Data Disk Upgrades (Advice)

[linktoinsanity]

Hi guys, some advice please, price vs performance,

I currently have 2x Western Digital Caviar Blacks (WD6401AALS) from a couple of years ago set up as RAID 0 bought from ocuk, which I use to load games from, however they aren't quite as quick as I'd like, so I would like to upgrade them. Size wise they are both roughly half full (split into 2 partitions, for speed benefits, important data backed up elsewhere).

It's more to fiddle then because they aren't working and they will be reused elsewhere in other computers, but I'd like a speed increase really, won't match my SSD (which I am not currently using for games) and unless there is a large SSD floating about somewhere sub-£100 then I don't want one, I need a cheaper, larger size solution.

I looked at the Seagate XT Hybrid 500GB, but not sure that I'll get enough increase in speed, and at RAIDING either 2x Seagate 7200.12 (@ 500GB Each) or WD Black 500GB or 750GB (32mb vs 64mb cache however). The seagates are cheap, but not sure how they'd compare speedwise, I already have a Seagate 7200.11 for Media files and it performs fine.

So, what would you all suggest? I am currently using about 260GB for games and other data, then I'd need some space for the secondary OS too. If it gives suitable speed improvements over what I have I'd consider a single 1 or 2TB drive instead of RAID0 as long as it's cheap.

Thanks for any advice guys.

 

[Surveyor]

You might find that newer models of HDD are a bit faster than the WD Blacks you have now but I don't think you'll get a massive increase in speed by buying them.

Perhaps you could run the benchmark in HD Tach or HD Tune to give us an idea of what speeds you're currently getting with the WD's in RAID 0.

 

[linktoinsanity]

Ok done a HD Tune test.

Transfer Rates: Min = 113.3MB/sec. Max = 210.3MB/sec. Average = 174.8MB/sec
Access Time: 12ms.
Burst Rate = 134.7MB/sec.
CPU Useage = -1%

Not bad I know, just want to see if I can get quicker loading times, with a higher storage device (yes, my SSD is quicker, but it's used more for Windows and Steam itself for example).

The SSD (Intel 510)
Transfer Rates: Min = 208.1MB/sec. Max = 215.3MB/sec. Average = 211.9MB/sec
Access Time: 0.2ms.
Burst Rate = 175.0MB/sec.
CPU Useage = -1%

Both are running on a Sata 2 Intel Controller, built into the motherboard.

 

[Surveyor]

No single HDD is going to even match the speed of your RAID 0.

Two 1TB Samsung F3's in RAID 0 (about as fast as you'll get with 2 disks) look like this:



It's up to you if it's worth shelling out for and there might not be much real world difference.

 

[linktoinsanity]

No single HDD is going to even match the speed of your RAID 0.

Two 1TB Samsung F3's in RAID 0 (about as fast as you'll get with 2 disks) look like this:



It's up to you if it's worth shelling out for and there might not be much real world difference.

Thanks for that mate, may just save the money and use it to get a new gfx card tbh

 

[Surveyor]

You're welcome.