Dual Hard Disk Question

[Splif]

I'm getting ready to purchase my components for my build (first time) and was unsure of the 'best' way for a HDD configuration. Is it cost effective and better performance to have a master and slave drive? or just stick with 1 large drive? I'm kinda retarted to the lingo so if u could respond with small words and speaking slowly it would help thanks in advance. here are my current specs:

Tsunami Case

Gigabyte 965P S3

Radeon X1300

FSP 700WATT

Conroe E6300

Super Talent 2x1Gig pc2 6400

 

[Splif]

one more thing, what is NCQ and how beneficial is it?

 

[grant_77]

Dual Hardrives is very handy.

My setup is 2 x 320 gb hd and one 750gb hd.

Even before i got the 750, I would keep all of my operating system and programs on the primary hardrive, the one running windows, and i had the other harddrive for storage and for saving downloads etc. That way if i was playing my music and running a game i was using two seperate harddrives and I found a big increase in access time performance and less slowdowns.

The other benefit is you can keep the primary harddrive fairly empty. Mine has 240 gb free. This means its quicker to do scan disks and defrags and performance is higher when the harddrive is more empty. Harddrives with only 10% space remaining tend to run very slowly.

My setup now is even better, I use the two 320s for stuff that is in constant operation, programs and downloads etc. And the 750 is devoted to storing movies, pictures, music, tv shows etc.

Id say the more the merrier especially with multicore processors than can easily run 2 harddrives without a misstep.

 

[geofelt]

I recently built a system similar to yours.
Gigabyte 965p ds3
e6300
corsair 5400c4
fsp400
xfx 7600gs.
Some comments:
Good start on mobo and cpu. I got the ds3 model for $10 more just for the solid capacitors.
I bought the xfx 7600gs at buy.com for $109 less $40 in rebates. I think it is faster than the x1300, but check it out. fanless also.
The super talent is wonderful, but probably overkill. It is 2.2 volt memory. The p965 chipset wants 1.8 volt memory, so verify that it will work in your mobo.
I think the 700 watt psu is overkill for your parts. If you might upgrade to a 8800gts, then the 500w version should be all you need, otherwise the 400 w unit is ok for your vga card.

As to your original question. Get one hard drive with enough capacity to serve your needs now, but not much more. You can add more later when they are cheaper if needed. Don't bother with raid. NCQ rarely applies to the single user environment. I might spend a bit more on the raptor with 16mb buffer if your total capacity need is less than 150gb. They are fast and reasonably quiet.