Which path shall I head down?

[makmak]

Hi... I was wondering if anyone could help suggest which path I should go down.... I am going to buy some new Hard drives and im confused as to which option I should take and how I should arrange the following to give me the best OS performance and also Gaming?

Large hard drive space is not much of an issue for me as i dont download much... but price IS a factor... also I have already 2 old Seagate 120gig Sata HD and but can also afford the following:

Option 1 (No partitioning)
1 x WD36 Raptor drives for C: OS
1 x WD74 Raptor drives for D: Games/Pagefile
2 x Seagate 120gb Sata in Raid 0 for E: Movies/Storage

Option 2 (Partitioning)
1 x Diamondmax 10 300gb 16mbcache sata OR Maxline III one, partitioned as follows:
- 40gb for C: OS
- 260gb for D: Games/Movies/Pagefile
2 x Seagate 120gig Sata in Raid 0 for E: Storage

Option 3 (Partitioning)
1 x WD74 Raptor drivers for
- 30gb C: OS
- 40gb E: Storage / Pagefile
2 x Seagate 120gig Sata in Raid 0 for D: Games / Movies
-Use the extra $$ for a Cooler Master CoolDrive 4 for the raptor

Option 4 (No Partitioning)
1 x WD36 Raptor drives C: OS / Pagefile
1 x Hitachi 7K80 80GB SATAII for D: Games
1 x Seagate 120gig for E: Movies
1 x Seagate 120gig for F: Storage / Images

Can anyone also suggest other options around the same pricings as these or a different arrangement of the choices above?

Thanks in advance !!!
makmak

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

I would go with option 4. RAID 0 with older drives for storage is a bad idea. It might not happen that a drive fail, but why increase your chances. But with option 4, I would go ahead and throw the pagefile on D:. So here is how i would do it:
1 x WD36 Raptor
C: [OS]

1 x Hitachi 7K80 80gb
D: [games]
E: [pagefile] {and temp, Photoshop temp, etc}

1 x Seagate 120
F: [movies]

1 X Seagate 120
G: [storage]

That's just me though, of course.
Tas.

 

[amol]

Never ever would I get a 36GB Raptor

If you're going to get a Raptor, get the 73.4GB

As for me, I want as much storage as I can get in as little physical drives as possible.

For example, take your option 4: that's about 350GB of space (BEFORE FORMATTING) in 4 physical hard drives.

I have 450GB (BEFORE FORMATTING) in 2 physical hard drives, 3 partitions

I'd rather brag to someone that I can hold a lot of games/movies/music than brag that I can load them a few seconds faster than a normal guy.

Also, I never buy a drive that's under 200GB of space.

That being said, I'd go for option #2. Though, I'm not a big fan of RAID0, even if you're using reliable Seagate drives. Those drives are old, too. If you're going to RAID them, I suggest constant backups, especially if you're putting important files on it.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Well, I would say the 36GB raptor as a OS drive, and that only. Then you don't have to worry about partitioning it, if 36gb is going to be enough for all of your boot drive stuff... And he wanted to know about performance, and he even said he wasn't too concerned about drive space. (Me personally, I'd go with as many 7200 8mb cache drives I could attach to the motherboard, and then get a RAID controller for some more. Actually, that is what I'm doing, but that is besides the point.)
Tas.

EDIT: And I am an advocate of having your boot drive seperate from everything else, so that you can perform Ghost backups and the like much easier. And it makes it that much easier when you have to reformat.

 

[Tiamat]

My setup is:

74 raptor for OS, games, programs. ($165)
400GB Seagate for movies,music back up on in external enclosure ($240 total)
Samsung 160GB for music. ($99)

I don't watch movies all the time, and the seagate is way too noisy, so its in an external enclosure shut off most of the time. However, I listen to music constantly, so the samsung 160GB is good enough for me now at relatively low noise.

Hope that helps!

 

[Acanthus]

Id do 3x74GB raptors and run Raid5, but thats just me.

 

[makmak]

thanks guys for the reply... like tasburrfoot78362 i am also an advocate of having my boot drive separate from everything else... as i constantly reimage or reformat c:

So you reckon option4 is good? How about Amol's suggestion on option2?
I thought I saw an anantech review that mentioned the Diamondmax10 300gb perfermance is better than the raptors.... *shrug*

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: makmak
thanks guys for the reply... like tasburrfoot78362 i am also an advocate of having my boot drive separate from everything else... as i constantly reimage or reformat c:

So you reckon option4 is good? How about Amol's suggestion on option2?
I thought I saw an anantech review that mentioned the Diamondmax10 300gb perfermance is better than the raptors.... *shrug*

Well, I only suggest having the Raptor for boot, that way you can isolate it, if 36gb will work for you. I have a 120gb Western Digital plugged into the motherboard, and that is the boot partition only. Everything else is in RAID 5, 1, or 0. Or JBOD. Getting the DiamondMax would work for storing everything else, but then you still have the 2 120's. So you are killing a lot of space that you might not really need. If you wanted to go that route, I'd sell the 120's, and then go with the new drives for the setup.
Tas.

 

[makmak]

Originally posted by: Amol
Never ever would I get a 36GB Raptor

If you're going to get a Raptor, get the 73.4GB

Hey why would this be? 36gb raptor not worth the hassle??

 

[imported_rod]

Well, if you dont care about the cost, I would slightly modify option 1

Option 1 (No partitioning)
1 x WD36 Raptor drives for C: OS
1 x WD74 Raptor drives for D: Games/Pagefile
2 x Seagate 120gb Sata in Raid 0 for E: Movies/Storage

I would get:
1 x WD36 Raptor drives for C: OS
1 x WD74 Raptor drives for D: Games
1 x WD Caviar 250GB SATA HDD for E: Storage/Movies/Music

No point risking all of your E: drive on a RAID 0.


RoD

 

[airfoil]

If you're yet to buy these drives, then stay away from the 36gb Raptor and the 80/120gb drives. If you HAVE to own a Raptor, get the 74gb and put the OS & pagefile on it.

Just one Seagate 250gb drive will give you more capacity than those two 120s in RAID0. If RAID is what you're after, then buy 2 Seagate 250gb drives (or greater). You can put a pagefile on this drive/array as well.

When buying hard drives, its always best to buy the biggest one you can afford. This will also allow you to minimize the number of drives in a rig, and allow room for future expansion.

 

[theMan]

make sure you get a good PSU for all those drives. i recommend option 4.