4 SATA2 WD Configuration Setup needs your opinion & guid

[Codeblue009]

Hello All,

I have read many of the hard drive raid configuration posting, some advocating for it and some not. I must say that I am still not sure as to which approach would be best suited for me. What I intend to do is use my PC for gaming, video editing, photoshop, storage use for digital photos, MPEG's & Divx files.

This is my PC that I am now building and ready to install the hard drives: ASUS A8N-SLI NForce4 Deluxe board, Athlon 64 X2 4400, Zalman CNPS 7000B ALCU Heatsink, 2 GB of Corsair TwinX2048-3200C2PT, EVGA GeForce 7800 GTX 256MB, (2) WD Caviar SE 16 320 GB SATA 3G, (2) WD Caviar SE 16 250 GB SATA 3G, a Cooler Master RP RS-550-ACLY Power Supply, Plexy 716-SATA Burner and Audigy Z2 Sound card, and all in a Cooler Master Wave Master TAC-T01 Aluminum Case.

First I would like to know if I can seperate the hard drives into 2 and 2 (i.e. Use two 250 WD for one configuration and use two 320 WD for storage purposes)? This is what I am really after but if I can't then something close to it.

Second, I have 2 onboard raid selections that come with the ASUS motherboard. I have read that the NVidia raid is better than the silicon one, so I would have to access it in my bios when I boot up the system. The bios was already installed from Monarch Computers where I bought the majority of my components. They turned off the overclocking ability of the board and I do not believe the applied any raid configuration.

If you advocate no raid and just have 4 drives on the motherboard please explain why. If you advocate raid give me your opinion's as to how I should configure these four hard drives and your reasons as to why this is best. Please explain how I should do this with this motherboard, I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[MadModMike]

Hello All,

I have read many of the hard drive raid configuration posting, some advocating for it and some not. I must say that I am still not sure as to which approach would be best suited for me. What I intend to do is use my PC for gaming, video editing, photoshop, storage use for digital photos, MPEG's & Divx files.

This is my PC that I am now building and ready to install the hard drives: ASUS A8N-SLI NForce4 Deluxe board, Athlon 64 X2 4400, Zalman CNPS 7000B ALCU Heatsink, 2 GB of Corsair TwinX2048-3200C2PT, EVGA GeForce 7800 GTX 256MB, (2) WD Caviar SE 16 320 GB SATA 3G, (2) WD Caviar SE 16 250 GB SATA 3G, a Cooler Master RP RS-550-ACLY Power Supply, Plexy 716-SATA Burner and Audigy Z2 Sound card, and all in a Cooler Master Wave Master TAC-T01 Aluminum Case.

First I would like to know if I can seperate the hard drives into 2 and 2 (i.e. Use two 250 WD for one configuration and use two 320 WD for storage purposes)? This is what I am really after but if I can't then something close to it.

Second, I have 2 onboard raid selections that come with the ASUS motherboard. I have read that the NVidia raid is better than the silicon one, so I would have to access it in my bios when I boot up the system. The bios was already installed from Monarch Computers where I bought the majority of my components. They turned off the overclocking ability of the board and I do not believe the applied any raid configuration.

If you advocate no raid and just have 4 drives on the motherboard please explain why. If you advocate raid give me your opinion's as to how I should configure these four hard drives and your reasons as to why this is best. Please explain how I should do this with this motherboard, I would greatly appreciate it.

Put the 2 250GB in a RAID 0 for OS/Games/Software

Put the 2 320GB in RAID 1 (if you care more about data integrity than space) or put them in another RAID 0 for performance, or keep them seperate.

~~Mad Mod Mike, pimpin' the world 1 rig at a time

 

[Codeblue009]

Thanks MadMod. I like the first suggestion and I was leaning that way. Now your second suggestion I was more leaning into the storage aspects for the two 320's, so how can I accomplish that? Also will the bios allow me to distinguish these two different configurations? Thanks again for your help!

 

[Codeblue009]

Thanks Gentlemen! You learn something new everyday and on this board you learn a lot everyday! I like the JBOD configuration for the storage disks. I will give it a go and see what happens. Thanks again for all your help! 8)