Help Buying new HDD (IDE vs RAID0)

[dr3thepooner]

Hey All!

I have bit of a dilemma here. Currently i run 2x320GB Seagate Barracuda's in RAID0, they are dated 2006 7200.10 if i am not mistaken. I wouldn't bother buying new HD / HD's but recently i had whole PC freeze and one of the drives appeared to have multiple bad sectors - which is sketchy. I was able to boot in windows and raid seems to be ok...for now.

I am currently looking at - Western Digital WD1001FALS Caviar Black 1TB SATA2 7200RPM 4.2MS, not too sure if i can afford second one for RAID0 as well, but do you think i will have a big decrease in performance between my old RAID0 and this new single 1TG WD?

I think my old drivers are these: http://techgage.com/article/seagate_barracuda_720010_320gb/

Thanks alot!

 

[treefrog07]

Please visit the WD website to see its recommendations for RAID HDDs; it is RE-XX, not Black. For more info, google TLER.

 

[1haplo]

The real world performance difference will be minimal. While RAID0 can increase performance, With most controllers built onboard going from a RAID0 with 2 drives to a single drive is minimal.

If you get a faster single drive, you will not notice a big difference. If you went from 2 fast drives to a slow single drive, then you can guess.

Just get the single drive for now. You can always get another drive later and RAID them if you want to.

The Black drives are fast. So you should have about the same performance as the 2 Seagate drives. I have 3 320s in a RAID0. When I got all 3 I benched 1 vs 2 in a RAID0 and 3 in a RAID0. I saw a bigger jump in 2 vs 3 then 1 vs 2. I do not have the numbers any more but I can tell you that the speed did not double vs a single drive and 2 drives.

If you look at the benches of the WD Black it performs better the the 7200.10 drives we have.

,Treefrog07 is correct. Most desktop drives are not made for RAID but they do work. The RE drives are made to run cooler and less chance of failure.

As you know that if you run a RAID0 and one drive fails you will lose data. Always have a backup drive to store crucial data. If you do get 2 1TB drives keep the 2 x320 for backup (unless you have another drive you do use)

I have had my RAID0 running for years and have not had a problem with the 7200.10 drives. I am glad that they did not have the problems with the 7200.10 drives, they have with the 7200.11 drives.

 

[dr3thepooner]

Hi 1haplo,

I appreciate your reply!

I decided to go with single WD 1TB but SATA3 6Gb/s as my motherboard supports it and its only, 10 - 15$ diff.

Thanks again!