Small SSD + VR or Large SSD + sell VR

[The Von Matrices]

Hi everyone,

I want to get an SSD as my boot drive, but I'm unsure how of what storage configuration to get. I currently have a 300GB VelociRaptor in my system as my boot drive, and I have ~200GB of files on it, about 100GB of which are games. I am looking for advice on my upgrade path. I am not keen on spending extra money for the best performing SSD available since it probably it probably will be superseded in a year by one that has twice the performance and is half the price.

I came up with two options:

1) Buy a 120GB SSD and use it for the operating system and most programs, and keep the Velociraptor and use it for game installations.

2) Buy a 240GB SSD and use it for the operating system, programs, and games, and sell the Velociraptor.

The first option is about $60 less expensive, assuming my Velociraptor is worth $60 (conservatively). But I am also worried about the Velociraptor failing in the near future since it is 4 years old and has a 5-year warranty, and I also assume it will significantly drop in value once the warranty expires.

What should I do?

 

[Bo$$]

small SSD and VRAP.
I have a 90gb and a 1TB raid0 setup works very well

 

[The Von Matrices]

Another advantage of the 1st option is that I would not have to worry about the size of what I install, and I can upgrade to a (relatively) cheap 480+GB SSD two years from now and ditch the VR.

small SSD and VRAP.
I have a 90gb and a 1TB raid0 setup works very well

My storage system would actually be 3-tiered if I chose the 1st option, with the SSD for OS, Velociraptor for game installs, and 1TB 7200RPM HDD for media storage.

 

[Bo$$]

Another advantage of the 1st option is that I would not have to worry about the size of what I install, and I can upgrade to a (relatively) cheap 480+GB SSD two years from now and ditch the VR.



My storage system would actually be 3-tiered if I chose the 1st option, with the SSD for OS, Velociraptor for game installs, and 1TB 7200RPM HDD for media storage.

exactly. I have a few more drives for backups but those are my Core System drives. SSD's SHOULD become cheaper, so i think option 1 is a very nice idea at this time

 

[FreedomEclipse]

SSD+Vrap.

120Gb is plenty for the O/S, a few most used apps and 1 or 2 games such as BF3 that could really benefit from being on an SSD.

however for everything else where startup speed is less important, install it on the Vrap to save space on the SSD

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

120GB fills surprisingly fast.

A Velociraptor was an interesting, if flawed experiment. While they are faster than other mechanical HDDs, but they are also far more prone to failure once aging sets in.

For my money, assuming that you've got two SATA III ports that can be raided, get a set of 120 GB cheaper drives (Agility from OCZ or similar). The Raided drives will make even "cheap" SSDs fly, and the Velociraptor will be put to rest where it belongs.


As far as value, the Velociraptor is less interesting. It has the usual price fallout once opened, but the nature of the drives generally mean that a 4 year old model is just about a paper weight. The extra $60 for the SSDs is going to be easy to justify, once you see the difference in system response on boot-up.

 

[The Von Matrices]

120GB fills surprisingly fast.

A Velociraptor was an interesting, if flawed experiment. While they are faster than other mechanical HDDs, but they are also far more prone to failure once aging sets in.

For my money, assuming that you've got two SATA III ports that can be raided, get a set of 120 GB cheaper drives (Agility from OCZ or similar). The Raided drives will make even "cheap" SSDs fly, and the Velociraptor will be put to rest where it belongs.


As far as value, the Velociraptor is less interesting. It has the usual price fallout once opened, but the nature of the drives generally mean that a 4 year old model is just about a paper weight. The extra $60 for the SSDs is going to be easy to justify, once you see the difference in system response on boot-up.

Are Velociraptors really that prone to failure? I've had lots of 3.5" drives fail in shorter amounts of time than I've owned this drive. If failure is that common, I'd rather sell it and go for the larger SSD and let the next owner take the chance of drive failure.

Regarding the SSDs, I'm looking at the best value (lowest $/GB) SF-2281 drives, which today are the 120GB OCZ Agility 3 ($124.99 after all rebates) and the 240GB OCZ Agility 3 ($239.99 after all rebates). I wish I could get a drive around 400GB so that I would not have to worry about storage space, but SSD prices increase exponentially above 240GB. Even though I have a RAID-0 capable SATA3 controller, I see no reason to RAID-0 two 120GB drives since that would be more expensive than a single 240GB drive and would not support features such as TRIM. Other than increased transfer rates, is there any reason to go RAID-0?