One 74GB Raptor & Seagate 500GB or Two 500GB in Raid-0 ?

micko_escalade

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Hi all!

Doing my homework and making a list of all parts for my new rig,

so far...

Intel C2D E6600
Asus P5B-E
Still deciding on memory
ATI 1950Pro 256MB

I already have one Seagate 500GB,
my question is
would it be better to have one WD 74GB Raptor and one Seagate 500GB
or
Two 500GB Seagates ?
in any case I wanna setup my new system in Raid-0
Mostly it will be used for data transfer and occasional gaming, the faster the better,

any help is appreciated!
 

snoopy3525

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Well with raid-0 keep in mind, you'll only be getting double of the smaller drive, in that case around 148 GB's total (which would defeat the purpose of a 500 GB drive in the first place).

You have my vote for two 500GB Hard drives in RAID 0. This will give you roughly 1 TB of space, and RAID performance to top it off.

Also, there would probably be very very little, to no difference at all with performance by having the 1TB setup instead of the 148GB setups that are mentioned.
 

slavadon

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Well with raid-0 keep in mind, you'll only be getting double of the smaller drive, in that case around 148 GB's total (which would defeat the purpose of a 500 GB drive in the first place).

You have my vote for two 500GB Hard drives in RAID 0. This will give you roughly 1 TB of space, and RAID performance to top it off.

Also, there would probably be very very little, to no difference at all with performance by having the 1TB setup instead of the 148GB setups that are mentioned.

He hasn't mentioned a 148GB setup at all. He's talking about a 574GB setup vs a 1 TB setup.

To the OP: a 74 GB Raptor will out perform a software controlled RAID 0 of 2 7200 RPM HDDs any day. You cannot RAID 0 a 74 GB raptor with a 500 GB 7200 RPM HDD, which you seem to be confused about. I've heard extremely mixed reviews of using a software controlled RAID 0 in a home system. The Raptor will be faster, but you're giving up 425 GBs of space for like 3 seconds of load time. If you really need 1 TB of space...I'd definitely say go the two 500 GB HDDs in RAID 0 route.

I have a 74 GB Raptor and a 320 GB 7200...I installed FEAR on my raptor and my 320 GB and the difference in load times was barely noticable. It's probably 3 secondsish... and was it worth giving up the extra 250 GBs of HDD space I could've gotten by buying a comparably priced 7200 RPM drive in place of the Raptor? I'd say no.

So if you need 1 TB of space definitely go with 2 7200 RPM drives, and really...unless you JUST CANNOT STAND WAITING ANY LONGER THAN ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY go with the 1 TB setup anyway.
 

choirbass

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for capacity, 2 500GB hdds are the way to go, whether in raid, or as 2 seperate hdds (if you choose to raid 0 them, be sure to have all your data backed up on a third seperate physical hdd)

for increased STR for large raw data transfers (such as photo and movie editing, etc), raid 0 is the way to go

for faster OS responsiveness and application loading times, just go with a single 74GB ADFD Raptor (its the same speed/faster than the 150GB raptor, but for noticably less cost), and use the single 500GB for storage/backup

you shouldnt raid 0 the 74GB and 500GB hdds together in the same array anyhow (if you were intending to), as youll then only have 148GB total, (the capacity of the smallest drive in the array, times the number of drives in the array). and the speed of the raptor will be reduced down to the speed of the 500GB, because it will have to wait on it for everything, as they would both operate in sync

but, if you really do end up needing 1TB of storage, just go with the 2 500GB hdds
 
Hi all!

Doing my homework and making a list of all parts for my new rig,

so far...

Intel C2D E6600
Asus P5B-E
Still deciding on memory
ATI 1950Pro 256MB

I already have one Seagate 500GB,
my question is
would it be better to have one WD 74GB Raptor and one Seagate 500GB
or
Two 500GB Seagates ?
in any case I wanna setup my new system in Raid-0
Mostly it will be used for data transfer and occasional gaming, the faster the better,

any help is appreciated!

thats alot of data your going to put at risk - two physical hdd's = twice the failure rate, one drive dies, you loose ALL your data.

but on the other hand i use raid 0 setups in all my pcs, but on the other hand i also have a server with 2x250's and 2x320's, both in raid1 to keep my important data.

Gotta love Intels Matrix raid arays too
 

maury73

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RAID-0 is faster for high volume data transfer, but very much slower on access times: Raptor goes @8ms including rotational latency, the best you can achieve with 2x500GB and HARDWARE raid is 13ms (14-15 with software raid).

So if you need a very fast access HD go for a Raptor and a 500GB, if don't bother about slower access times (they don't slow down a gaming system) go for 2x500GB and a valid backup solution.
 

snoopy3525

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Aug 3, 2006
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Well with raid-0 keep in mind, you'll only be getting double of the smaller drive, in that case around 148 GB's total (which would defeat the purpose of a 500 GB drive in the first place).

You have my vote for two 500GB Hard drives in RAID 0. This will give you roughly 1 TB of space, and RAID performance to top it off.

Also, there would probably be very very little, to no difference at all with performance by having the 1TB setup instead of the 148GB setups that are mentioned.

He hasn't mentioned a 148GB setup at all. He's talking about a 574GB setup vs a 1 TB setup.

To the OP: a 74 GB Raptor will out perform a software controlled RAID 0 of 2 7200 RPM HDDs any day. You cannot RAID 0 a 74 GB raptor with a 500 GB 7200 RPM HDD, which you seem to be confused about. I've heard extremely mixed reviews of using a software controlled RAID 0 in a home system. The Raptor will be faster, but you're giving up 425 GBs of space for like 3 seconds of load time. If you really need 1 TB of space...I'd definitely say go the two 500 GB HDDs in RAID 0 route.

I have a 74 GB Raptor and a 320 GB 7200...I installed FEAR on my raptor and my 320 GB and the difference in load times was barely noticable. It's probably 3 secondsish... and was it worth giving up the extra 250 GBs of HDD space I could've gotten by buying a comparably priced 7200 RPM drive in place of the Raptor? I'd say no.

So if you need 1 TB of space definitely go with 2 7200 RPM drives, and really...unless you JUST CANNOT STAND WAITING ANY LONGER THAN ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY go with the 1 TB setup anyway.

Sorry, I thought he meant putting both the 74 gig raptor and the 500 gig seagate both in a RAID channel
 

micko_escalade

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Jan 13, 2007
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Thanks guys for the replies!

I ordered 2nd 500GB HD, so I'll be doing raid 0 with those two, I always
backup up my important stuff like docs and pics to my home backup server,
everything else like games programs is recoverable IMO,

instead of creating a new thread I have another question,
later on I would like to test, say I buy 74GB Raptor (in local store, return if I don't like it), can I leave Raptor
as a single drive and raid-o those two 500GB ?

last night at the same time I ordered bellow parts for my new rig.

Intel C2D E6600
ASUS P5B Deluxe
Corsair XMS2 2GB
ATI 1950Pro
2 x Seagate 500GB Barracuda 7200.10
Antec P180 Case
Antec Neo HE 550w PS
 

choirbass

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yes, you can run the raptor on its own, so that its not part of the raid array

if you do happen to go for the 74GB raptor, see if they have the ADFD version, its the second revision that has 16MB cache, the first 74GB GD version only had 8MB cache (i say that because im not sure they still are selling the original 74GB GD 8MB version or not, but it couldnt hurt to ask)