Machine died - Time for a rebuild

TheNuju · 29 Apr 2008 at 13:30

Hi guys,

My machine died last night after 12 months of stable running, so thought its about time to give it a clean up, rebuild and a new install of XP. Right, firstly lets start on the hardware ...

Gigabyte DQ6 Mobo
Intel QX6850
4gb Dominator DDR2 8500 (4x 1gb)
BFG GeForce 8800 GTX 768mb
2x WD Raptor 150gb
Corsair HX620
2x SATA DVD-RW drives
Thermaltake Armour case

Right, now previously my machine was in RAID 0 Strip with a cluster size of 128, now due to it being a complete rebuild Im open for all options again, the machine is used for MP3's (around 150gb of which), gaming, videos (700mb DIVX rips from my camcorder) and lots of internet/msn work.

Now im after a bit of advice on the RAID/HDD setup ... which option would you choose?

OPTION 1
---------
Both drives in RAID 0 Strip with a cluster of 128

OPTION 2
---------
Both drives in RAID 0 Strip with a cluster of 64

OPTION 3
---------
Both drives in RAID 0 Strip with a cluster of 32

OPTION 4
---------
One drive for OS/software, other for storage (MP3's, MPEGS etc)

OPTION 5
---------
Something else?

Would appreciate some advice on the best way to go here, Im building the machine tonight so will get some pictures up too

Mike

Admiral Huddy · 29 Apr 2008 at 17:16

Since you are using your system for video and media then I'd say option 5.

I would ditch the raptors and buy 3 decent sized Samsung spinpoint F1s. The 750gb versions are only £75 each. Set them up as RAID-5 (cluster size 64) and enjoy the benfit of a large disk array and performance with parity at a decent price.

TheNuju · 29 Apr 2008 at 17:20

Thanks

Admiral Huddy · 29 Apr 2008 at 17:21

I've just noticed that this is a duplicate thread

TheNuju · 29 Apr 2008 at 22:07

Your quite correct, I couldnt work out how to delete so I left this thread open as this covered a broader spectrum than just how to run 2 hdd's for performance ...

Chimerical · 29 Apr 2008 at 22:21

TheNuju said:
Your quite correct, I couldnt work out how to delete so I left this thread open as this covered a broader spectrum than just how to run 2 hdd's for performance ...

Just report (icon on left) your own thread to the mod's.

TheNuju · 30 Apr 2008 at 09:25

Just an update,

My machines up and working now, opted for a single partition on RAID 0 @ 64k stripe, installed windows xp sp3 and updated all drivers etc and shes working like a charm, I will try and get some benchmarks etc,

Got a rather untidy picture, need to sort the cables out ...
No overclocks as of yet, apart from the QX6850 running at 3.43ghz ...

Mike