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SSD or HDD in RAID

D

Dmac122383

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 15, 2011
Messages
437
I just put together a new system a with a pII x6 1090T, 8 gigs of RAM, XFX 6970, H50, and was trying reload Windows7 on my older 150g Raptor.

Tried installing the OS 3-4 times on the Raptor with no luck, so I tried installing on an old WD 320 gig drive and was able to fully install with no issues.


So I think its time for a new SSD or HDD

My budget is about 200 bucks. I'd love to get a SSD for the performance but I am completely unsure of which ssd to look at. I've seen a lot of people getting OCZ vertex and agility drives and also Crucial C300's but have read a lot of horror stories of firmware updating issues and DOA drives

My other thought is to grab 2 WD Caviar Black 640gig 64mb cache 6.0 gb\s drives and run them in RAID1 stripped

Can anyone give me some pros and cons on each set up and a good recommendation for a SSD because I'd really like to go that route. (Thinking a 120 or 128g SSD)

Thanks
 
Just go the SSD route as your proposed HDD route is not a good choice at all in terms of drives selected as well as performance. Simply put, the WD Black 640GB 6GB/s drive is a bad buy considering that it's actually slower than the same priced Samsung F3 1TB despite its SATA 6.0Gb/s interface due to the better platter design and density of the Samsung F3 1TB.

So I recommend these SSDs:
$135 - Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1CCA 2.5" 64GB SSD
$195 - Intel 320 Series SSDSA2CW080G3K5 2.5" 80GB SSD

I do not recommend ANY OCZ SSD or any SF-1200 based SSD due to their slow performance compared to their rated specs as well in comparison to the above SSDs.
 
I currently have a 128GB Vertex 2 for my OS/Games and a 1.5TB Raid 1 setup for my data (libraries pointing there). It works great.

When picking RAID, keep in mind the type of applications youre using. You could throw 600MB/s SSD Raid 0 array at a game and it's not going to load any faster than off a typical SSD, or in some cases a good magnetic HDD. A good example of this is when you create a ram disk and copy game folders over to it. It's 6,000+ MB/s and they don't don't load any faster than off a Sata II SSD.
 
How much slower performance are the sandforce 1200 series SSDs? I'm not looking to have the fastest drive out, just a SSD that will perform better than a mechanical drive.

Thanks for the recommendation Danny but I think I'd need a little more than an 80g drive.

I'm looking at these two drives and dont see any major differences
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227551 This has a $30 MIR

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227543

or should I just buck up the extra cash now and get a SATA3 drive like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148348

I'm looking to get this ordered possibly tonite or tomorrow. Again I dont need the worlds fastest SSD but do want a 120gig-128gig and something that wont need firmware updated or any issues out of the box. I only play games on the computer and dont do any serious video editing or and resource hungry programs but would like the boot and load times of a SSD. Sorry for being such a noob but I dont know much about these and havent had the chance to research since my old HDD just failed last night

Thanks again guys
 
Last edited:
Dmac122383 said:
How much slower performance are the sandforce 1200 series SSDs? I'm not looking to have the fastest drive out, just a SSD that will perform better than a mechanical drive.
Click to expand...
The Sandforce SSDs will still outperform traditional hard drives. But I still won't recommend an OCZ SSD due to the aforementioned performance problem and the numerous isses surrounding OCZ's SSDs. Just search through our own Data Storage subforum and you'll see that barely anyone recommends a OCZ Vertex 2 or Agility 2 SSD and the ones that do have it are now complaining of issues.
 
I've did a little bit of reading and read alot of reviews, it seems like Intel is a solid pick when choosing a SSD and also the Crucial C300's are good too. I think I've narrowed down my choices between 2 SSds

Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC128MAG - $244 and SATA3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=20-148-348&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=100&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Keywords=%28keywords%29&Page=1#scrollFullInfo

or

Intel 320 Series SSDSA2CW120G3K5 - $210 with promo code ($30 off) SATA2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167050

I'm kinda stuck between the two, Intel seems more solid and reliable but the Crucial is nice because it is SATA3
What should I do?
 
Really depends on what you value more: reliability or sheer performance. With that said, I'd go for the Crucial
 
I ordered the Crucial SSD, I cant wait to see how fast this thing is. Any tips or special instructions on getting this thing set up and installing the OS?

Thanks again
 
I got the Crucial C300 SATAIII drive installed and Win7 x64 installed and a few games like Rift and Metro 2033.

Rift loading screens really arent that much faster than my old raptor drive. Windows boot times are amazing from power on -> entering password -> desktop is amazing like 5-7 secs.

I also read a couple guides/walk thrus for setting up the drive correctly in windows, and also installed CrystalmarkDisk software.

I kinda got boned on the price tho, I ordered the drive for $244.99 last thursday and yesterday I got a newsletter from newegg showing the drive was on sale for $199.99 so yeah I'm kinda bummed about that.

Should I set up some type of RAM Disk for my firefox for browsing to maximize speed? or any other things to boost speeds?

Thanks
 
Dmac122383 said:
Should I set up some type of RAM Disk for my firefox for browsing to maximize speed?
Click to expand...
Go for it if you have spare time.

Besides that SSD, you're pretty much stuck as is with that hardware. Well unless you want to RAID 0 the SSDs.
 
Absolutely get QSoft RAM Disk and put your browser cache and the temp/tmp files on it easy to do. Shut off your swapfile and disable the superfetch service and live a littile.
 
Good luck with your Crucial, my C300 is amazing. Wouldn't look back.

EDIT: Contact Newegg, they will honor their current promo price of the drive and they should refund you the difference.
 
I contacted newegg about the price difference and they said they do not have any type of price reimbursement or price protection. So I just picked the wrong time to buy lol.
 
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