to parity).
The fi nal confi g is totally
righteous. Our boot drive reads
at 140MB/s, and we’ve got more
than a terabyte of hellaciously fast
storage. What more could you ask for?righteous. Our boot drive reads
at 140MB/s, and we’ve got more
than a terabyte of hellaciously fast
storage. What more could you ask for?righteous. Our boot drive reads
at 140MB/s, and we’ve got more
than a terabyte of hellaciously fast
storage. What more could you ask for?Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro
SOUNDCARDWhat would a Dream Machine be without a
soundcard? One day we may have to answer
that question, as more powerful features
are offloaded to multicore CPUs, but today,
we’re not ready to give up the soundcard for
onboard audio. Even as host-based audio
gets more powerful, we can’t abide audio
integrated into the motherboard—there are
just too many mobos that let the data mov-
ing across the board contaminate the audio
signal. To get the cleanest audio available, we
reached for Creative’s Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite
Pro. The über version of the X-Fi is more than
a glorified break-out box. Creative actuallyredesigned the board and uses higher quality
codecs to achieve a signal-to-noise ratio of
116dB—a healthy boost over the pedestrian
X-Fi’s already-excellent 108dB. The Elite Pro
also includes a full 64MB loadout of onboard
RAM (XtremeMusic includes just 2MB), which
is supposed to increase the speed of gam-
ing. Vinyl lovers also get a boost from
the Elite Pro, which includes a circuit
to compensate for the “RIAA” curve
you run into when you try to digitize
your album collection. Without
compensation for the curve, your
recordings would otherwise sound lifeless.OPTICAL DRIVESRecordable DVD is old and busted.
High-definition optical stor-
age is the new hot-
ness. There’s just one
problem: You have to
pick between the two
competing standards,
HD-DVD and Blu-ray.
Because there will inevi-
tably be differing alliances
among movie studios, the
only way we could ensure that
our Dream Machine is fully high-
def compliant would be to run bothnext-gen formats. Sadly, our fanciful vision
didn’t come to pass. We were able to procure a
highly sought-after Blu-ray drive from Pioneer,
but the HD-DVD drive we coveted was a no-
show. Bummer.
At least we’re rolling like next-gen archi-
vists, able to burn 25GB to a Blue-ray disc.
Sure, there are drawbacks to being this close to
the cutting-edge: the $1,000 price tag is about
as easy to swallow as ipecac, especially since
the drive doesn’t read from or write to CDs. To
counter this flaw, we augmented the BVR-101A
with an external Plextor PX-750UF 16X DVD-R
for our CD-ripping and game-installation duties.Recordable DVD is old and busted.
High-definition optical stor-
age is the new hot-
ness. There’s just one
problem: You have to
pick between the two
competing standards,
HD-DVD and Blu-ray.
Because there will inevi-
tably be differing alliances
among movie studios, the
only way we could ensure that
our Dream Machine is fully high-
def compliant would be to run bothRecordable DVD is old and busted.
High-definition optical stor-problem: You have to
pick between the two
competing standards,
HD-DVD and Blu-ray.
Because there will inevi-
tably be differing alliances
among movie studios, the
only way we could ensure that
our Dream Machine is fully high-
def compliant would be to run bothcodecs to achieve a signal-to-noise ratio of
116dB—a healthy boost over the pedestrian
X-Fi’s already-excellent 108dB. The Elite Pro
also includes a full 64MB loadout of onboard
RAM (XtremeMusic includes just 2MB), which
is supposed to increase the speed of gam-
ing. Vinyl lovers also get a boost fromto compensate for the “RIAA” curve
you run into when you try to digitize
your album collection. Without
compensation for the curve, your
recordings would otherwise sound lifeless.is supposed to increase the speed of gam-recordings would otherwise sound lifeless.Dream
Machine
Pioneer Blu-ray BVR-101A and Plextor PX-75OUF