RAID 0 for Performance on Budget

[morino]

I want to RAID 0 two drives for better performance (not too worry about the data) on a budget of less than $140.

I'm looking for 2 hard drives with the following requirement:

- SATA interface
- 80GB or more (I'm willing to trade space for speed)
- Price range $50-70 (I don't mind rebates)
- Preffered 16mb Cache

What is the recommended drives?

What is the fastest SATA drive (non WD Raptor)?

People seem to prefer the Seagate 7200.10 320GB, but they cost around $95...

Anyone care to help

 

[bobsmith1492]

Drives around 250GB seem to be the best deal now (i.e. you can only save 5-10 bucks by going down to a 160 or 80 GB drive).

For example, the cheapest 160GB drive is $53: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144415

While this 250GB drive is $65: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144309

Although, if you want 16MB cache, you could go for this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144701

Two of those would cost you $150, so just about at your budget and you would lose a lot going for anything less. Also, I'd check around; I hear RAID0 is pretty much a waste, so I'd look for a second opinion on that.

 

[SuperFreaky]

One 74GB Raptor will feel more responsive than a Raid-0 array... the array might win in large file transfers, but its more about random access times and the ability to handle multiple file requests....

 

[ROcHE]

RAID0 is pretty much useless.

 

[tomt4535]

Originally posted by: ROcHE
RAID0 is pretty much useless.

Yeah, totally worthless. the speed diffrence between 2 raid 0 drives is minimal. Spend your money elsewhere and get a raptor. They are plenty fast without raid. Spend some extra cash and get the 150gb.

 

[Skeeedunt]

Originally posted by: morino
People seem to prefer the Seagate 7200.10 320GB, but they cost around $95...

Then only buy one. Problem solved!