Best bang for my buck raid setup

[Anath]

So right now I have a 500gb and with all my games its getting to the point where I need to upgrade. I decided that I would go with a raid setup since I have never done RAID and wanted the experience. So what do you guys think would be a good bang for my buck in regards to raid setup. I want a hard drive that has great speed performance with a decent capacity. I was thinking about doing 2 Western Digital 640gb Black's. I am willing to spend a little more if the performance would be worth it. thanks!

 

[LittleLizard]

the best disks for raid are caviar black, blue's and barracuda .12. go wichever you can find cheaper or meets your capacity necesities

 

[Anath]

performance wise do you have an idea on which are better? Also what about the samsung F1? I heard they were pretty good.

 

[LittleLizard]

imo the f1 are good, just they are getting older. performance wise i think the caviar blacks are the best (read somewhere that while the 7200.12 have good read/write speed it had a poor access time). also consider the samsung F3 which i think is the descendent of the F1 but go with the caviar black just to be sure.

 

[Anath]

thanks man I think I am going to go for the 750gb Black cuz the 640-750 is only a 5 dollar difference

 

[Soylent Joe]

WD Caviar Black (500GB, 1TB, the 640GB model esp.) With my 2x 640GB Black setup I'm getting speeds comparable to a single Velociraptor, but almost 1200GB of space. Excellent bang for the buck with these drives.

thanks man I think I am going to go for the 750gb Black cuz the 640-750 is only a 5 dollar difference

I've heard from a few people that the 640GB model is a little faster than it's larger-sized brothers. But hey, if you's willing to sacrifice a little speed for more space in your array, then go for it

 

[LittleLizard]

I've heard from a few people that the 640GB model is a little faster than it's larger-sized brothers. But hey, if you's willing to sacrifice a little speed for more space in your array, then go for it

thats probably true as the 640gb has 2 320gb platters while the 750gb has 3 250gb platters and the 1tb has 4 250gb. The less platter the better

 

[Soylent Joe]

thats probably true as the 640gb has 2 320gb platters while the 750gb has 3 250gb platters and the 1tb has 4 250gb. The less platter the better

yep

Really, now that the 500GB version is only $60, I'd say that that's the true performance/price leader.

 

[Anath]

Hmmm decisions decisions. What kind of speed difference are we talking? Like seconds or minutes?

 

[Soylent Joe]

Hmmm decisions decisions. What kind of speed difference are we talking? Like seconds or minutes?

I don't really know the difference, but here's how mine perform:

Surely not minutes, nor even 5 seconds. The 2x 500GB would be really close to if not faster than the 640GB's. In a 2x 750GB array, the access time would definitely be higher, say 20ms, and the avg. read rate a little lower. The 2x 1TB array would be even slower, that's more of something for storage, I wouldn't really recommend that for a main array.

 

[t_ski]

If you can afford it, go with two more 500GB drives in raid 0 for speed or raid 5 for speed and security. Of course, it all depends on what you can afford to spend. I have three OCZ Summits and they run quite nicely in Raid 0:

 

[Anath]

that's pretty sweet thanks.

 

[LittleLizard]

If you can afford it, go with two more 500GB drives in raid 0 for speed or raid 5 for speed and security. Of course, it all depends on what you can afford to spend. I have three OCZ Summits and they run quite nicely in Raid 0:

http://img.techpowerup.org/091019/3xssd.png

doesnt that saturates intel's own DMI interface that connect the southbridge with the nb?

 

[Anath]

Also in raid say i went with the 2 640 drives, in windows will it just show up as one drive with 1280gb

 

[Soylent Joe]

Also in raid say i went with the 2 640 drives, in windows will it just show up as one drive with 1280gb

It'll show up as this:

 

[Anath]

sweet thanks dude.

 

[t_ski]

doesnt that saturates intel's own DMI interface that connect the southbridge with the nb?

Three won't but four SSD's will. There is still a marginal improvement from adding a fourth.

 

[JrRacinFan]

I also say look into the WD 640GB Blue.

 

[Soylent Joe]

I also say look into the WD 640GB Blue.

You mean black right? The 640GB Blue is $70 with only 16MB cache while the Black is $75 with 32MB cache with the whole dual-processor thing.

 

[JrRacinFan]

You mean black right? The 640GB Blue is $70 with only 16MB cache while the Black is $75 with 32MB cache with the whole dual-processor thing.

Nope I meant the Blue. Cheaper and just as fast.

EDIT:
Ask DanishDevil, he has a "dark blue" raid setup.

 

[Soylent Joe]

Nope I meant the Blue. Cheaper and just as fast.

Only $5 cheaper... and having "Black" edition hard drives just sounds cool

 

[LittleLizard]

Only $5 cheaper... and having "Black" edition hard drives just sounds cool

agree, lo but if u mention the serial its better the blue (blue =AAKS, black =AALS)

 

[JrRacinFan]

Only $5 cheaper... and having "Black" edition hard drives just sounds cool

I agree but $5 is $5. For me that $5 is a week of going back and forth from home to work.

 

[Asylum]

Heres the Blue 2x320GB WD AAKS in Raid 0
About the same as the 640's
If your looking for more space than i have then the 640's would be about your best bet.

 

[extrasalty]

RAID 0 is like pissing against the wind while running.