Which Would You Prefer and Why...???

[Seufari]

So here I am trying to decide between the following:

Option 1: RAID 0 74gb 0FCL0 Raptors
Option 2: 150gb Raptor

Assume that the cost the same and these are my only two options.

So please tell me which you would prefer and why...

 

[Slartibartfast]

A RAID 0 is going to give you more complications, draw more power (not much, but still) and be more likely to fail.

 

[sprocket]

Not enough information.

Basically, how adventurous are you?
Much like watercooling, RAID has benefits which must be balanced aginst the added complexity and risk.
IMO (and RAID is an extremely touchy subject around here...) RAID0 is definitely faster and more responsive but also crankier to setup and of course, more prone to catastrophic failure.
Really, only you can decide if it's worth it.

If you don't already have the drives to play with then it's gonna be tough to experiment and decide.
Personally, I bagged my Raptor array and just went for the Gigabyte i-RAM.
Much faster, easier to install and best of all, dead silent.
Tiny (only 4GB max), and stupidly expensive-yes.

Fun?
Oh, baby!.

 

[po134]

I suggest you get the 150GB because of the high possibility of failures 2 disks represent.

Th best one would be raid-5, but obviously you don' have the money/mobo/needs to do this

 

[general]

RAID-0 is faster for moving around large files, but it eats up CPU cycles (something that those who talk about it being faster conveniently forget). It also increases your chance of losing all data on those discs by 3-4 times. The difference in performance is not something that you'll really notice, so don't bother with RAID-0. Most people who use it only have it for something that they feel looks cool in a website sig.

 

[sprocket]

I suggest you get the 150GB because of the high possibility of failures 2 disks represent.

A "high possibility" of failure with two new drives?
The probablity of failure with one new drive is miniscule, with two it would be miniscule x 2.
Not that much of a risk, IMO.

 

[po134]

sprocket> "highER" THEN
By failure I don' necessarly mean your hd crash. You have the raid configuration, your mobo, etc that could cause you lots of problems.
without your raid you can't find any data on your hd, so for me it would be a "failure", but maybe I wasn't clear enough.

I already killed 1 hdd, and 2 of my friends killed one each too. I must say my hds are 24/24 in activity with multiple reading/writing at the same time. (Azureus is crap at doing so, but I'm stick with it 'til the end of august)

general> About the cpu cycles, now with multi-core, you can easily tell your game to run on your second core, so it wouldn't make any significant difference on your overall experience. raid-0 isn't that much of a cpu-eater especially since we have our real fast cpu that no games use @100% even today.

HDD is like memory in wich it doesn't increase your FPS, but offer you a better overall performance on your system. The time to open something/load a map on bf2/ec will be decreased. Is it worth placing 2 HD in raid-0? I don' think so, but maybe I'll do it myself in a few years so ...

You could also consider the option of buying 1x150gb and buying another in 6month or a year ...

 

[Drudenhaus]

I'd go with the 150 raptor. 2x 74s would just be more heat and more power (not to mention it would cut drive expansion by 1 slot) and pretty much no performance gain over the single 150.

 

[sprocket]

sprocket> "highER" THEN

Sorry, I was just being pedantic...it's a personality flaw.

I found RAID0 to be fun and an interesting learning experience but ultimately not worth the effort.
That said, I would encourage anyone interested to at least try it out and form their own opinion.

 

[Seufari]

Right now I think I am leaning for the RAID setup... I already have the two drives and have the drivers slipstreamed into a bootable XP Pro CD... Plus then there is the whole learning experience and cool factor. I went with watercooling not because it was easier but because it was "cool." THe performance benefits while fairly significant, were not really needed I guess...

I realize I would be doubling the chances of data loss but...

 

[sprocket]

Have fun.

 

[DougLite]

Why consider 2 WD740GD FLC drives when you can get WD740ADFD(s), which have the 16MB buffer and higher density like the WD1500ADFD? Do you already have the 74GB FLC units? If so, I'd sell the 74s and get a 150. Should about break even money wise, get better performance as well as more reliability, a simpler system, and better environmental factors.

One 150GB Raptor is going to outperform the 8MB _GD Raptors, regardless of how many of them you have in RAID-0.

 

[piako]

Most people who use it only have it for something that they feel looks cool in a website sig.

ohohhohh raid 0 is evil


ohohhohh


how dare you even think of using it!

please