'New' System Build Questions

[crockman]

I bought some PC Parts quite a few months ago, but never had the time or extra cash to complete the 'to-be-built' PC.

The Parts I have (Please consider, yes i know this stuff is no longer state-of-the-art, but i might as well use them, can always use this PC as a Back-up PC in the Future):

MB------ASRock 939 Dual SATA2 (Not Vista Model)
CPU-----AMD 939-3700+
Video----EVGA 6800-Vanilla AGP (to be replaced later with a DX-10 PCI-X)
RAM-----A-Data DDR400 Vitesta 2GB Dual-Channel
Sound---Audigy2-Value

HD------WD 36GB 10k Rpm Raptor 16MB (WD 360ADFD)

Here's the Questions:

I had bought only 1 36GB HD, I've realized 36GB is Not going to be enough space. So should i buy another 36GB Raptor and then do a Raid ? ( I believe its Raid-0 that puts half the Info on 1 Drive and Half on the Other), thats what I'm planning anyway.
Or should I buy 1-74GB Raptor 16MB and not bother with a Raid ? (I can always use the 1-36GB Raptor in a Different PC)

Also I plan to use Vista 64-Bit, yes 64 Bit, Home Premium.

So in-short, what should i do Hard-Drive wise ?

Is 64-Bit acceptable to use ?

This PC will mainly be used for playing WoW & Star Wars Galaxies, plus all other minor things like Surfing the Web, etc...


Thanks in advance.

 

[HermDogg]

Why would you necessarily need to RAID the second 36 gb raptor? If you're looking for more space you could just run it as a second hard drive unless you really need to back up your stuff for WoW and SWG. As for Vista 64-Bit, I don't know that there's anything wrong with using it in general but I would check and make sure that both games will support it. Vista and 64-bit are two things that don't necessarily play well with others.

 

[Maezr]

raid 0 will double your chances of disk failure

you should buy a large hdd (500gb, etc. you can get that for 100$) and use the raptor only for stuff that requires speed. no sense in having mp3s on the raptor, for example.

 

[jkresh]

some of the new large drives are actually faster then the smaller raptors (wd's 750gig and hitachi's 1tb specifically) and even the 500gigs are pretty fast now so don't buy another 36gig get a nice big drive for os and use the raptor for games. Check for compatibility with the games but vista 64 works very nicely in general (especially with 4+gigs of ram).

 

[crockman]

Thanks for the Replies HermDogg, Maezr & jkresh

The only reason I was considering a Raid-0 is simply for the Performance while playing online games.

I like your Ideas of using a Larger (Non-Raptor) HDD & using the 36G Raptor just for my Games.

Cept' I really dont know how to set that up.

Would i take the Larger Non-Raptor HDD and put that as Master & the 36G Raptor as Slave ?

Could i use a Sata-300 as my Larger Drive considering the Raptor is Sata-150 ?

Also what exactly would i put on Larger Non-Raptor Drive ?, Windows ?, Firewall/AntiVirus ? Etc.. ?

And then I would load just my Games such as WoW on the Slave Raptor ?


Thanks & sorry Ive never used a Sata Drive before