Need advice, I have a few options here for new HD

1. 2 x 60 GB Maxtor ATA100 7200RPM 2MB buffer ~ $90 raid 0

2. 1 x 200 GB Maxtor ATA100 7200RPM 8MB buffer ~ $110

3. 1 x 200 GB Seagate SATA 7200 RPM 8mb buffer ~ $122


Does raid 0 better in real time performance?? I think I am going to get the 200 GB maxtor or the 200 GB Seage SATA..but not sure ....I've heard a few bad reviews about the 200 gb maxtor..it is the deal from Stables..and there is no negative review yet on the Seagate HD. I have at least 60 gigs of backup so I think I need at least 160-200 gb, if you have any better options please post them, thanks.

i just got the seagate drive from newegg a week or so ago, its great, i'd go with that

raid-0 with 7200rpm drives kill a single 7200rpm drive. No doubt about it. If you need more storage space then go for the larger hdd. If you want performance, then go for the raid-0 setup. For ultimate performance get a raptor.

1x7200rpm < 2x7200rpm < 1x 36gb raptor < 1 x 74gb raptor

raid-0 with raptors is a waste of money. No real-world performance increase... i know, cause ive had 2x 36raptors and then bought a 1x 74gb raptor and noticed an improvement.

Good luck.

Vio 1 said it!

What ever you decide I would go with Seagate(or western digital). I have had nothing but bad experiances with Maxtor, and I WAS a big supporter of theirs.
2 dead, both 1.5 -2 years old in 2 different comps. I never will buy maxtor again. (They wernt even bought at the same store)

Vio1 said:

raid-0 with 7200rpm drives kill a single 7200rpm drive. No doubt about it. If you need more storage space then go for the larger hdd. If you want performance, then go for the raid-0 setup. For ultimate performance get a raptor.

1x7200rpm < 2x7200rpm < 1x 36gb raptor < 1 x 74gb raptor

raid-0 with raptors is a waste of money. No real-world performance increase... i know, cause ive had 2x 36raptors and then bought a 1x 74gb raptor and noticed an improvement.

Good luck.

Click to expand...

You sure about that? My 2xWD 200GBs in Raid0 outperform my 74Gb raptor in sustained read tests ... 120Mb/s vs 70ish Mb/s ... Raptor wins hands down in access times however.

As an OS Drive (i.e. frequent access) I'd recommend a raptor, but for storage where you're throwing large amounts of data about I'd go Raid0. If you can't do both, then Raid0 as it's file transfer speeds more than make up for the slightly higher access time vs a single drive.

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The 200gb seagate sounds like the better idea to me

This is my first time visiting this site and i am finding it to be very helpful.I am self tought in the computer world and only have the basic knowlege,but once ur talking about inside the tower im a total newb.I have a Maxtor ultra DMA hardrive and the SMART status is bad.I just purchased a Maxtor Serial ATA Diamondmax plus not knowing that both drives are used by 2 difrent controlers.Luckily i have 2 open SATA ports and im wondering what cables i need to connect and install this HD.If anyone can help it will be greatly appreciated.Thnx

dont forget that larger drives can be much faster than smaller drives. For example, a 200 gig hard drive can be 1 and a half times faster than a 60 gig drive as far as read/write speeds are concerned. Add in the 8 mb cache of the larger drives and the better seek time of the seagate, not to mention the fact you get almost twice the space, and I think its a no brainer.

If further down the road you felt the need for for even more speed you could always pick up another 200 gigger and throw together a raid array which would be much faster than the 2x60 one could ever hope to be.