Primary/Secondary Drive Setups

[MikalCarbine257]

Currently I am running a 2x80 Raid 0 Stripe and a 2x80 Pata Mirror

The Raid 0 stripe is my primary, with my OS and games, while the mirror holds all my sensitive data and music.

I am in the market for getting some new drives. At first I was going to get 3 250G, with 2 in Raid 0 for my primary and one 250 for my backup, then I heard Raid 0 isn't worth it, especially 100 bucks, so I settled on 2x250 Drives, one primary and one backup.

My question is, should I get a SataII 3.0Gbs 250G drive for my primary (most of that drive WILL not be used...) and the 250G backup, or get a 74G Raptor for the primary (speed for the games and what not) and a 250G for the backup?

I know that the 250G drives are fast, but after comparing benchmarks and such, the 74G raptor is still much faster than one

[GotNoRice]

I think that it is certainly worth it to go for a fast drive as your boot. On a whole performance per gigabyte level, they really aren’t worth it, but I look at it from another point of view. I want the fastest drive possible to boot on. Space is only relevant to the degree that it has “enough”; and if that is the case then it might as well be as fast as possible. I tend to separate my drives into categories based on what they are best suited for. I have a new 36g Fujitsu 15k scsi drive that has a cost per gigabyte way worse than even the raptors. It is enough for my OS and all the games that I really care about, like WoW, BF2, CS:S, AoE3, etc with 10+ gigs still to spare. I have a 2nd 15k 36g drive that is older that I got off ebay. It is fast but not as fast. On that I put apps, utilities, etc. Finally I have a 7200rpm 250g western digital drive. That is for “bulk storage”. Stuff like mp3’s, movies, porn, etc, which usually takes up most of the space anyway.

It just seems to make sense to separate the data that does not need to be accessed quickly and put it on slow “bulk storage” drives. Then, take however much space you need for your OS, games, apps, etc and buy the fastest drive that meets that space requirement.

[troisanh]

Option 2 like ive got setup, 74g raptor for OS/games and 250g WD2500ks for storage/backup.

[dtess17]

seems many people are ditching their RAID 0 setups and getting a raptor and then a big drive.

I am in a similar position, i bought 2x 250gb drives...which was dumb looking back, i should have just got a raptor. So now i am going to save all my extra cash and get the new raptor 150. use one of the 250's for storage and sell the other.

then i get a little more space and a freaky fast drive.

[TheDoucheMan]

seems many people are ditching their RAID 0 setups and getting a raptor and then a big drive.

I am in a similar position, i bought 2x 250gb drives...which was dumb looking back, i should have just got a raptor. So now i am going to save all my extra cash and get the new raptor 150. use one of the 250's for storage and sell the other.

then i get a little more space and a freaky fast drive.

It is just a much smarter use of money. If you really want performance you can't beat the raptors (74/150). And if you need more storage space large 7200rpm drives are cheaper, safer than striping, and plenty fast for storage.

[serbiaNem]

I have enough storage to suit my needs and more. My raptor 150 comes in tomorrow and I can't wait. I used to have a raid setup and didn't notice a difference with my usage. It's really about knowing what you'll be doing, and whether raid will improve it for you.