To cash or raid 2x SSD and 2xHDD

[neofite]

Hi People,

I am currently waiting for delivery of my new build (most of which has already arrived). I am attempting to build my first serious computer. I have had a little experience in building them before but not to this extent so I need some advice / help please

MOBO = P9Z79 Deluxe, i7-3930k,
2 X OCZ Vector 256 Gig SSD's
2 X WD Veliciraptor 1TB HDD's
16g G-Skill 2400 ram
GPU Vapour X HD 7970 3Gig ram
HAF X case
H100i + extra 200mm fan
AX 750Gold Pro PSU
Win 7 64
Asus 120Mhz 27inch PB278Q (Love this)

That's not the complete list but gives you an idea (I hope)

BTW if your wondering why I got these SSD's I pick them up from a local shop that went out of business, I got them for next to nothing so I could not leave them out of this build (Still in boxes)

I am using the systems for games and semi-pro photography work.

I will be installing Win 7 (64) onto this new build.

I am a little confused as to the best configuration for the Drives. 4 in total (2 X SSD's and 2X HDD's) Obviously I want the best access rates for apps and system but have read so much on Cashing drives, raid, Ramdisk, ssd for os boot cashed with HDD's and so on...

My first question is what is the best set up I can get using all the drives above for considering the MOBO, storage and speed?

My second question (I am new to this sort of set up)...Can I have 1 SSD cashed with both HDD's and use the second SSD to boot with OS and apps?

I just want the best efficiency given the multitude of alternative approaches available via hard\software solutions.

Can any one help or suggest my best course of action plz?

Neofite

 

[WyomingKnott]

The best solution is to ignore SSD caching entirely. It was designed to make small SSDs, too small to install the OS on, useful.

I strongly recommend that, unless the purpose of the build is to play with RAID, you not do any RAID. RAID0 will make total, irrecoverable failures more likely. RAID1 is no substitute for backup, although it will make your system a _little_ more reliable. And you should not build a 4-drive RAID with SSD and mechanical disks.

Not to mention that SSDs in RAID don't see TRIM commands. so they slow down over time.

-------------

Designate one SSD as your boot drive. Connect this drive and only this drive to the build, boot from the Win7 distro, and install the OS. Now install any other applications that you have. With a 256 GB SSD, they will all fit unless you play some massive games.

The other SSD won't get you much unless you have to install more than 256 GB worth of stuff, in which case you can just tell the installation process to install into a non-default directory that is on the other SSD.

Feel free to ignore this point: Next, trade the Velociraptors for some larger drives. You do need storage space; you don't need the extra speed for data (as opposed to the OS, where loading times are important).

Install one drive in the PC for storage. Put the other in an external HDD case, or buy an external HDD. Do backups to the external HDD. That way, if you lose data or your OS gets corrupted, you just restore the backup.

OK. Humorous approach aside, you want to

Install the OS and applications on the SSD. There are many tweaks when installing to an SSD; the most important is to set your controllers to AHCI mode first. See, for example, this http://www.computing.net/howtos/show/solid-state-drive-ssd-tweaks-for-windows-7/552.html and this http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-performance-tweak,2911.html . My personal opinion is that the second one is overboard.

Set up a larger HDD for storage. You can repoint your "My Documents" and "My Music" and gamesaves to directories on this drive.

Forget about SSD caching. Instead of a subset of what you need to be fast being on the SSD, all of it will be on your OS SSD. The second SSD is a good place for temp / scratch files if you are working with something huge like photoshop.

Have an external backup drive and good backup software. Do backups. Be prepared to wipe your system drive and restore the latest backup if, say, the OS is corrupted or you were infected with malware.

Have fun.

 

[neofite]

Install the OS and applications on the SSD. There are many tweaks when installing to an SSD; the most important is to set your controllers to AHCI mode first. See, for example, this http://www.computing.net/howtos/show/solid-state-drive-ssd-tweaks-for-windows-7/552.html and this http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-performance-tweak,2911.html . My personal opinion is that the second one is overboard.

Set up a larger HDD for storage. You can repoint your "My Documents" and "My Music" and gamesaves to directories on this drive.

Forget about SSD caching. Instead of a subset of what you need to be fast being on the SSD, all of it will be on your OS SSD. The second SSD is a good place for temp / scratch files if you are working with something huge like photoshop.

Have an external backup drive and good backup software. Do backups. Be prepared to wipe your system drive and restore the latest backup if, say, the OS is corrupted or you were infected with malware.

Have fun.[/quotemsg]

Much appreciate your advice there and will be taking a closer look at what works best for me. Funny that after someone points out things it becomes obvious

Much appreciated...thanks again now just waiting for the HAF X to arrive then the fun begins

Neofite