Optimal number of HDs to winrar?

[shira]

I'm building a new system, which I plan to use in part on newsgroups.

So I'll be winraring large amounts of data. I've been told that a single HD can get kind of bogged down. So I'm wondering whether it's optimal to have two HDs, a "source" and a "destination" for winraring. Or is there some reason I should use THREE HDs?

I'm going to be using Hitachi SATA-300 NCQ HDs. Will the NCQ feature help in any way?

Thanks.

 

[V00D00]

I didn't know hard drive performance was a limiting factor for winrar performance. I thought that was mainly cpu based. Maybe I'm wrong.

 

[shira]

Originally posted by: V00D00
I didn't know hard drive performance was a limiting factor for winrar performance. I thought that was mainly cpu based. Maybe I'm wrong.

CPU performance is definitely a factor. But my understanding is that the constant reads and writes that occur during winraring can bring a single HD to its knees.

Or maybe it's the added burden that would occur if a big download were occurring at the same time as winraring.

Or maybe I've been misinformed. Hence this thread.

 

[dwcal]

Two drives is enough, one for the source files, one for the target files. It speeds up large file copies a lot compared to a single drive. The drive head seeks is what slows down a single drive.