Raid 0 on boot?

[ericmlaing]

Here's my question... I currently have a WD 640GB 7200 HD for an unbuilt system. I was thinking of getting a 10k rpm 75GB WD as a boot disk but here we go; for the money (Canadian) say I can get the 10k for oh, $200. I can get 2 80GB 7200s for less than $100. If (MB supported, not software), I RAID the 2 80GBers would that give me a performance boost - I know RAID 0 can be unreliable, but if the 10k drive failed what's the difference? What I am really wondering is: Will I really see a 'boost' in performance with the RAID 0 and if so, is it worth spending HALF the $$ than the faster drive.
Or should I just partition the 640GB as a 100GB and then the rest or just leave it as 640 and be happy as I've heard the WD 640's are pretty quick (dual 320 platter that is faster than older 250gb single platter)...
Thanks.

 

[boulard83]

your 2 80gb are possiblie some 8 or even less 4mb cache. and the transfer rate of those "maybe old" 80gb disk may be way lower even if Raided.

Look at the mb cache and transfer rate of those to know. But i think your still fine with your 640. its a 32mb cache one ? newer drive, faster one. They are good.

I have a Raid 0 250mb 16mb cache WD 2x. Runs great, install and acces time is nice. runs great ! those 80gb can be really slow i think.

 

[Zenthar]

The Raptor's strength is in random access, not "bulk" read/write speed. Many HD (single not RAID) can already outperform the Raptor for read/write "speed" (in MB/s). Check the latest HD chart for things like windows loading time and stuff like that.

RAID 0 would be more useful in a multimedia context where large audio/video files need to be read and/or written or perhaps in games with large maps/textures/...

 

[chookman]

BTW Raptors are outdated, Velociraptors are much faster.