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How should i setup my new disk storage

K

krelkor

Weaksauce
Joined
Dec 9, 2006
Messages
89
hey guys!
just bought 2 new 320 gig 7200.10 seagate SATA drives, im going to put them into raid 0 for games and storage

i currently have a 80gig WD SE pata drive which is being used as an OS and application drive

for best realworld performance, how should i set everything up?

Solution 1
should i create a new partion on the raid array and install windows onto that, using the 80gig as ultra rare use storage/backup/Page file?

Solution 2
or should i stick the page file on the raid array and put the OS on the 80 gig along with the uber rare use files/backup stuff

Solution 3
80 gig with the OS
raid array for games
really old and shitty 60 gig for page file use only, the 80 gig is much much faster


opinions?
 
i would do the 2 x 320's in raid 0 as OS / games

80g for important files and daily images of your main drive as we know the potentials for raid 0 failure, better safe then sorry.

60g, if it works, use it for downloads and other crap.
 
so yall think that the OS on the same raid array as the games will not slow down performance?
 
krelkor said:
Solution 2
or should i stick the page file on the raid array and put the OS on the 80 gig along with the uber rare use files/backup stuff
Click to expand...

I wouldn't put the OS and apps on a RAID0 - not reliable enough. I'd also not put the pagefile on the OS drive. Solution 2 looks like an option, but I'd leave the apps there too.

On the RAID0 drive, create a partition, if possible, on the outermost tracks of the disks. It should be about 3x the max RAM you're likely to use in the future. Format as FAT16 and put the pagefile on this. Set min size = max size = 2 or 3 times current RAM. That will result in a fast, fragmentation resistant pagefile.

The rest of the drive should be partitioned and formatted according to your preference - NTFS or FAT32.

You should consider moving any application temp file folders (e.g. browser temp files, Photoshops memory management files etc) from the application drive to the RAID0 drive as well. They are not critical if the RAID pair gets zapped and will benefit from the speed.

Personally, I'd suggest getting a matching 80GB drive and setting the 320 pair in RAID1 for security. Then use the 80GB pair as RAID0 and use a pagefile partition (as explained^^) and put all apps and OS on the 320. If your games are using any temp files, put them on the RAID0 for speed. This, BTW, is pretty much exactly what I'm doing with a machine I'm currently building - 320GB RAID1 with 80GB RAID0 for swap and temp or low priority stuff.
 
i dont think it will be anything you would notice no, since the O/S isnt doing much while you are gaming anyways.
 
thanks for the replies guys!, I usually format everything with ntfs, how would fat16 be beneficial over ntfs for a page file?


Also, i guess on a side note, should i be formatting the raid 0 array as ntfs? im not sure how that applies to stripe size

thanks again!
 
Michael Daly said:
FAT16 is faster than FAT32 or NTFS and there are no issues otherwise, since you are creating only one file of fixed size in the partition.
Click to expand...

More RAM > Swap partition

In addition, RAM has a bit harder time degrading than a disk that keeps getting accessed, as it has no moving parts.
 
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