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Best HDD arrangement

C

carlmart

Junior Member
I'm starting a new computer assembly, and this time I'm thinking of doing things different. Probably my main problem is that I use my computer for several things: personal matters, video files for home use and video editing. Both the second and third applications have particular demands. For video home HDDs have to be large, but I use them most of the time at night, to watch things. For video editing, HDDs have to be reasonably fast and probably this time I will use them in RAID. The problem is internal space, as I end up with at least 5 HDDs and the DVD to fill up all my SATA connectors, even if my present case (Antec P180) would need some arrangement to put them all inside. All this generates internal heat and probably stresses the supply, so I'm thinking of putting the home video files outside the case, and even going for 2.5" HDDs, housed in separate cases, USB 3 interfaced and powered through USB too. The latter is important. I believe poor external supplies have damaged some of the HDDs I used in the past, as they broke shortly after using them with such adapters. Housing the HDDs on an external box, holding 4 or 6 of them, might be an option. But those are quite expensive where I live (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), and also seem to have not so reliable PS too. So those are the variables for my arrangement. Which path would you advise me on going through?
 
If you don't need a larger external enclosure or one with raid capabilities?.. there are plenty of options for you at reasonable prices. Some can have pretty cheap build quality though and I would imagine that power supplies are one of the area's where they would cut corners to improve profit margin.

If you do need larger/raid capability?.. they get much pricier and the performance is less than phenominal due to poor throughput/raid chip performance and the inherent USB3 bottlenecks(unless you find one with UASP capability and ALSO have that option on the system port it's connected to.. and most don't).

As for the need for HDD space in your current case?.. I would think it better to get a larger case with more bays and upgrade the power supply. That will allow you to run the raids off the internal sata ports(preferably Intel based.. or upper end AMD 6G) for best performance. Additional fans are also dirt cheap to keep the cooling where it should be for longer component/HDD lifespan.

And for god's sake man.. get an SSD for that OS/app usage since it will save you much time over the long run and make for a much better user experience. Even a smaller 64GB model would do just fine for a "starter SSD" as it will only hold the OS/apps anyways.. and they're getting cheaper by the day. Plenty of guys here who would be happy to advise you on how to shrink the OS's installed size(page file and hibernation file are the biggies if you have larger amounts of ram installed) to give it more breathing room.
 
RAID arrangements would only be inside the case itself, so the external case does not need that. But one problem is to find a model that is sold here in Brazil, as they do not seem to stock any, particularly not USB3. The larger case you suggest is what I was using until now, but a friend of mine, usually a good advisor on these matters, told me to move out those HDs that I use only eventually. That way they won't be spinning all the time, generating heat and wearing out. About the SSD drive I will eventually get one, perhaps through some friend travelling to the USA, because over here they are offensively expensive for now. I did add up how much space I might need for the OS/App drive, and it's about 60Gb minimum. So going for twice that might be in order. Keep in mind that I am not looking for excuses for your suggestions, just looking for something that will suit me better.
 
A question non computer related. Why is that I can't get go to another line when I write things here? It's one sentence after the other in the end, and that is not the way I wrote it. RIGHT NOW, for instance, I went to another line, and I bet it will end up without that space.
 
carlmart said:
A question non computer related. Why is that I can't get go to another line when I write things here? It's one sentence after the other in the end, and that is not the way I wrote it. RIGHT NOW, for instance, I went to another line, and I bet it will end up without that space.
Click to expand...

Dunno. I had similar issues with this site more than a few times over the years as well and mine had to do with the current OS volume that I was operating from. A clean OS reimage fixed it all up though so I can only assume that it had something to do with the install itself.

Maybe try to start a support request thread here?
http://forums.anandtech.com/forumdisplay.php?f=17
 
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