Which one of these HDs should I get?

gentrinity

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Should I get two of these Raid 0
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136033
Western Digital Raptor WD740ADFD 74GB 10,000 RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM

Or three of these Raid 0
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136054
Western Digital Raptor WD360ADFD 36.7GB 10,000 RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM


I dont mind loosing 20 GB if the 3 raptors will perform better.

I plan on doing rendering with Maya, Swift 3D, Lightwave, Premiere, and After Effects

What do you guys think? Im also getting a C2D E6400 (2.13Ghz), a Quadro 560, and probably 2 gigs of ddr2 533
 

1Tanker

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Apr 28, 2006
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Should I get two of these Raid 0
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136033
Western Digital Raptor WD740ADFD 74GB 10,000 RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM

Or three of these Raid 0
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136054
Western Digital Raptor WD360ADFD 36.7GB 10,000 RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM


I dont mind loosing 20 GB if the 3 raptors will perform better.

I plan on doing rendering with Maya, Swift 3D, Lightwave, Premiere, and After Effects

What do you guys think? Im also getting a C2D E6400 (2.13Ghz), a Quadro 560, and probably 2 gigs of ddr2 533
I would opt for the 2x74GB/RAID 0. They are a little faster, and quieter than the 36's, and by running a 3 disk array, your chance of disk failure is 50% higher. GL :)
 

1Tanker

Splendid
Apr 28, 2006
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Thanks for the advice, so youre saying that the extra performance wont justify the added risk huh?
I doubt that a 3x36GB Raptor RAID 0 will perform much, if any better than 2x74GB Raptor RAID 0. You'll have 3 disks with the possiblilty of failure vs. 2 and 3 - 36GB Raptors will put more heat into your case than 2 - 74's. So...more heat, higher possibility for problems, and likely not much if any performance increase...Take your pick. :wink:
 

Codesmith

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The 36 GB Raptors lag far behind the 74 and 150 in terms of performance.

Definately go with two 74s vs 3 36's.

You should also make sure you are chosing RAID 0 for the right reasons.

Most people vastly overestimate the degree to which tranfer rate affect performance.

Given the what I do with my PC I stick with one Raptor and two WD Raid Edition in RAID 1 for data saftey. Originally I planed to upgrade to two raptors but have yet to find any real world benchmarks relevant to the way I use my PC that would in any way justify it.

For many users RAID 0 makes sense.
For others get no practical benifits, while doubling the risk of hard drive failure.

If you are not sure which category you fall into start a new thread asking the question and posting exactly how you plan on using the system.

One more thing, as soon as you set up the RAID, play arround to learn exactly what you need to do to recreate the array without losing data.

You don't want to have to be guessing if some minor problem comes up that forces you to rebuild the array.

Regular backup with True Image 9 wouldn't be a bad idea either, but I suggest that to everyone, not just those using non-redundant RAID.