Computer/Hard Drive Question

audiobliss

I'm embarking upon a quest to upgrade my desktop computer. And as I attempt charting the path for this journey, there's a fierce battle raging inside me: practicality/expense vs sheer speed/awesomeness. So, I'm not really sure what my destination is, how far I'm wanting to go. But regardless I'd appreciate some guidance and advice during the decision making process.

Here's a rundown of my system as it is now:
CPU: Q6600 G0/AC Freezer 7 Pro
MOBO: GIGABYTE P35-DS3R
RAM: 2GB Patriot DDR2 667 (soon to be replaced with another set of the RAM below)
+ 2x2GB G. Skill DDR2 1100
GFX: EVGA GTX260SC 216
PSU: PCP&C Silencer 610
HD: 2 x Seagate Barracuda 250GB
+ 1x1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-S203B
Case: Cooler Master Centurion 5 (soon to be a HAF932)
Monitor: Samsung 216BW
Sound: Klipsch Promedia 2.1
Mouse: Logitech G5
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (soon to be W7 Professional 64-bit)


My goal is more speed and efficiency as well as epic storage space. I love gaming, but honestly don't indulge often enough to make hardcore upgrades justifiable. Hence the battle between need and want here.

I've run several setups through my head, but haven't been able to choose one over another. Before I delve into what those are, here's my stance. For some reason I really like the idea of having my OS installed on a physically separate drive. I guess just for simplicity sake and for ease of reformatting/reinstalling W7 when it gets too bogged down. At the moment I have my OS and most software on a 250GB HD, then all my games (from steam) on the second 250GB HD, then media on the 1TB HD. I'm rather fond of that type setup, though ideally, in my head, the OS would be have its own drive.

For the longest time my goal for storage has been 3+ 1TB HD's in RAID5 to give some redundancy for data protection and yet still have a huge capacity. Now I'm thinking of doing something else with my current 1TB HD and switching to 2TB HD's for storage, slowly working up as I use more space (or want more space) into a RAID5 setup or some such. I'm definitely not planning on putting out enough cash up front to make all this happen at once.

The more I read, the more sure I am that I want a SSD for my OS drive. I want faster boot and shut down times, and, mainly, snappier performance once it's up and running. I also want my applications to benefit from the grossly improved read/write speeds of an SSD, but I just can't justify the price of an SSD large enough for all my programs. Right now my 'games' HD has about 145GB used, and I'm not sure if I have even half my games installed on it.

Once I get my desktop reformatted and running smoothly again, I'm also planning on playing with Acronis or some such for creating an image of my system for easy back ups and 'reformats'. Once everything is fairly well settled I'm also going to dive into OC'ing. I know the Q6600 has a lot left in it that I've not begun to tap into!

Now, onto some ideas:
#1
OS - SSD
Programs - 2nd SSD?
Media - 1 or 2TB HD's

#2
OS - SSD
Programs - 2x600GB Velociraptors in RAID0
Meda - 1 or 2TB HD's

#3
OS - SSD
Programs - 600GB Velociraptor
Media - 1 or 2TB HD's

#4
OS - SSD
Programs - 2x1TB HD's in RAID0
Media - 1 or 2TB HD's

I think obviously #1 would provide the most performance, but there's no way I would be able to afford that until SSD's come WAY down in price. #2 really wouldn't be that much cheaper, though it would offer slightly more space for programs for the money. #3 seems doable financially speaking, though it still requires a fairly substantial outlay of cash. It also leaves me wondering exactly how much improved performance the 10k rpm Velociraptor would really provide. #4 is beginning to appeal the most to me, though I don't really know how much an improvement in performance the RAID'd 1TB HD's would provide. This would be the cheapest setup but would hopefully still provide really good performance, and would definitely offer so much space that I would not be concerned with installing too many games, etc.


So, now that you've actually made it through all this (thank you! even if you just skimmed it, haha), I need your input. From my storage philosophy and goals, all the way to my particular setup ideas. What do you think is the ideal storage solution? That is reasonably affordable? How would you set it up?

Again, thanks so much for reading and for any advice you may have. It would be much appreciated!!

kingcars66

Lame.

audiobliss

*facepalm*

Thanks for the invaluable contribution, d00d!

vmaxer

Lasareath wrote: »

Wherever you were hiding for the past 3 years you should go back there because we don't need you here goofball!

Yep!! Not very helpful:rolleyes:

audiobliss

Bah, come on guys. He's a friend of mine just giving me a hard time.

Not like y'all's posts actually contributed to the thread either!

kingcars66

Trust me guys, I've had more input into his computer setup than you all know . And yes, it's an inside joke between the OP and I. Relax.

audiobliss

And give me some input!

wz2p7j

Lasareath wrote: »

SSD is the way to go. Any new system built today should be using SSD and at least 1TB Video card with a minimum or 8GB of ram.

Good Luck & Have Fun!

Sal

Where do I find a 1 TB video card? :biggrin::biggrin:

Chris

wz2p7j

Seriously, I'm all for SSD myself. I'm not a gamer so I can fit my MS Office and Photoshop, Illustrator and such on a 128 GB SSD or less plus my OS. I hear Windows and apps launch in a snap. Will be upgrading in the next few weeks.

Chris

vmaxer

wz2p7j wrote: »

Where do I find a 1 TB video card? :biggrin::biggrin:

Chris

Maybe NASA could help with that:cool:

Sorry that I can't help:redface:

vmaxer

Lasareath wrote: »

in 3 months Crysis 2 is coming out and I need a new video card.

Maybe I might need one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133253&nm_mc=OTC-Channel&cm_mmc=OTC-channel-_-Video+Cards+-+Workstation-_-PNY+Technologies++Inc.-_-14133253&srccode=cii_7240466&cpncode=24-14259245&DEPA=0&refer=channel&CMP=OTC-

Can you send me one:redface:

nguyendot

I run a SSD + 7200 rpm sata on my laptop os/programs.

Boot times are in the neighborhood of 20 seconds to desktop.... Win7 ultimate x64 with 8 gig ram.

I suggest SSD as main and offload the rest to the normal drives.

I plan on getting a hybrid drive as the secondary, that should make it faster, still.

audiobliss

A hybrid drive? What's that?

audiobliss

Wow, very interesting. Had never heard of that.

nguyendot

Yup yup... pair that with a main SSD drive thats smaller and you have a very fast system.

audiobliss

Lasareath wrote: »

I want to try one of these:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/28/ocz-amps-up-performance-on-revodrive-x2-pcie-ssd-740mb-sec-up/

Omg holy crap what the heck! That thing's amazing!

Kan I haz one plz? kthx

audiobliss

That is very truly impressive.



The more I've been reading, I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up getting another Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB HD to run in RAID0 for my programs. Found a few benchmarks a guy ran who's using the same setup, and it works quite well.

exalted512

Woot.com has a ssd on sale today.
-Cody

nguyendot

audiobliss wrote: »

That is very truly impressive.



The more I've been reading, I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up getting another Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB HD to run in RAID0 for my programs. Found a few benchmarks a guy ran who's using the same setup, and it works quite well.

RAID 0? Why bother? It's not RAID at all. It's just asking for your data to take a crap should one thing go wrong....

Sherardp

exalted512 wrote: »

Woot.com has a ssd on sale today.
-Cody

with $50 mail in rebate, for the price you can't beat that. Also OP, I've had my Intem 80gb SSD installed for awhile now. At this point I highly recommend getting one 80gb at least and using it as your boot drive. I use a WD Caviar black 750gb for random programs (secondary drive), and a WD Caviar Black 1tb as my internal media drive. Also using 1tb for critical backup, with a 2tb that backs up the entire system.

exalted512

Sherardp wrote: »

with $50 mail in rebate, for the price you can't beat that.

Yea, if I was in the market right now for an upgrade, I'd snatch it up. But my computer does everything I want it to at the moment...so motorcycle gear it is!
-Cody

devani

i dont think changing to SSD will help much. you are using a relatively old quad CPU (launched Q1 2007) with LGA775 socket. it's not going to be the bottleneck in your setup.

OS with 10K HD will be more than enough for your system.

avelanchefan

audiobliss wrote: »

Sound: Klipsch Promedia 2.1

That was an intense post, but you definitely picked the right computer speakers. I have them and they are the best computer speakers out there.

And I had run RAID in the past and when one drive drashed it really effed me over, I am just not sold on RAID personally.