What is the optimal storage setup for rendering?

[asuh]

Here's my system:

E8500 3.1GHz
Asus P5B Deluxe
4GB RAM
XFX 8800GS

1TB Hitachi
1TB WD Black
160GB WD SATA
Windows 7 Ultimate

Right now, I'm using my 160GB for my OS and 1TB Hitachi as my storage. I'm not sure where to fit the 1TB WD Black into the mix.

My main usage on a daily basis is graphics rendering, whether it's bulk resizing photos, graphic editing, etc. I might start doing a little audio editing and rendering on here too but not now.

I could reformat and use the 1TB WD Black as my main drive but since all my storage is currently on the Hitachi with plenty of room to spare, the WD Black would have so much wasted space.

I have an external case but I'm not sure how that would even fit into the mix either since now I'm not lacking storage space.

Is there any reason I should scratch the 160GB drive over the 1TB? I doubt I'd notice any performance increases by installing my OS on 1TB but then again I'm not sure.

Thoughts?

 

[asuh]

Any advice?

 

[LtGoonRush]

I'd replace the 160GB drive with the new one. Put the 160GB drive in your external enclosure, where its slower performance won't matter (since it will still be faster than USB2.0). I think you might be surprised about how much of a performance difference you notice, especially if the 160GB is more than half full. Don't forget to optimize your drives with MyDefrag. Also, if you're still running XP, you'd have a much better experience by moving to Windows 7 64-bit, since your hardware is enough is new enough that it can't be fully utilized by XP.

 

[asuh]

Ooops, I updated first post to include that I'm running Win7 x64. )

Currently, with the OS on my 160GB, the drive is only 1/4 full. Do you really believe the 1TB WD Black drive will improve the performance of my Win7 x64 a whole lot more than running it on my 160GB?

If it does improve the performance, will I REALLY be able to see the difference?

 

[faxon]

for a rendering box the ideal setup i would use is 4x1TB RAID5 + 2 separate 1TB drives for editing to and from + 128gb or larger SSD. RAID5 is for on box storage if you dont want to wait on copying to/from a larger server, and the 1 TB drives are run separate so you dont bog down one drive trying to read and write at the same time, SSD is there for all the reasons we already know.

 

[asuh]

Thanks faxon. I just wanna try use what I have optimally.

 

[her209]

Buy lots of RAM and use Ramdisk to store and render. When done, move it to the disk for permanent storage.