Budget Gaming PC - Advices about HDD

[JoyLessUA]

I gonna build the new PC for the 1080p gaming, often with the FRAPS turned on. I need a good gaming perfomance, but can't pay too much for this.
My current PC: AMD Phenom II x4 945 C3 @ 3.4 Ghz, AMD RADEON HD5670, 2x1Gb DDR2, 1xIDE 320GB, 1xUSB 2.0 500Gb HDD
I have allready choosed new MotherBoard, Memory and graphics card, but I need some advices with the HDD(s) for me. So here they are:
1. Do I need 2xHDD for 1080p gaming with FRAPS? I mean 1 for system, and 1 for the FRAPS output? I heared, that I could have bottlenecks when using only one for all.
2. As I have 1xIDE 320Gb and 1xUSB 2.0 500Gb can I use one of them for recording, instead of new SATA, that I must buy. Will thay have enough speed for this?

 

[manofchalk]

Using just one drive can bottleneck performance as its writing HD video to the drive at the same time its outputting data for the game, so yes having two drives will help.

You will have to get a SATA drive.
Any modern motherboard wont support IDE, and USB external drives arent all that quick. An internal drive will be best, but if you have to use one of them, the USB is the only option.

 

[TheBigTroll]

yeah. you need a new 3.5inch drive. only asrock fata1ity motherboards have IDE ports (from what i know) and they cost a lot

 

[tsnor]

If what you want is pure game performance, with and without FRAPS, since you have "My current PC: AMD Phenom II x4 945 C3 @ 3.4 Ghz, AMD RADEON HD5670, 2x1Gb DDR2, 1xIDE 320GB, 1xUSB 2.0 500Gb HDD" you already have a good MB and CPU.

Instead of getting "new MotherBoard, Memory and graphics card" keep your current MB and CPU. They are not bad. Invest the money in graphics. Your current system has a relatively weak GPU (HD5670) and it's killing you on gaming. Your CPU is fine.

Instead of new CPU+MB: Add in an HD6850 for $150 (if your current PSU can take a 127W card) and add in a new $80 Sata drive as your boot drive. Clone your current drive to the boot drive (e.g. using Acronis True Image trial or disk maker's cloning software) then use the older IDE drive as a dedicated fraps drive. That gets the fraps writes off your gaming/boot disk.

Fraps (at least in this benchmark http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/video-editing-performance-ssd-hdd,3089-4.html) runs about 14 MB/sec average. An external USB drive hits about 20 MAX so you are at the limit if you use external USB.

Aside: If you do get a new MB and if want to keep the IDE drive then using a PCI or PCIe adapter to get IDE costs only $10-$20. But you are better off spending the money on a new sata drive.