• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

2nd HD options?

H

hdawg06

2[H]4U
Joined
Nov 12, 2006
Messages
2,095
What is a good 2nd HD for the new gaming rig I am building. I would like something right at $100, but wasn't sure if I should go with another 320gb or a low gb 10krpm HD. I was thinking Raid0 would be the best bet.

Here are the current specs:

Possible Specs(UPDATED):

CPU: Intel Core2Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4ghz
Motherboard: Asus P5B-E Socket
Video Card: BFG TECH 7600GT 256MB
Ram: Crucial Technology 2gb(2x1gb) DDR2
Hard Drive 1: Seagate Barracuda 320gb
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
PSU: Thermaltake ToughPower W0128RU 650Watt
Case: Thermaltake Armor Black w/ 25CM fan OR Antec Performance I P180B Black
DVD: Samsung DVD Burner
 
It looks like you are doing some gaming with this machine? I would suggest a 74GB (about $150) raptor, but since your budget is $100, I would suggest another 320GB drive.
 
Get the 2nd 320GB. It looks like the P5B-E has an ICH8R southbridge. That means you can do Intel Matrix Raid if you want.

I have it setup on 2 Seagate 320s and LOVE it. HDTach says its faster then raptors in raid0 but maybe they are smoking some good shit, or the via raid controller they used sucks, who knows.

http://i15.tinypic.com/30m2074.jpg

Anyway, with matrix raid you can have raid 0&1 on the same drive. I've got a 500gb raid0 where windows runs and all work is done, then a 50gb raid1 where I save important stuff, keep a backup copy of my windows install, best part is both are bootable, so if there is a problem I tell the bios to load my mirror drive first and ta-da, loose nothing.

A LOT cheaper then raid10 or 5, granted I only get 50gb to store crap, but I don't think I have 50gb or real important stuff anyway.
 
That's cool. I have heard that some of the Raid0 setups with the 2x 320gb can be very fast. That is what I was thinking about doing, but I don't know hardly anything about setting up raids.
 
Its easy as hell provided you either slipstream the raid driver into your XP install CD. OR use a floppy that has the drivers on it.

Slipstream is slightly more difficult (then finding a working floppy) but its worth it.

Oh, if you do that USE THE ASUS CD, I tried for a few days to use Intel's drivers, no go. Finally remembered that asus cd is bootable and it makes the floppy image for you right there.

Once thats done its smooth sailing.

I don't know how to do it after a windows install. But chances are you might want to reinstall anyway,
 
Just so I beat the dead horse once again, if you are using raid0, make sure you have backups. Because if 1 drive dies, all the data is gone.
 
For normal Raid0 - YES

For Intel Matrix Raid - Maybe

Mine is set up so that I have 2x320GB drives. They combine to make 596GB actual storage space.

So I set 1 volume to be raid0 at 500gb. So, both drives are working together to give me a fast and really large drive.

With the remaining room (96GB) I set up a RAID1 volume. So now I have 48GB of mirrored room on the drive. (96/2)


So, if I have something I think is important (work files, a backup of windows, some movies, porn, etc etc) I put it in the raid1 drive (M:\) otherwise, I'm running windows, games, downloads, encoding, extracting, cracking, decompiling, etc on my fast raid0 drive.

I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't do this. Search for Intel Matrix Raid on google.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top