What do you think of my config?

[Wrinkly_Ninja]

I'm a gamer.

My system spec is in my sig. For those who can't see it, I have a stock speed E6600, 2GB 800mhz ram and 4 hard drives.

My hard drives are set up as 2 raid 0 arrays: one for the system and one for my games and other istalled programs, and archived documents.

I have an external backup, but that is used most often by another machine. I would like to have an easier and more redundant backup solution, so:

In my new config, I want a RAID 1 of 2 drives as my backup/archive disk, and the speediest setup for the other two.

Now, I could either go for two seperate drives, set up as my arrays are at the moment, which would give me higher simultaneous read/writes, or I could go for a single RAID 0 array, and have system and programs both on it.

My question is: Which would offer more performance?

On the one hand, I would have more multitasking, on the other, a higher speed. Both lead to more read/writes per sec.

Can you draw parallels with CPU development (clock speeds/cores), or is it different for HDs?

 

[Wrinkly_Ninja]

bump.

Can someone please reply, I need to reformat my drives today, and before reinstallation I would like to setup my new config, whatever that may be.

 

[goonting]

does your motherboard support Raid 1+0? it could be possible with 4 hard drives present

 

[Wrinkly_Ninja]

Yes, but with a 1+0 I would loose all performance gains, which is what I am looking for. I would effectively have 1 drive at standard performance. That's why I ask Raid 0 or 2 drives.

 

[goonting]

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/raid/levels/multLevel01-c.html

might help you decide...

 

[goonting]

RAID 10 or 01 is your best bet of getting great performance and security for your files.

 

[nvalhalla]

There are more RAIDs than 0 and 1 people. Check out RAID 5. Great read speed, (which you want, yes?) and great redundancy. Just make sure you get a dedicated RAID card, don't use your MB for software RAID.

 

[enlightenment]

Onboard RAID5 write speeds are terrible, and i do not trust many of the drivers. ICH9R seems to be the fastest of the pack, when used with the write-back feature. Although that would cause corruption danger in cases of unclean shutdown.