Based on what I've read on these forums, I want to see if I've reached the right conclusion.
conditions:
primary system performance concern is gaming (loading game, loading maps)
rarely perform video editing and such
high end of 'bang for buck' (nice system, but no throwing away money)
premises:
RAID 0 offers little benefits to gaming and can even detract (higher cpu usage, higher failure)
300gb is plenty for vista64 home premium and 1 modern MMO and 2 modern FPS
Vraptors have low (best?) access times and low cpu utilization (not including SSDs), which are important because the CPU decompressing the game files is the bottleneck (after access happens)
Vraptors have great performance (look at reviews or other posts)
Spending an extra $500-1000 on an SSD would cause less of a reduction in game and map loading than would spending that money in improving the CPU and/or RAM.
Conclusion: A single VRaptor is the best choice given the above conditions.
Other possibilities that seem attractive to me:
Even the $100-150 you save by just using a good 7200rpm drive could be put to much better use in reducing load times (though remember this is given you have a high-end comp already - maybe q9450 or 6600 and 8800gtx or 9800gtx)
Use 2 Vraptors but on a hardware RAID controller
SCSI drives
Wait for SSDs to come down in price (because they will soon?)
If you think any of my premises or my conclusion is wrong please tell; that's why I posted.
Additional question for when/if SSDs come down in price: One downside to SSDs is their write speed - how would this affect gamers? Just game installation times?
conditions:
primary system performance concern is gaming (loading game, loading maps)
rarely perform video editing and such
high end of 'bang for buck' (nice system, but no throwing away money)
premises:
RAID 0 offers little benefits to gaming and can even detract (higher cpu usage, higher failure)
300gb is plenty for vista64 home premium and 1 modern MMO and 2 modern FPS
Vraptors have low (best?) access times and low cpu utilization (not including SSDs), which are important because the CPU decompressing the game files is the bottleneck (after access happens)
Vraptors have great performance (look at reviews or other posts)
Spending an extra $500-1000 on an SSD would cause less of a reduction in game and map loading than would spending that money in improving the CPU and/or RAM.
Conclusion: A single VRaptor is the best choice given the above conditions.
Other possibilities that seem attractive to me:
Even the $100-150 you save by just using a good 7200rpm drive could be put to much better use in reducing load times (though remember this is given you have a high-end comp already - maybe q9450 or 6600 and 8800gtx or 9800gtx)
Use 2 Vraptors but on a hardware RAID controller
SCSI drives
Wait for SSDs to come down in price (because they will soon?)
If you think any of my premises or my conclusion is wrong please tell; that's why I posted.
Additional question for when/if SSDs come down in price: One downside to SSDs is their write speed - how would this affect gamers? Just game installation times?