• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

Looking, good, cheap OS drive :(

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.
Now, can Vista fit on a 30gb drive or no?

Why blue and not black? The only thing on the OS Drive will be the OS. Programs, etc will be on the other drive, so I thought black would be faster for it.
 
Vista can survive on 30GB.
However, that is not a drive I recommend you go with.
Spend the extra $20, and get http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820609392, it has a much better controller.
I think the confusion comes from the term "data drive", which for many, means a data storage drive as opposed to a drive where programs are installed. Most consider OS drive as the one that has programs also, and then people use a separate data drive.
In any case, yes, the Black is faster and worth the cost if you're going to install programs onto it.
 
Western digital has you covered every which way.

Absolute top performance: Velociraptor 300gb $200+

Best bang for the buck, fastest drive next to vraptor: WD 640 Black Edition (short stroke it by only formatting a 100-200gb partition, so the whole os + data sits on the fastest outside part of the drive). $75

Then for storage, go for the 1TB green drives for $95.

Personally I would stripe 2 640 black's instead of a 300gb velociraptor. For a total of 150, with say a 300gb short stroke, it's performance is unmatched!

Anyway a single 640 black should do what you are looking for perfectly. Again I suggest only putting 1 100-200gb partition on it, called short stroking. This way you are always on the fastest part of the drive, and the heads dont need to move that much for great access times. My avg writes are 110mb/sec and reads are 120mb/sec with the partition 150.
PS you can use the rest of the drive for linux or other windows installs, win7 beta, whatever; just dont have the partition being used in windows.
 
Last edited:
What's the point of a 640gb drive if you only use 100-200gb then o_O I'm confused about that. Also, what does striping mean?

And Data = Programs, at least to me. So, Vista would be able to survive on a 30gb SSD just fine?

Or should I just skip the SSD for now and go with two 640gb in a RAID 0 or 1 array? I've got about 400gb of storage that I need on an external drive, which I would like to free up for backups so yea. And I'm still confused on the 100-200gb partition on a 640gb drive o_O. Also, how would those two fare with my current seagate 750gb?
 
If you're looking to seperate your OS and programs on two drives for a performance gain, don't bother, there is none. Get one drive to fit everything.
 
tuskenraider said:
If you're looking to seperate your OS and programs on two drives for a performance gain, don't bother, there is none.
Click to expand...
Finally, someone said it!!!!


That and I wouldnt bother with any SSD you listed. OCZ vertex is one of the best out there.
 
Well, the 100-200gb partitions on the 640gb WD Black's, why is that? I would use the whole drive up why is it faster to only have 100-200gb partition on it?
 
Bryce said:
Well, the 100-200gb partitions on the 640gb WD Black's, why is that? I would use the whole drive up why is it faster to only have 100-200gb partition on it?
Click to expand...

I think the poster means that you have a 100-200gb partition for your os and programs and the rest for storage. You still use all the drive, you just make sure that the os and programs are in the fastest part of it.
 
I don't want it if only the first 200gb is the fastest. Does that mean if I get two of them and RAID 0/1 them then that gives 200-400gb as the fastest partition? And how does a RAID do with 2 same drives and 1 different drive?
 
if you short stroke the drive you will only use the first 100-200G the rest will be.... wasted and not another partition. that way the drive heads barley move and on the outside of the patters where it is faster.
 
Is it still faster if I don't short stroke it and use all of the drive in a RAID array? Just not as fast as if I short stroke it. But, why would anyone want to use only 200gb of a 640gb drive -_-
 
Bryce said:
Is it still faster if I don't short stroke it and use all of the drive in a RAID array? Just not as fast as if I short stroke it. But, why would anyone want to use only 200gb of a 640gb drive -_-
Click to expand...
Because none of the current/fastest drives come in small sizes beyond VelociRaptors and SSD's. You can have 8-9/10ths the performance of a VRaptor by short-stroking a large drive for less than half the cost. If you don't short-stroke it, I highly doubt you'd be able to tell the difference anyway, but it helps nonetheless.
 
i would get a SSD, nothing like booting into windows xp in about 30secs...
 
I use Vista no XP. So, I'm still kinda iffy on it fitting fine. Just the OS/Drivers on it though. Programs, etc are on another drive.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Max0r
Hard Drive Product Lines & Reliability Factors in 2022
Replies
12
Views
1K
ihrsetrdr
ihrsetrdr
I
MATX/ITX Case for Additional Rendering Performance
Replies
2
Views
789
DaveB
DaveB
A
Which Raid Controller Is Best??? LSI MegaRAID MR SAS 9260-8i Vs. Dell PERC H310
Replies
6
Views
5K
Aaylianna
A
C
New Build. Need Ram.
2
Replies
34
Views
2K
trents
trents
Brando
Looking for good quality 92mm 3000-ish rpm pwm fan
2
Replies
32
Views
2K
Brando
Brando
Back