Is multiple HDD better than one?

Mr.Bon

Mr.Bon

Mr.Bon

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Hi,

Question: Is 2 better than 1?

Would it be better to get multiple HDD, so for example, 1 is for the OS and the other is for media (movies and music) ...rather than just bang it all on 1 HDD?

I really want that new Samsung F1 320 (HD32HJ) x2 ...but its delayed big time and I'm looking to build in a months time, so I may be forced to get something else, such as the bigger F1 640 (HD642JJ)
But then it would only be 1 HDD. I think I'd want atleast 2 HDD with a maximum total of around 640gb

I would like to stick to Samsung, as they are cheap and most important of all, quiet. You may want to suggest the WD, but my bro got a 250gb last year and its loud. So that kind of put me off, big time.

My spec thread

I did search before posting, but I want a solid answer.

Thanks

BON
 
When you ask if it is better in what sense do you mean? I prefer to have more than one hard drive because apart from anything else if one dies I haven't automatically lost all my data, it also makes it easier to organise files etc. You can also carry out separate actions on the hard drives and in theory it should be faster because it isn't relying on a single drive head, however I haven't really tested this.
 
Hi,

I mean in terms of performance.
OS and other big programs (such as AutoCad and Photoshop) on 1 HDD and the rest on a second HDD.
So is it better to keep the OS on a separate HDD? or doesn't it matter at all?

I understand that putting the OS on a raptor drive will speed things up in terms of turn on and shut down.

Agreed, multiple drives would make it a bit easier to organise files :)
 
Keeping the OS and the page file on separate drives can help speed up the system (it matters a bit less now when on 4gb+ Ram as Windows is less likely to exceed physical Ram so quickly), there are a few explanations posted about how to do this. In your case I'd probably say that two hard drives would be of benefit.

A Raptor will probably speed things up for you but you've got to weigh that against the cost and the noise.
 
More drives can be good, reduces I/O contention. If you're running your OS, pagefile, launching games and downloading onto the one disk you're limited to its total speed and operations within the drive are rather slow. Add in another disk for some of those tasks it takes some load off of the other one.
 
Ah thats excellent 'Jam

Definitely going for Multiple drives.

Samsung, flipping hurry up with the HD32HJ's :p:cool:
 
I'm currently running of an older Seagate 7200.10 250gb (not the newer faster single platter model) and a Maxtor DM10 200gb. If buying now I'd be looking at Seagate or Samsung first then Western Digital - no specific reason other than the Seagate is a good drive, quiet and fast and Samsung seem to have really raised their game with their new range (albeit the 320gb drive seems very rare).
 
Mr.Bon said:
Ah thats excellent 'Jam

Definitely going for Multiple drives.

Samsung, flipping hurry up with the HD32HJ's :p:cool:
Click to expand...

I expect they must be suffering under all the demand from the low priicng of the 1TB ones. I picked mine up for £85incl, no surprise other models are scarce and prices have gone back up. They've also just released a 5400rpm F1 range in Japan.
 
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