Compact Flash in Raid faster than SSD?

Looking at the Quad-CF Pci Controller which I could use with four fast Compact Flash Cards all in Raid 0 for fast speeds right?

I'm looking at 4gb Compact Flash Cards which have a read/write speed of about 40 / 45mb/s, so surely, in theory four of them in Raid 0 would be as fast as this, if not faster?

Comparing 4 x 4gb Compact Flash in Raid 0 to my 500gb Seagate Barracuda which would be faster for booting XP.

I'd like a really fast way to boot into XP which would have just the basics on - messenger and firefox.

But should I stick with my Hard Drive (I have two, one will be for vista + programs, one for files + perhaps XP) or get this DIY SSD Controller?

how about buy one of these for £60 - 30GB OCZ SSD?

less hassle, and you can always get another one @ £60 and RAID0 them for potentially 310mb/s read speed :)

16gb really isnt much, 60gb would let you install xp and some apps and few games and leave your regular HDD for music/videos/etc :)

Solid state boot drives isn't going to help Windows much with loading. Most of Windows loading time is spent initalising drivers and services.

Aden - if you just want a fast boot into msn and firefox have you considered a lightweight linux? that would cost you nothing :) or even a very stripped down winxp.

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Originally Posted by MadduckUK

Aden - if you just want a fast boot into msn and firefox have you considered a lightweight linux? that would cost you nothing :) or even a very stripped down winxp.

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Perhaps a stripped down XP would be better then.. as I'll be using Vista for primary os, XP jsut for a quick check of the emails, forums + messenger in the morning etc.

why dont you put your pc in sleep/suspend-to-ram rather than turning it off if you want a quick boot in the mornings?

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Originally Posted by streetster

why dont you put your pc in sleep/suspend-to-ram rather than turning it off if you want a quick boot in the mornings?

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Because I expect it'll be damn noisy with all my fans blowing even on Low all night, especially 3 feet away from my bed.

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Originally Posted by Aden

Because I expect it'll be damn noisy with all my fans blowing even on Low all night, especially 3 feet away from my bed.

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If your PC is asleep, your fans shouldn't be going, so it shouldn't make any noise.

When my PC sleeps it's silent, no fans move at all!

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Originally Posted by Aden

... I'm looking at 4gb Compact Flash Cards...

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If you do go down that route, aviod Kingston cards like the Plague! Very unreliable and nowhere near as fast as they claim to be.

Cant go wrong with.. http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/4GB-S...133x-Superfast
I've just upgraded from them to Extreme IV 16GBs and they are like rockets! Beware the 4GB & 8GB versions only quote 40MB/sec for some odd reason, 16GB quotes 45MB/sec (havent got near write speeds like that as the D300 won't let me, but read speeds are pretty close). Cost a bloody fortune though, that OCZ SSD and/or stripped out XP/Linux would probs be more cost effective.

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Originally Posted by mehmeh

If you do go down that route, aviod Kingston cards like the Plague! Very unreliable and nowhere near as fast as they claim to be.

Cant go wrong with.. http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/4GB-S...133x-Superfast
I've just upgraded from them to Extreme IV 16GBs and they are like rockets! Beware the 4GB & 8GB versions only quote 40MB/sec for some odd reason, 16GB quotes 45MB/sec (havent got near write speeds like that as the D300 won't let me, but read speeds are pretty close). Cost a bloody fortune though, that OCZ SSD and/or stripped out XP/Linux would probs be more cost effective.

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Aight. I'll just nlite me an XP install aswell as my Vista one :)

if you can, make sure the card is UDMA

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Originally Posted by aidanjt

Solid state boot drives isn't going to help Windows much with loading. Most of Windows loading time is spent initalising drivers and services.

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Thats so wrong. The very first thing you notice with SSDs is the massive speedup in boot time.

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Originally Posted by PeterStoba

When my PC sleeps it's silent, no fans move at all!

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Ditto here - when it's asleep, it may as well be off as far as noise is concerned. (not sure about power though)

& even if SSD's do massively speed up boot time, I'd be surprised if it beat the few seconds it takes to wake up from sleep state.

Being asleep does still draw power, it can be quite a lot too considdering it isn't doing anything.

Hybernation on the other hand, uses a lot less, but due to the way PC power supplies work, electricity is still being used. Zak33 has done a lot of testing with a power meter, it's one of his pet subjects.

Taking a PC out of hybernation with an SSD would see a massive speed up I think, especially as it is just loading what was in your RAM back into RAM.