HDD setup assistance

[cybermaniac]

hey guys, i'm thinking of building a new rig as soon as the 45nm non-extreme quads come out, and i had some ideas on an HDD setup.....

just wondering if you guys agree with my choices (if you don't plz state why).

1. Programs + Windows Drive - 250-300gb

2. 250-300gb RAID 1 of above drive (for redundancy)

3. Movies + Games Drive - 500gb RAID 0

4. 500gb RAID 0 with above drive

5. 500gb RAID 1 of #3

6. 500gb RAID 1 of #4

the drives will most likely be seagates, most likely the 500gb 16mb cache ST3500630AS, or for a coupla quid more, just get the ST3500320AS 500gb 32mb cache version.

 

[FragTek]

Looks like a pretty damn good setup to me man. I like that you are mirroring all of your drives for safety. As for the drives I would go with the new 32mb versions, the more cache the better!

 

[cybermaniac]

just looking at pricing from ebuyer:

4x Seagate ST3500320AS 500GB 7200rpm *32MB Cache*: £69.89 x 4 = £279.56

1x Seagate ST3500630AS 500GB 16MB Cache 7200RPM (i've already got one): £65.79

sound about right? or can sum1 find cheaper? (scan was only a coupla quid less)

 

[FarFarAway]

Why not use a RAID 5 array with a hardware RAID card?

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/raid/levels/singleLevel5-c.html

 

[cybermaniac]

mainly because i need 2 seperate sections for 2 diff things.

obv the main system, then a seperate one for movies + games (i just hate partitions), and atm i have a seperate drive for backups, but i can prob get an external 500gb firewire drive for that

also, raid 5 is alot slower than raid 1 - even WITH a hardware controller

 

[FarFarAway]

RAID 0 + 1 for each drive sector then?

 

[cybermaniac]

aye.

basically theres a raid 1 system on the system drive and raid 1 on the raid 0 setup.

 

[FarFarAway]

aye.

basically theres a raid 1 system on the system drive and raid 1 on the raid 0 setup.

Ye in the absence of RAID 5, that's the best config

 

[cybermaniac]

would you guys recommend 2x 10,000rpm drives for main system though?

edit:

scratch that comment.........seems that the perpendicular seagates offer near type of performance (especially in RAID 0)

 

[Rastalovich]

With the exception of the pagefile, there will be alot of accessing of little files for the system drive. Speed over short distances rather than long. Those 32m drives are a steal, can`t quite recall why I never got 2 of those..

What is the hardware driving the raid(s) ?

 

[cybermaniac]

atm hardware wise i'm unsure - it's all dependant on my new rig.......

most likely whatever comes on the Abit IP-35 Pro mobo, unless you can recommend summat else.

would you recommend just getting a 36gb raptor 10k for windows and program files?

 

[Rastalovich]

On a system where u have ur OS installed away from games etc, Raptors will be an absolute waste in expense.

Dunno what the IP35 raid stuff is like, I`d be interested in ur results.

Have to bare in mind I`m anti-raid

 

[cybermaniac]

so you would say OS + games on a single raptor?

 

[Rastalovich]

If ur asking me personally, I`d always keep my OS on a different drive to games. Small footprint to, 80g drives are priceless.

 

[cybermaniac]

atm i've got my OS, program files and personal files (not usenet downloads) on one drive

my games, movies and usenet downloads on a seperate drive

and backup on yet another drive

basically I just want redudancy over backup for the current moment - my personal files are about 100gb in size, and can be backed up onto an external (if virus gets on em the raid array will just copy them over neways - but this way i can be sure that the files are backed up in a redudant array so if a drive fails i will still have 1 out of 2 functioning drives)

 

[cybermaniac]

is this controller card any good?

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=225506

basically get 2 of them, and whack the HDDs on that...

edit:

scan said probably it won't work, but they are checking for summat that will