Optimal storage configuration - SATA, IDE, Optical!

Participant · 22 Apr 2007 at 09:21

Hi all

I'm trying to plan the best (fastest) way to arrange storage with the below constraints. One of the problems I have is the fact that I will have three IDE devices with the DS3P I gather only offering 2 IDE channels.

Total relevant kit list is:

- Gigabyte DS3P
- 2 x 320Gb Seagate Barracuda SATA
- 2 x WD 120Gb IDE
- 1 x Optiarc DVD-RW IDE

I was thinking of the following:

- Barracudas in RAID 0 with Windows, Games, and then everything else (downloads etc) on their own partitions
- Swap file on its own partition also on the Barracudas
- Both Western Digital drives on the available IDE channels to be used for weekly scheduled overnight backup of critical information i.e. documents, photos, MP3s etc.
- Buy a SATA-IDE adaptor for the optical drive

I was also thinking of selling both the IDE drives and getting another 320Gb Seagate since they're only 50 quid, but I'd get barely anything for the WDs and it seems a shame to get rid of them when they're fine for storage.

How reliable are these SATA-->IDE adaptors anyway? Is this how you would do it and does anyone have opinion on a better way to arrange this gear?

rpstewart · 22 Apr 2007 at 11:09

Personally I'd only have one of the WD drives in the machine and put the other in an external caddy. That way you can isolate it from the PC to give you a degree of protection from PSU failures etc. You then still have an internal backup drive for ad-hoc backups and only two IDE devices to worry about cabling up.

I wouldn't bother creating a separate partition for the page file, doing so after the Windows install will push the pagefile away from the fastest part of the disk. A better option would be to set a fixed size page file immediately after Windows has been installed, it then will be in a single fragement and since it won't change size it can't get fragmented. Alternatively you could put it on the IDE drive but it's debatable whether putting it on a separate but slower drive will be better than putting it on the far faster but busier array.

Participant · 22 Apr 2007 at 11:19

Hmmm ok thanks a lot for that info. An external caddy - don't really understand how these work. Would they plug into the SATA slot and then I could quickly unplug the drive should I want to hide it / move it somewhere? Would they just fit at the front of the case like an optical drive? Will do some research on these as I know nothing of them. In any case I like the idea of having no more than two IDE devices as I don't really want to have to bother fiddling with adaptors etc of which I'm skeptical.

Regarding the page file, this is another argument for having 3 x SATA drives I think, as I suppose there are benefits like you say of having the page file on an entirely seperate drive. The question here is: would a swap file on the same RAID array as the system files be faster than a swap file on a seperate single identical SATA disk?

I suppose the decision I have to make is exactly how much backup space do I need. The only things I need to back up are Documents and MP3s, which total approximately 70Gb so would easily be covered by one of the WDs, but it would be nice to be able to make images of other parts of the drive for ease of reinstallation etc.

rpstewart · 22 Apr 2007 at 11:39

Robbie G said:
Hmmm ok thanks a lot for that info. An external caddy - don't really understand how these work. Would they plug into the SATA slot and then I could quickly unplug the drive should I want to hide it / move it somewhere? Would they just fit at the front of the case like an optical drive? Will do some research on these as I know nothing of them. In any case I like the idea of having no more than two IDE devices as I don't really want to have to bother fiddling with adaptors etc of which I'm skeptical.

I was talking about an external USB2 enclosure rather than an internal swappable drive bay thing. There is a slight speed penalty in using USB as there isn't a huge amoutn of bandwidth available. You should be able to get 30Mb/s though which is plenty for backups.

Robbie G said:
Regarding the page file, this is another argument for having 3 x SATA drives I think, as I suppose there are benefits like you say of having the page file on an entirely seperate drive. The question here is: would a swap file on the same RAID array as the system files be faster than a swap file on a seperate single identical SATA disk?

It's difficult to tell off hand, it depends on how busy the RAID array is.