New HDD decision time

[Lord Kordir]

Ok guys I know there are plenty of this type of thread but I thought you were the best people to ask.

I'm after a new RAID 0 setup. Trying to decide between

Seagate Barracuda Serial ATA V 160GB x 2

or

Western Digital Raptor 36.7GB Serial ATA x 2

I know there is a vast difference in specification but I'm torn between wanting the speed that the Raptor can offer but needing the space of a Barracuda. It's for an uber gaming rig btw.

[Knoxville]

for a gaming rig i'd go for the speed over capacity tbh

[marc_ellis]

If you gonna be running in raid 0 make sure you have a back up drive. Raid 0 is not as stable as raid 1 or a single hard drive.

[payniel]

if you have sufficient ram then you really dont need the ul;tra fast harddrives.

[Dr. X]

The raptors are going to be faster, but not that significantly.

Given the heat, noise and low capacity I'd spend my money on the Seagates.

[IBM]

I think that you answered the question yourself....it's for an 'uber gaming rig' so therefore go for the Raptors...I'm just about to put in a purchase for 2 x 74.2GB Raptors for a RAID 0 and I think the machine I'm building comes under your category...

I've been slated for forking out money when the cost to performance ratio is pretty crap, but when you're building the ultimate, what are you gonna do?

[floppybootstomp]

Originally posted by marc_ellis
If you gonna be running in raid 0 make sure you have a back up drive. Raid 0 is not as stable as raid 1 or a single hard drive.

All my RAID 0 setups have been stable, and generally faster than a single disk. Depends on the controller, to a degree, but I've never had a problem with RAID 0 stability, have used Seagate Barracudas and IBM drives.

A backup disc is a good idea though, must admit. And RAID 1 is just a backup anyway.

Lord Kordir:

Why not go for two x 74Gb Raptor drives?

Bit pricey though, you won't get much change out of four hundred quid for a pair of those.

[Speedo]

If you're split between the two, why not go for a single raptor for the boot drive and a few installations and a seagate for everything else? I don't see why you feel the need to raid it all .

[Aaron]

Why not go for the Raptors, plus another large drive?

Install the OS, applications and games to the raptors and then put all of your files, music and videos on the larger drive.

EDIT: Yeah, what Speedo said

[IBM]

I'll tack my own two pennies worth by saying that I'm getting a 250gig for files (lots of captured vid) as well as the Raptors for OS, and I've got a 160gig external maxtor for backup...think it should work well....

[Lord Kordir]

Couldn't I use a combination of ideas?

I was thinking a 36Gb Raptor for OS files and major games such as HL2 plus two Seagate Barracuda 160Gbs in RAID 0 for storage.....

[royce]

I've never owned a Seagate SATA before but I own the WD Raptor 36.7GB drive, and I gotta say, its the fastest hard drive i've ever used, well I used 320 SCSI on my Dual Xeon servers but thats not a personal computer :-p. I love my Raptor, i've had it for about a month now, I love it so much I just bought the 70GB version, yup gonna run them both in this small tiny shuttle.

[Lord Kordir]

Sweet man, That sounds awesome!

[knock_knock]

Originally posted by royce
I love my Raptor, i've had it for about a month now, I love it so much I just bought the 70GB version, yup gonna run them both in this small tiny shuttle.

That's going to be one cooking little box, or are the stories about them running rather warm not all they are made out to be?