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darkside1016
10-11-05, 01:04 PM
I was curious what drive setup would maximize my read bandwith for "application" load up times. I have come to a few choices, I currently have 2 80GB 7200rpm SATA150's, and a 40GB 7200rpm Ultra IDE :bang head . I want to spend another $200 "max" on drives to achieve the most bandwith I can with my current drives and buying more.

#1: 1x36GB Raptor (OS) , 2x80GB RAID0 SATA150 (Applications) , 40GB (Backup)

#2: 3 or 4 x 80GB RAID0 SATA150 (OS & Apps) , 40GB (Backup)

#3: 2x80GB RAID0 SATA150 (OS & non game apps) , 1x74GB Raptor (Games) , 40GB (Backup)

#4: Any other ideas?

Take note I would most likly use on-board RAID0 controller. If I had the cash I would buy a "good" 4x SATA150 controller and run RAID5 on PCI-E

Any help is appriciated.
darkside1016
10-12-05, 11:20 AM
Seems I would have to spend $300+ on a good raid controller to run 4xSATA150 RAID0...going to check around on e-bay.
ripperipper
10-12-05, 11:43 PM
#1 OS times would still be slow maybe slower then without a raid drive for loading extra drivers and what not. but applications would see a serious gain.

#2 would still have a slow os start time although it would be faster then a single drive. applications and games would see a pretty signifacant gain though which is a good plus. probably around the 120-130mb a sec for large file transfers.

#3 really doesnt do you alot of good i would consider #2 before this. The os really doesnt benefit from raid installations but applications would. by installing your applications on a seperat drive as your os you are allowing your system to read from your os drive to get info from it while loading applications off of a raid array drive.

Raid 5 was never intended as a fast drive it was built for redundancy. it is actually slower then two drives in raid 1.
darkside1016
10-14-05, 09:06 AM
Does anyone else have any opinions? I am questiong as to how the OS would be slow in #1 like ripper says, its a raptor after all, I doubt a few more drivers would slow it down.
icyicy
10-15-05, 05:01 PM
1x74GB Raptor for Game and app, 1 160GB NCQ for OS and other, 1 40GB or 80GB for backup.