Hard drive configurations for my HTPC

[cpals]

Okay, I'm trying to figure out the best way to configure my hard drives for my htpc. It is running SageTV server and streaming to two clients over the network, so the hard drive being used for recordings would probably be a little higher than normal.

Hard Drives:
74GB Raptor 10,000 SATA - being delivered Friday
160GB 7,200 SATA - currently main OS drive
250GB 7,200 SATA - file/music storage (cannot change)

So should I keep everything the same and use the Raptor for tv recording pause/play features, etc since it has the fast speed and it will help seek times for sending files over the network or use that as my main drive?

The computer is pretty much just used to run the Sage server and occasional web browsing. Nothing on the main OS would be very hard drive intensive.

I could use the Raptor as the recordings drive and then the extra space on the 160 for overflow space.

What to do....

 

[bookman]

More than speed, IMHO the biggest factor for HTPC hard drives are silence - the last thing you want while watching TV is annoying hard drive sound coming from your HTPC.

 

[airfoil]

A Raptor is overkill for an HTPC, server or no server. Even 5400rpm drives will serve the purpose with some juice left to spare.

Now that you've bought it, use it for the OS & pagefile, clean up the 160gb and use it to store recorded shows. Nothing changes on the 250gb.

I would return the drive and buy another 250gb drive instead - HTPCs and Servers for a couple of clients should be about capacity - speed dont matter.

 

[cpals]

Okay, going to return and get a 300 GB drive... so it'll be like this now:

160GB - Main Hard Drive
300GB - Divx Movies Storage/HTPC Storage
2x250GB - Files/Music/Backup (Going to buy one more and Raid 1 them)

I think that's all the hard drives I can fit.

What ya think?

Only problem is, I don't think I have room for a pci Raid card... so I might have to forego the Raid setup.

 

[airfoil]

I'd return the Raptor and buy another 250gb drive now for the RAID array (doesn't your mobo have it onboard?) - this is if having RAID matters. You can partition the 160 GB to create a 20gb OS/pagefile partition, and store shows on the remaining ~140gb, and on the array as well.

 

[ND40oz]

Originally posted by: cpals
Okay, going to return and get a 300 GB drive... so it'll be like this now:

160GB - Main Hard Drive
300GB - Divx Movies Storage/HTPC Storage
2x250GB - Files/Music/Backup (Going to buy one more and Raid 1 them)

I think that's all the hard drives I can fit.

What ya think?

Only problem is, I don't think I have room for a pci Raid card... so I might have to forego the Raid setup.

Well, if you have room for the PCI Raid card, I say ditch the 300 gig and get 3 250 GB drives. Then Raid 5 them and you have 500 gigs of storage.