Which disk configuration to upgrade to?

[JC634]

I am upgrading a pair of Hitachi 80 GB drives (Raid 0, SATA 1) to obtain more drive space. I currently have a WD1600YS (160GB) drive that I use for mp3's, my CD collection, general data and backup. I just purchased a pair of Seagate 7200.10 320 GB drives from the nice Fry's deal @ 59 bucks each. So, it is now time to upgrade, but which HD configuration should I use?

Option 1: Put the Seagate drives in a Raid 0 configuration, and continue to use the WD as a data back-up drive.

Option 2: Make 1 of the Seagates a boot drive and use the WD and the 2nd Seagate as additional storage/back-up

Option 3: Make the WD a boot drive and use 1 Seagate as a program/data drive and the 2nd Seagate as a back-up drive?

Option 4: Tell me your configuration preferance.

The 3 HD's use 16MB buffers and are SATA II, of course. Is the Seagate a faster drive or the WD? Raid 0 is *faster* for some operations, but has the inherent reliabiltiy tradeoff by using 2 physical disks. I like the WOW factor of Raid 0, but does it really matter that much?

Help me decide!

 

[GeorgeHR]

Your new drives are perhaps faster than your old RAID.

I don't believe in RAID for a home computer.

I just happened to be working on my computer today and I timed my hard drives.

IDEs were 49Mb/s
older SATAs were 61Mb/s
new SATAs were 71Mb/s
external USB with a SATA was 35Mb/s

(about 4TB total)

I can record and watch HDTV TV on any of them.

Also checked on the power requirements: 110W no load, 175W max load, 340W power supply.

 

[JC634]

Yeah. I'm kinda leaning away from RAID, simply because I do not really think it is that usefull.

It now comes down to OS on the WD or OS on the Seagate. Must find some HD comparison site.

Anyone: there was a post within the last week or so that had a link to just a site. Anyone remember it? Link?

Thanks!