HELP with IDE RAID

[Goyik]

I'm planning to configure an IDE RAID system, i've been reading the manual, but still i'm not sure what to do. My disk are: two (2) 20GB MAXTOR IDE 5400rpm, one (1) WD IDE 80 GB 7200rpm with 8MB buffer half partitioned.
I want to configure an RAID 0 system for performance, but i'm not sure how to setup the disks, it's my first RAID attempt.
My mobo has the basic 2 IDE's, and additionaly has an IDE3 for PATA RAID by promise PDC20579, i wil not bee using any SATA disk.
So, i plan to set up the 2 Maxtor 20GB disk in IDE3 RAID 0, and leave the WD 80 GB Master on IDE 1, but i'm not sure this can be done and i have several doubts:

1.- Is this posible to do?, can normal IDE disk work together combined with RAID disks?.
2.- Wich disk will be my boot disk IDE or RAID?, i wish to install windows on the 80 GB disk, and leave the RAID for page file and games installed, is this a good choice for better performance?
3.- Is there a better performance config i can do?
4.- Do you recomend NTFS, FAT32, or mixed, wich is better for performance?
5.- By the way, I usually wish to have 2 Windows XP PRO SP2 instaled, 1 only for gaming in order to get the better performance (no office instaled, no antivirus, no firewall and unnedded services turned off), and 1 for general usage (office, antivirus, firewall, lots of programs and services fully enabled), both instaled in the 80 gb disk 2 partitions.

well, i'll wait any comments and recomendations.

 

[MrControversial]

Originally posted by: Goyik

1.- Is this posible to do?, can normal IDE disk work together combined with RAID disks?.

There shouldn't be a problem with this at all. The only issue is if you have the power to support four HDDs. Your system will basically see three HDDs.

2.- Wich disk will be my boot disk IDE or RAID?, i wish to install windows on the 80 GB disk, and leave the RAID for page file and games installed, is this a good choice for better performance?

Your non-RAID HDD will be the boot partition because you have to set the RAID to boot in the BIOS. If you change your mind, just go to the BIOS and change the boot order to CDROM, SCSI (instead of IDE0), Floppy.

3.- Is there a better performance config i can do?

If you install the OS on the RAID0 partition, then you will notice an improvement in load-up time, but keep in mind that if one of the disks fail then all of your data is gone since RAID0 stripes data between the two disks.

4.- Do you recomend NTFS, FAT32, or mixed, wich is better for performance?

I wouldn't reccomend that you mix the file system types. Stick with one or the other, preferably NTFS for its file security features.

5.- By the way, I usually wish to have 2 Windows XP PRO SP2 instaled, 1 only for gaming in order to get the better performance (no office instaled, no antivirus, no firewall and unnedded services turned off), and 1 for general usage (office, antivirus, firewall, lots of programs and services fully enabled), both instaled in the 80 gb disk 2 partitions.

well, i'll wait any comments and recomendations.

Why do you want to install two operating systems? Having certain programs on different installations won't improve performance noticably. Having Office on the same partition as a game won't affect that game's performance as long as you don't have 10 programs running while playing games. Two different installations of Windows makes no sense, especially if you're looking for some kind of performance gain.

 

[Goyik]

OK, thank for your reply. And about 2 windows XP, i have noticed certain slowdowns, running games with a windows XP fully equiped, mostly with antivirus software, firewalls, and background services, i have read serveral tunning recomendations where the first point is always disable unnedded services, Index Service, Automatic Update, Desktop Sharing, Firewall, etc, etc, etc. I don't play through internet, so i dont need firewall, i dont use "strangers" diskettes, so i think i dont need antivirus. All this configuration extra work is in order to save system resources, for better performance because my PC IS NOT a Athlon FX with 2GB of RAM and a 6800 video card!!!!.
The same thing is aplicable to put the page file in a diferent partition, preferebly different disk & controler, is a "recomendation" for better performance, i have readed too, that for gaming FAT32 is a better option because is faster. I'm not sure, i just read a tip and try it, if it works is good to me.