Price vs Performance

[JohnnyTheRed]

I have a WD800JB drive. I'm running out of space, so I'm curious as to what would be the best way to go about upgrading. Money is the main issue here. So, for the price, what would be my best option.

Should I get another WD800JB and set them up in RAID? (WD800JB = $74 + RAID controller = $55; Cost: $130) (My P4PE has onboard RAID, but off the top of my head I'm not sure who provides it, I think Promise. Is this a good/good enough controller? Or would a seperate add-on card be better?)

Or would it be better to get a WD360GD Raptro, and use that in addition to the WD800JB? Maybe use the Raptor for The OS partition, and page file. And use the WD800JB for storage? (Cost: $121)

Or maybe a combination of the two? Get another WD800JB as well as a Raptor. Set the WD800JB's up in RAID, and use them for storage. And use the Raptor for the OS, page file, and maybe even the programs. (Cost w/o a RAID controller: $195; Cost w/ RAID controller: $250)

If the third option looks good though, I'd prolly be better off just getting the WD740GD, huh? (Cost: $275)

- Thanks

 

[Xstatic]

Raid is nice but if it were me id get a nother big drive. Sure 10k is nice but the size is small unless u get 2 10k's and raid them and use the 80 for games and programs. But the 74 gig's soo exspensive but they are sweet.

 

[tom10167]

Unless you're super performance-oriented I'd just get a 250gig drive, look how fast you went through 80 gigs, and a 250gig drive is only like $220 or so. They're looking pretty damn sweet right now.

 

[Cornel]

I think you want to pay a visit to your local retailers (CompUSA, Bestbuy, OfficeMax...) They have HUGE MIRs on hard drives. I know a lot of people who are not confortable with MIRs, but if you don't mind, you should def go and check out those stores.
Example: this week, at my local BestBuy, the WD800JB is 50 bucks. A couple of weeks ago one of my friends got a Seagate Baracuda 120G, 8M for $60.

 

[JohnnyTheRed]

Yeah I noted the prices on the hard drives at Best Buy (I work there). But I forgot to reflect those in my post.

If I do end up setting up 2 hard drives for RAID, I hear it's more likely to have problems than a single hard drive. Is there a good enough reason, that I should keep a third drive for my more important files?

If I do decide to go the RAID route, where can I find information regarding the various RAID controllers out there? Such as, Is the RAID controller on the P4PE R/GBL/F/SATA a good one? What are the differences between all these different cards? For example, Promise's TX4000 and TX2000. They seem the same to me, except one is $20 more.

I may find that I won't need a whole helluva lot more space. If I get a Raptor, and install the OS, page file, and maybe my programs to that drive, will I notice an overall improvement to boot times and system speed? Because if it helps to speed up the overall feel of the system, I may just go with one of those.

- Thanks

 

[Xstatic]

Riad is nice, Ill say that, But it also can be a big pain. If one of the drives falls out then if your like me you get mad and sell it. Id go witha bigger 7200 rpm drive and forget about going raid. Unless you REALLY need the speed there is no need for it.

 

[Startech]

Riad is nice, Ill say that, But it also can be a big pain. If one of the drives falls out then if your like me you get mad and sell it. Id go witha bigger 7200 rpm drive and forget about going raid. Unless you REALLY need the speed there is no need for it.

Totally agreed. I gave up on IDE raid. Now I have two boxes with plain IDE drives and a special purpose box with a nice hardware SCSI Raid setup.

If price is a big factor, you want to look at what is on sale/rebate in the 80GB-120GB range.