- Nov 20, 2008
- 7
- 0
- 0
Hello everyone. I feel as if I should be able to answer my own question based on all the in depth information I have read on Anandtech, but I feel like just when I get to a point of resolution some new bit of information is released. I present my conundrum.
I am in the process of building a new computer for my home - personal use. I am planning on either a new Intel Core i7 980X CPU or to overclock the dickens out of a 920/930 when I get my hands on one or the other. I am putting this all in a Corsair 800D case, and will be running a dual loop watercooling setup on the new Gigabyte X58-UD7 motherboard. Corsair Dominator GT memory (as fast as I can go), and last but not least I plan on running two to three of the new nVidia cards in SLI when they become available. My dilemma is what to use as storage. I find myself torn between going with SSD or sticking with a mechanical hard drive.
My ultimate goal is make the system as quiet as I can which I realize is a big positive to a SSD, but my concerns with SSD are their long term performance. Sure, they seem fast as can be right out of the box, but are they worth it in the long term. My understanding is that they degrade over time. I am concerned that the reliability is compromised, and I wouldn't want to buy something that dies out quicker than a traditional drive especially considering I continue to use my old systems, or I give them away to friends/family when I upgrade. I should also mention that I was leaning towards running either three Raptor 300GB drives with an Intel X-25 E 64 GB on a Adaptec 5805Z controller in Raid 0 with MaxIQ Enabled for read caching via the Intel SSD; talking with a tech at Adaptec I was informed that they are working on adding write caching to MaxIQ in the future. If I run SSD's only then I would go with 3 identical SSD's in Raid 0 on the same card. I am not concerned with max capacity as I have a 27TB server running raid 6 in my home. I run Acronis with incremental backups to secure my data, and everything important is stored on the home server anyways. I just want all out speed.
My use for my home PC is split between a couple different things. I do play PC games when I have the time, but I also use my PC for Autocad and 3D building plan design, along with using Microsoft Office for work I bring home. I also use this PC for making HD home videos I pull off my camcorder. So my questions really boil down to the following. Based on my setup and use:
a) Is SSD (3 SSD's in Raid 0) worth the cost?
b) Should I stick with 3 Raptors and X-25 E with MaxIQ?
c) Is Raid 0 worth it? Any noticable benefits?
d) What are alternatives?
I appreciate any good advice any of you can give me. I must admit I am pretty lost when I comes to Hard Drive performance when the conversations turn to Reads, Writes, Sequential, IOPS and such. I understand most other things pretty well, but for some reason other than capacity, interface, and spindle speeds I get a headache with Hard Drives.
Thanks in advance.
I am in the process of building a new computer for my home - personal use. I am planning on either a new Intel Core i7 980X CPU or to overclock the dickens out of a 920/930 when I get my hands on one or the other. I am putting this all in a Corsair 800D case, and will be running a dual loop watercooling setup on the new Gigabyte X58-UD7 motherboard. Corsair Dominator GT memory (as fast as I can go), and last but not least I plan on running two to three of the new nVidia cards in SLI when they become available. My dilemma is what to use as storage. I find myself torn between going with SSD or sticking with a mechanical hard drive.
My ultimate goal is make the system as quiet as I can which I realize is a big positive to a SSD, but my concerns with SSD are their long term performance. Sure, they seem fast as can be right out of the box, but are they worth it in the long term. My understanding is that they degrade over time. I am concerned that the reliability is compromised, and I wouldn't want to buy something that dies out quicker than a traditional drive especially considering I continue to use my old systems, or I give them away to friends/family when I upgrade. I should also mention that I was leaning towards running either three Raptor 300GB drives with an Intel X-25 E 64 GB on a Adaptec 5805Z controller in Raid 0 with MaxIQ Enabled for read caching via the Intel SSD; talking with a tech at Adaptec I was informed that they are working on adding write caching to MaxIQ in the future. If I run SSD's only then I would go with 3 identical SSD's in Raid 0 on the same card. I am not concerned with max capacity as I have a 27TB server running raid 6 in my home. I run Acronis with incremental backups to secure my data, and everything important is stored on the home server anyways. I just want all out speed.
My use for my home PC is split between a couple different things. I do play PC games when I have the time, but I also use my PC for Autocad and 3D building plan design, along with using Microsoft Office for work I bring home. I also use this PC for making HD home videos I pull off my camcorder. So my questions really boil down to the following. Based on my setup and use:
a) Is SSD (3 SSD's in Raid 0) worth the cost?
b) Should I stick with 3 Raptors and X-25 E with MaxIQ?
c) Is Raid 0 worth it? Any noticable benefits?
d) What are alternatives?
I appreciate any good advice any of you can give me. I must admit I am pretty lost when I comes to Hard Drive performance when the conversations turn to Reads, Writes, Sequential, IOPS and such. I understand most other things pretty well, but for some reason other than capacity, interface, and spindle speeds I get a headache with Hard Drives.
Thanks in advance.