quote DeltaEpsilon
I really do like the idea of having two huge HDs in RAID, though. You said that the 2x250gb config yields 500 gb storage; I thought that RAID0 allows for the space of one HD to be used, so that both HDs have the same data, but the hardware "splits up" the access to the duplicate data so that the system performs 2x faster. ack!
RAID 0 is basically combining the speed and space of 2 harddrives into one.
RAID 1 is having at least 2 harddrives, and having all your data being copied to each drive.
Now, just because you combine 2 very fast harddrives into a RAID0, dosnt mean your going to get twice the speed as a single drive. It dosnt work quite like that.
Say you get 2X 10K RPM raptor drives, and say a single drive does about 150mb/s transfer rate (I dont know the exact numbers on that). If you combine 2 of them, in theory you will have 300mb/s transfer rate. you will actually get something around 270+/-. and just because you have 270mb/s transfer rate, dosnt mean that you will going at 270mb/s 100% of the time. The only time you will see a fast transfer rate is when you are:
1) loading large things like windows, or games
2) reading/writing VERY large files (GB's in size).
And most of the speed depends on your processor and ram.
The big fast raptor drives are great if you just want one, but I suggest just using 2 regular drives in a RAID setup to save money. If you have $500 to spend on harddrives, then go a head and get the big fast raptors.
quoteWhat do you think about using two 40gb 10000rpm Raptors in RAID0?
That will be great for installing XP, and saving your programs too. It will give you fast loading times for your operating system and programs. I do sugest you get a (single) 250gb SATA drive for all your documents and everything.
quoteSlayer, when you say that you essentially have three copies of everything, is your PC configured to automatically write everything that is stored on your RAID configuration to the other two HDs, or do you do it manually? I've never had experience with any more than one HD, so I'm not sure how your situation works.
I just go through and copy everything over about once a month or so. I have to do it manually. altho I think there is an easy way you can get a program that will copy X folder(s) onto another harddrive for you automatically.
My
2X 160gb WD caviar (regular drives) give me an average of 110mb/s transfer rate. its a combined space of 320, but once its formated out, I only have 298gb left.
This is what I sugest:
2X 40gb WD raptors, or another 10K drive, with 16mb cache, and SATA 3.0gb (giga bits). this will give you about 70gb of space (formated) to install your operating system(s), programs, and games. I have a 40gb partition dedicated to windows xp, and my programs and I only have 11gb used.
250GB+/- SATA drive. a 7200RPM would work fine, with 8 or 16mb cache. You can use this to store everything else; your music, pictures, videos, maybe another operating system (linux?), and what ever else.
That above setup will be great.
Damn, I think thats the longest post ever written about harddrives...
Is there anything else besides harddrives and processor your wanting help finding?