• 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.

Time for new storage setup...HDD Raid v SSD

B

bildo123

n00b
Joined
Jan 31, 2008
Messages
28
I'm in a bit of a pickle as I believe it's about time I replace my WD 74GB Raptor (yea, ancient). It's currently running as my OS disk while I have my Steam/Games, schoolwork, etc. on a secondary no frills 320GB HDD. The problem is that I'm having a bit of trouble as to what route to go. I was thinking of a RAID 0 setup with two WD RE4 1TB HDDs and have the 320 as a backup for critical stuff. Is there any inherit benefit to having a dedicated OS drive or is throwing my OS and games on the RAID fine as is?

My second thought was getting a Crucial M4 256GB SSD...but that is about $370, $160 more than the RAID and 1/4 of the space...quite a sacrifice. In addition, just checking my Steam/game folder and tacking on the OS I'm almost certain I'd fill that SSD in no time. Also, there's plenty of games coming out that'll even push that limit further. The M4 512GB would be much better for my space concerns but at around $740...no thanks.

So really, with a nice RAID 0 setup with the RE4s, in a real-world scenario could you justify the cost/space loss of an SSD? Thanks.
 
bildo123 said:
I'm in a bit of a pickle as I believe it's about time I replace my WD 74GB Raptor (yea, ancient). It's currently running as my OS disk while I have my Steam/Games, schoolwork, etc. on a secondary no frills 320GB HDD. The problem is that I'm having a bit of trouble as to what route to go. I was thinking of a RAID 0 setup with two WD RE4 1TB HDDs and have the 320 as a backup for critical stuff. Is there any inherit benefit to having a dedicated OS drive or is throwing my OS and games on the RAID fine as is?

My second thought was getting a Crucial M4 256GB SSD...but that is about $370, $160 more than the RAID and 1/4 of the space...quite a sacrifice. In addition, just checking my Steam/game folder and tacking on the OS I'm almost certain I'd fill that SSD in no time. Also, there's plenty of games coming out that'll even push that limit further. The M4 512GB would be much better for my space concerns but at around $740...no thanks.

So really, with a nice RAID 0 setup with the RE4s, in a real-world scenario could you justify the cost/space loss of an SSD? Thanks.
Click to expand...

Yes, 10x over I could justify it.
Use a SSD enabled system for more than a day and you`ll be hooked.

Get the 256gb put your OS on there and the games you play most / benefit from it, the rest stick on a WD Black, or if you want to keep the Raptor-type get the onsale Velociraptor for 160$ (in On Sale Area).
 
If you can't get a drive to fit everything onto (if the 256GB one isn't big enough), you might be better getting a smaller one, and putting the cash towards a replacement (mechanical, not SSD) for the 320GB.

The number of games that have a massive benefit from SSDs are not super huge, sure WoW it makes a big difference, for example, but where the "level" or "map" is loaded once, then played on, they (SSDs) make less difference. Depending on the game, you could argue there is no benefit at all. But for OS snappiness, you cannot even compare the 2, it is just unfair :)
 
So what it looks like is I should probably shoot for say, a 64GB SSD for OS/Temp File stuff and get maybe a single large HDD for games/storage?

In regards to Todd I probably could really clean up some games I have installed but have no interest in playing anytime soon/ever again...but it would suck when I hit the point where I want X,Y, and Z but can't fit it all.
 
64GB is too small, 128GB is the way. You don't want to fill an SSD completely.
 
Aesma said:
64GB is too small, 128GB is the way. You don't want to fill an SSD completely.
Click to expand...

I agree. If you have a lot of apps and games which it sounds like the 128 is the way to go.
Use remainder $ to buy a new fast mechanical drive(s). WD Black, VelociRaptor, HD103SJ are good choices IMHO.
 
bildo123 said:
So what it looks like is I should probably shoot for say, a 64GB SSD for OS/Temp File stuff and get maybe a single large HDD for games/storage?

In regards to Todd I probably could really clean up some games I have installed but have no interest in playing anytime soon/ever again...but it would suck when I hit the point where I want X,Y, and Z but can't fit it all.
Click to expand...

If it's a 64 or nothing then the 64 is still the way to go - but you are going to end up spending a bunch of time "managing" what files on are on the drive, obsessively clearing out temp spaces, etc. It will get to be old.

120-160Gb is the smallest SSD I would get for a main OS drive.
 
I would say get a 128GB SSD, and a 7200RPM Hitachi 3TB. Create a symbolic link in your \Program Files directory such as HDD and put what you want to go on the HDD there, this makes management of your filesystem wasier, and to the computer everything looks like it is on the c drive. More info can be found here.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1482722
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top