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Best Hard Drive setup for next rig ?

J

Jaap74

Member
Hi,

A few questions, hope I don't ramble !

My next rig will be built when Conroe comes out and basically I want to know what would be my best drive configuration bearing in mind the following :

1) gaming isn't my biggest priority (but I'll still get a top end graphics card for when I do)
2) I have over 25,000 MP3's and I want the quickest access possible to them and video files...... I want to do a search in Windows Media Player (for a band or song etc) and I want the quickest response possible...... at present I sometimes wait up to 15 seconds plus, dependent of course upon what other applications are running.

So which would be best for me :

1 Raptor for the OS
plus
2 hard drives in RAID0 for my multimedia files

OR

stick with the current setup and just a RAID0 array for everything (no Raptor) ??

money isn't really a problem so I want performance as the priority........... I'm guessing the Raptor plus RAID option will be best ??

and a side question : should Vista have a better "search engine" (for want of the technical term) and better responsiveness than XP ?

many thanks !
Jaap
 
what types of video? whats the bitrate?

For lower bitrates like xvid,divx, you can use normal 200gig hdds in non raid, for uncompressed avi, youll need raid and even then it;; only work for seconds before running out of bandwith.

Raid makes larger files load faster due to higher transfer rates, but it also lengthens the seek time so smaller files will actually load slower for most people doing most things, the 2 should balance out.
 
Originally posted by: Jaap74
I want to do a search in Windows Media Player (for a band or song etc) and I want the quickest response possible......
Click to expand...

RAID won't help with that, you want a fast seek time for searching, not nescesarily a fast transfer rate. You also want a good file system, ie, not FAT32.

and a side question : should Vista have a better "search engine" (for want of the technical term) and better responsiveness than XP ?
Click to expand...

I heard better searching was a major feature, but I also heard winFS (new high performance file system) was being delayed so who knows. I use ReiserFS on my storage drives, that's quite fast.

 
If I was to upgrade tommorow If I had the cash.

WD Raptor 150 GB,
Raid- 2x Seagate Barracuda 7200. 750GB or WD RE2 500GB.


For Vista the coming drives with flash cache will be very the thing.
 
Get a Raptor and partition a part of it for the OS. RAID 0 is pointless. Really, really pointless.
 
Originally posted by: Ichigo
Get a Raptor and partition a part of it for the OS. RAID 0 is pointless. Really, really pointless.
Click to expand...

Hey, another thread, another RAID bashing. Exactly what is wrong with it? It won't help seek time, but definately helps transfer rate.
 
Originally posted by: Jaap74
2) I have over 25,000 MP3's and I want the quickest access possible to them and video files...... I want to do a search in Windows Media Player (for a band or song etc) and I want the quickest response possible...... at present I sometimes wait up to 15 seconds plus, dependent of course upon what other applications are running.


money isn't really a problem so I want performance as the priority
Click to expand...

15K u320 scsi hdd - Fujitsu MAX3147NP 147GB

matched with a u160 (lsiu160/adaptec 19160/29160) controller in a 32pci slot

 
Originally posted by: Atheus
Originally posted by: Ichigo
Get a Raptor and partition a part of it for the OS. RAID 0 is pointless. Really, really pointless.
Click to expand...

Hey, another thread, another RAID bashing. Exactly what is wrong with it? It won't help seek time, but definately helps transfer rate.
Click to expand...

it only helps transfer rates on large files
 
Originally posted by: mwmorph
what types of video? whats the bitrate?

For lower bitrates like xvid,divx, you can use normal 200gig hdds in non raid, for uncompressed avi, youll need raid and even then it;; only work for seconds before running out of bandwith.

Raid makes larger files load faster due to higher transfer rates, but it also lengthens the seek time so smaller files will actually load slower for most people doing most things, the 2 should balance out.
Click to expand...

what kind of uncompressed avi are you dealing with that require that much bandwidth?
 
Try using Google Desktop search (or whatever the current name is). It gives you a response like the full on Google web site and just as fast - mili-seconds instead of seconds.

You download the program, install it and setup what it will index. Let it go and see what happens. Far quicker than the Windows search becasue everythign is already indexed.
 
Originally posted by: bob4432
Originally posted by: mwmorph
what types of video? whats the bitrate?

For lower bitrates like xvid,divx, you can use normal 200gig hdds in non raid, for uncompressed avi, youll need raid and even then it;; only work for seconds before running out of bandwith.

Raid makes larger files load faster due to higher transfer rates, but it also lengthens the seek time so smaller files will actually load slower for most people doing most things, the 2 should balance out.
Click to expand...

what kind of uncompressed avi are you dealing with that require that much bandwidth?
Click to expand...

please tell me what type of uncompressed avis you are dealing with that max out a raid 0 setup...
 
Originally posted by: bob4432
Originally posted by: bob4432
Originally posted by: mwmorph
what types of video? whats the bitrate?

For lower bitrates like xvid,divx, you can use normal 200gig hdds in non raid, for uncompressed avi, youll need raid and even then it;; only work for seconds before running out of bandwith.

Raid makes larger files load faster due to higher transfer rates, but it also lengthens the seek time so smaller files will actually load slower for most people doing most things, the 2 should balance out.
Click to expand...

what kind of uncompressed avi are you dealing with that require that much bandwidth?
Click to expand...

please tell me what type of uncompressed avis you are dealing with that max out a raid 0 setup...
Click to expand...

we had this question asked a long time ago and some person was trying to play high resolution uncompressed video and that would suck hundreds of mb/s worth of bandwith(not as much as the 250mb/s cap of sata but it was in the mid 100 somethings. We recommended a ramdrive If I remember correctly.
 
Hard to suggest what someone else should use, but here is what my next rig will have:

RAID1 array 1 (two 160 GB SATA) - OS & Programs

RAID1 array 2 (two 160 GB SATA) - Data & Files

I will keep my music and digital image files on two external Firewire 800 Drives. I am not a gamer either, but am heavy into digital photography, processing and storage.
 
I think you need a better way of indexing those songs. I second the google desktop or at least some other type of search. I've found that itunes indexes songs pretty well. What are you currently using to search?
 
P.S. If I were you I would be looking in to some kind of redundant storage to prevent losing all that data because of a drive failure.
 
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