Best performance for gaming. Raptors? no?

[yo4444]

O.K. Building a gaming system for a FRIEND AND HAVE HEARD CONTRADICTORY THINGS ABOUT WHAT WOULD GIVE BEST PERFORMANCE (sorry caps lock and laziness). I've been told that 2 separate Hd's not in raid would actually give better performance during the game, not loading maps. I know that raid 0 would give much faster map loading size.
Here are my options...
Option #1
1 36 gig raptor holding OS and system $107 shipped
1 160 gig WD about 100 shipped
total $207 shipped

option #2
2X 36 gig raptors in raid 0.. $214 shipped
1 120 gig seagate $90 shipped
$304 shipped total

Option #3
2X 74 gig raptors($174 each) in raid 0..
$348 shipped total

Whats the concensus?

[meionm]

well two raptors in raid 0 won't be any faster than a single raptor, I would go with option 1 is the chipest or you could go one raptor 74gb + 160gb hd ($280), raptors don't gain anything in raid

[fabulouscoops]

I use 2 x 120 GB WD caviar in RAID 0 and I am always the first to load a new Far Cry map online. I don't know what others are using but there must be some raptors out there.
Total cost $175

[ajrettke]

I'm with meionm, get a 74gb raptor and another large IDE drive for media files like mp3's, movies, documents, etc....crap that doesn't need to load quick.

raptors in RAID gain very little because raid hurts seek times which is a huge part of why raptors are awesome. Raid increases bandwidth but it's not double and in most games shows little benefit, and if one drive dies, you lose everything.

Also I'm not sure what your friend needs for storage space, but for me 74gb would be enough...but if he knows he's gonna need the extra storage soon then get an IDE for space, but if he thinks it'll be a year or so to fill up 74gb then hold off on the purchase of the second drive since speed and storage capacity are only gonna increase while prices decrease.

[yo4444]

Thanks for the replies!!!!
It looks like a large stoage and either a 36 or 74 raptor would be good.
Any input as to which 7200 large capacity sata drives seem to have the best performance in real time usage?

[deception``]

Thanks for the replies!!!!
It looks like a large stoage and either a 36 or 74 raptor would be good.
Any input as to which 7200 large capacity sata drives seem to have the best performance in real time usage?

Keep in mind that buying such expensive hard drives as Raptors is going to put a dent in the rest of your budget for that killer system I had put together for you. Also, you should be warned that, while a Raptor is currently the fastest hard drive, the difference between one and a good Raid 0 combination is actually quite marginal besides the enhanced Windows loading times. The point is that is simply is not worth it. And before some of you question whether I have tried Raptors: The answer is yes. I have used both the Rev 1 & 2 (36.7 and 74GB, respectively) in a number of single drive and raid arrays, and they were nothing special.

deception``

[Project86]

I too was wondering pretty much the same thing..

Deception, are you saying that I can just add a matching 60gb Maxtor Diamondmax9+ and run RAID0, and almost match the speed of a raptor in real world performance? I ask cuz I find these drives out there for $40 NIB on various forums, and I'd much rather do that and double my capacity for cheap than spend over twice the amount for a negligable performance gain.

[fabulouscoops]

Read post #3 again. I was running a 36GB raptor (I still have it on my non gaming machine) and my new build has 2 x 120GB 7200 rpm drives in RAID 0. I saw little or no difference in speed and have over six times the capacity.