Which HDD?

T

The Overseer

n00b
Joined
Oct 16, 2008
Messages
8
I'm building a new PC, mostly for CAD. I've decided what components I'm going to get, with the exception of a harddrive. I'm leaning towards Samsung Spinpoint since they're a good price. But I'm not sure what size to get. I can't decide between getting a 1 TB drive (7200 rpm, 32 MB cache) or two 500 GB (7200 rpm, 16 MB cache) drives and setting up a RAID 0 array. In neither case I will have a backup, which is kinda risky since I plan to do a lot of schoolwork. However, I've never had a disk crash on me in over 10 years of computer usage. Getting two 500 GB drives is the same price as getting a 1 TB drive, but they have a lower cache. Are two 500 GB drives in an array faster than a (faster than a single drive) 1 TB drive? If it makes no difference what I get for speed, should I instead get two 500 GB drives and keep them separate, using one as a backup? Some people have told me I should get a large drive for files and a smaller, fast drive for operating systems and system files.
 
You'll learn the hard way when one of those hard drives crash or looses sync the week a final project is due, one you've been working on for 6+weeks or even all semester..
 
I totally agree with you on this one. Use 2 drives with daily backups. Cad work is nothing to play around with and loose.
 
You're probably right. But the reason I haven't decided for twin 500 GB drives is the smaller cache. Does it really matter?
 
Go for the RAID 0, but make sure you have a drive available for backups. Could you do something like 2x250GB and 1x500GB for backups?
 
That's a good idea, I'll get twin 500 GB drives, set up a RAID 0 array, then get a smaller 250 GB or something drive for backup of my CAD files (really the only thing I need to backup). Is software striping good or do I have to get a card?
 
The Overseer said:
That's a good idea, I'll get twin 500 GB drives, set up a RAID 0 array, then get a smaller 250 GB or something drive for backup of my CAD files (really the only thing I need to backup). Is software striping good or do I have to get a card?
Click to expand...

Which motherboard are you using? If it has an Intel ICH9 or ICH10 controller, you should be ok speed-wise. Keep in mind that two 500GB drives in RAID0 will give you 1TB of space, striped. I'd go for smaller drives, RAID0 those, and a single larger drive for backups.
 
I'm getting an Asus P5Q PRO P45 S-775 ATX. Probably not the best motherboard, but way better than the one I was going to get originally. According to the website I'm buying it from, it supports RAID 0.

I might just give up the RAID array, since I don't want to spend that much and only need to backup CAD files. So I might just as well get two drives, one for daily usage and the other as a CAD backup (250 GB should be enough for the backup).

I mean, is the performance gain that significant in RAID 0 arrays?
 
I'd suggest a Raptor for your primary drive, maybe one of the older 150gb ones to keep costs reasonable. And I wouldn't mess with RAID 0 in this application, CAD files typically aren't that big. You'd get more benefit from lower access time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top