Striping and shortstroking vs defrag with small amount of data

[Sasiki]

I am planning to stripe 2x320gb WD Caviar Blue's (WD3200AAKS) or 2x500gb Seagate 7200.10 flashed with the updated AAM firmware. I currently have a 500gb with only 150gb used. Should I worry about shortstroking or just defrag it every once in a while to keep everything together?

I have not been able to find any definitive information on which is better between the WD 320gb vs Seagate 500gb either. Space is not a concern. Any insight to this?

[InvisiBill]

I am planning to stripe 2x320gb WD Caviar Blue's (WD3200AAKS) or 2x500gb Seagate 7200.10 flashed with the updated AAM firmware. I currently have a 500gb with only 150gb used. Should I worry about shortstroking or just defrag it every once in a while to keep everything together?

I have not been able to find any definitive information on which is better between the WD 320gb vs Seagate 500gb either. Space is not a concern. Any insight to this?

Short-stroking will ensure that everything is kept at the front of the drive, which is fastest. Windows Defrag has its own method of arranging files, which may or may not put all the files right at the beginning, and may or may not arrange the files optimally. Using a more advanced defragger (I like JkDefrag (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kessels.com%2FJkdefrag%2F&ei=F_YASp_VKZLuMpzV9dkH&usg=AFQjCNFQSTwydaMQZxUjF4WX1mX4fz91sQ)), you should be able to sort everything to the front to achieve the same thing.

My WD6401AALS is quite a bit faster than my 500GB 7200.10. http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1412585 I would expect the 320 to be similar, but I don't know for sure.