to raid0 or not to raid0

[avatar[djedi]]

Real quick before lunch:

In a new rig, should I have A) 1 WD 74GB raptor, and a Maxtor DiamondMax 10 (6B250S0) 7200RPM 250GB

B.) 2x WD Raptor 74GB in raid 0
or
C) 2x Maxtor DiamondMax 10 (6B250S0) 7200RPM 250GB in raid0?

This rig will primarily be used for games, and downloading lots of anime and other assorted media files :E

I like speed, but am not sure which of the 3 options above yield best results for what I am looking for. Comments/suggestions? the 300gb maxtor? Thanks.

[DougLite]

RAID-0 = myth (for gamers) How many times do I have to post this?

Check out these threads - they go a long way in exposing the RAID-0 myth. We answered this very question last week in the second one: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=874828 and http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=885797

You can look at the Anandtech review, the article in Maximum PC, the StorageReview Article, and cover your eyes and say "the numbers lie," "it's not possible," "they should have used a different stripe size," "why are they using that crappy controller?" but it will not change the truth that RAID-0 does not increase performance for gamers.

So to answer your question, A is the hands down winner. Much cheaper, performs the same for your tasks. If you need more capacity, add DM10's as single drives as your needs dictate.

[jonw757]

There should be a RAID 0 sticky..

[avatar[djedi]]

RAID-0 = myth (for gamers) How many times do I have to post this?

Check out these threads - they go a long way in exposing the RAID-0 myth. We answered this very question last week in the second one: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=874828 and http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=885797


Doh, sorry I should have read the disk forum more (I glanced through it bouncing from topic to topic, but not for long enough). But you have definetly educated me on the subject of Raid 0, Thank you very much for the links to the other posts, they were most helpful. :)



So to answer your question, A is the hands down winner. Much cheaper, performs the same for your tasks. If you need more capacity, add DM10's as single drives as your needs dictate.

As a final question, just to make sure I have things right, and presuming I go with option A, I should put the OS on the raptor, and ...games also on the raptor? would I see any performance increase to have the games and OS on seperate drives? Or does it not really mater?

[DougLite]

Everything you can wedge into ~70GB goes on the Raptor, with the priority being the OS, programs, games, then everything else (in that order). If you are looking at WD740GD, you probably also have 1GB of RAM, making page file optimization a moot point, as you will most likely make it as small as possible to force your system to use physical memory, which is about, oh, I'd say, 1,000 times faster.

However, the DiamondMax 10 is no slouch performance wise either - it's actually faster than the 36GB Raptor in most single user tasks - so it won't be too big of a performance hit. Good luck!