Smallest, fastest IDE drives for RAID?

[IamDavid]

I'm looking to get a couple IDE drives for my system and run them in RAID. I don't want a couple massive hard drives, I would prefer instead a couple small, super fast drives that are extremely dependable. I ran a couple 40GB Maxtor's and it increased my speeds greatly but one of the drives failed and I lost everything on the 2 drives. So I figure 2 small drives with just my OS and essential other software will work great.
Any suggestions on which drives to get?

 

[amdskip]

I considered running 2 Maxtor 30gb drives but I found out that I would be better off with one large drive with the 8mb cache. I now use a 120gb Maxtor w/the 8mb cache. I wish they made smaller drives than 80gb with the 8mb cache but they don't.

 

[IamDavid]

Originally posted by: amdskip
I considered running 2 Maxtor 30gb drives but I found out that I would be better off with one large drive with the 8mb cache. I now use a 120gb Maxtor w/the 8mb cache. I wish they made smaller drives than 80gb with the 8mb cache but they don't.

I wasn't aware of that. Why don't they? Not everyone wants or needs a massive 80GB+ HD. A nice set of 10-15 GB HD's would be awesome for RAID.

 

[BG4533]

I don't know how many HDs today are extremely dependable. I hear the least about Seagate, but they are usually a bit behind the pack in speed. One of the 8mb cache WD drives would be extremely fast and should be reliable. They also come with a 3 year warranty which should show a bit of increased faith from WD. I think you can get these drives as small as 40GB. Another option would be to upgrade to SATA and get a single or RAIDed WD Raptors. For an OS, I think this might be a better option. The 10K RPM would yield much better access times and the transfer speeds wouldn't be all that much worse than a 2 drive IDE array. A pair of RAID 0 Raptors would just be insanely fast. These drives haven't been out long enough to prove their reliability, but they are built on SCSI technolgy, have heavy duty bearings, and offer a 5 year warranty.

Brian

 

[IamDavid]

Originally posted by: BG4533
I don't know how many HDs today are extremely dependable. I hear the least about Seagate, but they are usually a bit behind the pack in speed. One of the 8mb cache WD drives would be extremely fast and should be reliable. They also come with a 3 year warranty which should show a bit of increased faith from WD. I think you can get these drives as small as 40GB. Another option would be to upgrade to SATA and get a single or RAIDed WD Raptors. For an OS, I think this might be a better option. The 10K RPM would yield much better access times and the transfer speeds wouldn't be all that much worse than a 2 drive IDE array. A pair of RAID 0 Raptors would just be insanely fast. These drives haven't been out long enough to prove their reliability, but they are built on SCSI technolgy, have heavy duty bearings, and offer a 5 year warranty.

Brian

WOW, a 5yr warranty on a new HD. They must be pretty confident on those. I think I'm gonna have to look into these. Thanks for the suggestion!! SATA here I come...