Page file / Partitioning recommendation

[SweeJ]

Hello there,

I'm presently using this hard drive setup on my current AMD 3500+ 2.2GHz 1.5GB RAM 4 year old system:

Samsung SpinPoint P120 250GB SATA II
C:\Windows XP SP1
x:\Ubuntu

WD3200 320GB SATA II (2-platter)
E:\Applications (ie. all my Programs, I install here, and not on my OS)
F:\Games
I:\Torrents

Seagate 250GB SATA II (2-platter)
G:\My Documents
H:\Music, Photos, Videos

Seagate 120GB (2-platter)
D:\Page File/Temp Files/Temp Internet Files
J:\Backup Softwares

For the past 4 years, even tho my system has gotten bloated, I rarely ever encounter slow start up / shut down or running programs because I believe in spreading the workload amoung 4 hard drives to keep my system responsive and fast (I multi-task heavily).

However, since my old Seagate 120GB is failing, I thought it's time I rebuilt when an entirely new system, as shown in my signature. I'm putting both Seagates to sleep but using back my Samsung (bcoz I love how it's still fast and quiet) and my 320GB WD.


Here is what I plan to do with 5 hard drives:

WD VelociRaptor 300GB
C:\Windows Vista x64 [50GB]
x:\Ubuntu and/or Windows XP / Windows 7 [250GB]

WD Blue 640GB
E:\Applications [40GB]
J:\Torrents [600gb]

WD Blue 640GB
F:\Games [50gb]
H:\Music, Photos, Videos [590GB]

WD 320GB
G:\My Documents [20GB]
I:\Adobe Photoshop (this is the only application I'll keep off the Apps Drive, bcoz I want a dedicated drive for Photoshop CS4, Lightroom to keep I/Os off my OS, Apps & Page File drives) [300GB]

Samsung 250GB
D:\Page File/Temp files/Temp internet files [20GB]
K:\Backup Softwares [230GB]


So, I have a few questions:

1) Is 50GB sufficient for Vista-64 up to 3yrs down the line?

2) Since I'm getting a so much faster VelociRaptor, do you think putting the page file on a separate hard drive will still be faster? Or should I just rid the Samsung drive and leave the page file on the Raptor?

3) What should my min and max page file be considering, if I can get my system up for it, I love to watch videos, edit photos, game, chat, browse, word process, email... all at the same time

Sorry, if this seems OS related, but I thought it's related to storage, I'd thought I post it here. Many thanks for your replies.

 

[zagood]

Vista: let Windows manage virtual memory and leave on the VeloRaptor
XP: still benefits from spreading out page files across dif. channels

However, you'll get the most benefit from adding/replacing your ram. 4gb recommended since you'll be adding Vista x64.

-z

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: SweeJ
1) Is 50GB sufficient for Vista-64 up to 3yrs down the line?

2) Since I'm getting a so much faster VelociRaptor, do you think putting the page file on a separate hard drive will still be faster? Or should I just rid the Samsung drive and leave the page file on the Raptor?

3) What should my min and max page file be considering, if I can get my system up for it, I love to watch videos, edit photos, game, chat, browse, word process, email... all at the same time

1) Depends where you install things. Even though my C drive only has Windows and Office-like programs, it still uses 66gb of space. C:\Windows is 16gb. All of the space seems to be taken in C:\Users because stuff just puts itself there.

2) It shouldn't matter where the page file is because you shouldn't be using it that much in the first place. Buy more ram and let windows automatically handle the page file.

 

[faxon]

i only read what hard drives you were using, but here's my thoughts

1: WD VRaptor 300GB: Partition this with 30GB for xp for an xp install, 50GB for a vista/win7 install, and 20GB if you install ubuntu. that leaves enough space to install the apps you want if you ever image your drives with the OS (drivers, browsers, media players, codecs, the basics), for every OS you install/plan on installing. partition the rest as space for other apps/games based on your expected usage of ext3/NTFS depending on if you install linux or not. put the pagefile in the NTFS section of the storage partitions, and partition a section twice the size of your ram if you install linux for swap space
2: 2xWD Blue: Raid1 storage drives. put everything you care about loosing here. partition it based on your needs, but remember linux can read NTFS, so you dont have to partition it in ext3 if you dont want to.

use the other 2 drives for storage and backups from the Raid1/Vraptor as you see fit, and again put a swap file twice the size of your ram on each disk.

the above is basically how my system is set up, except i just retired the latter 2 drives, i have a 150GB Vraptor, 2x400GB Barracuda 7200.11, and i just retired the latter 2 drives because one died (ironically also a 120GB seagate) and i was moving the other one (120GB IDE WD) to another system.