[masterxtech]

hi,
im building a new system right now im not sure how i want to set up my hard drives for maximum performance, in multi-tasking/gaming. the main setup will be mobo5nsli cpu:core 2 duo e6600 memory:4gb ram videocard:7900gs in a antec nine hundred case. should i get a raptor just for my OS raid 0 for my programs and just a sata II for my storage or is that being excessive? would just be running a raid 5 be better for all of that? anyone got any suggestions?

[Fraki]

raid 0 with the Raid Edition 2 Raptor 2 from WD and a Raid 1 with the same HDDs. All that on a 3Ware 9650-4

[Triple6]

If you have good backup plan then 2 Raptors in RAID-0 might be sufficient. There is a greater chance of data loss running in RAID-0 then single drives or other levels of RAID. Or if two Raptors aren't enough space then get a third drive for data storage, if its just documents, music and the such then any SATA drive would be fine for that.

[crjdriver]

T6 is right on. Raid0 will give you approx a 30-40% increase in read / write performance. You MUST have a backup plan when running any type of raid.

As an example I use 2 seagate sata2 drives in raid0 for the os and apps; a third drive that is not part of the array is used for image backups, individual file / folder backups, etc. Important info is backed up again to an external drive.

Remember data you do not backup is data you do not care about.

[Triple6]

For my setup I use two 74Gb Raptors in RAID-0. I don't store a lot of important data on my computer so I just backup to DVD once in while and then have a third hard drive that I use a few times a year to do a larger backup. Once my important data is stored on some external media I couldn't care less what happens to my PC.