What should my next upgrade be?

[MDE]

I'm considering my next upgrade and have narrowed it down to either Antec case or dual Raptors. Right now I have a cheap case and an 80GB Maxtor DiamondMax plus 9 2MB buffer. The drive is down to 11GB free and the case looks like crap, so both would be welcomed upgrades. The case would help dampen some of the noise coming from my fans, and the Raptors would kick up the speed and be cool for bragging rights . Also, dual or single Raptors if I go that route? Is there really much of a speed difference between a single Raptor and two in a RAID0? I have an Asus A7N8X Deluxe with the Silicon Image 3112 controller, so I wouldn't need an SATA controller. Any suggestions?

 

[BaboonGuy]

dual raptors definetly. the speed diff will be huge, two raptors in raid 0 = scsi performance. plus you will have an awesome storage setup as you can use your dual raptors for apps/system and the 80 gigger for storage. i wouldn't get the case, especially since it doesn't look that good imo. if you're gonna upgrade the case go for something cool like a sonata (for noise) or a coolermaster (for hardcore ocing badassness)

 

[Jeff7181]

Hell, 1 raptor = SCSI performance... if you're talking 10,000 RPM SCSI drives

 

[MDE]

The case is basically what I'm looking for, something solid and that's going to last until they change form factors (never I hope). But I don't want a Sonata, too small and I don't mind a little noise. It's like having a completely silenced Corvette Z06... Why would you ever do that? But those Raptors are calling... Decisions, decisions

 

[dwango]

Originally posted by: MonkeyDriveExpress
The case is basically what I'm looking for, something solid and that's going to last until they change form factors (never I hope). But I don't want a Sonata, too small and I don't mind a little noise. It's like having a completely silenced Corvette Z06... Why would you ever do that? But those Raptors are calling... Decisions, decisions

Ever try to fall asleep with a Corvette Z06 revving outside?

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

put in the computer in a wooden box sell the case, get some nice hard drives

/sarcasm

don't take seriously

 

[MDE]

Wouldn't it be idling? But anyway, the computer isn't in my room so I don't really care too much about noise, if it's too loud I can always turn it off.

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: JustAnAverageGuy
put in the computer in a wooden box sell the case, get some nice hard drives /sarcasm don't take seriously

I would but I'd get about $3 for this case. That wouldn't even cover the wooden box .

 

[mechBgon]

Just keep in mind that the Antec you're looking at has one fan-cooled HDD bay with room for three drives. If you want more hard drives than that, they've got to go in the upper, non-fan-cooled rack where the floppy drive lives. This is one area where the Sonota has a slight edge, since it can park four HDD's right behind a 120mm intake fan (not included).

I found out that you can buy the two stanchions, HDD cage and fan holder to add another fan-cooled HDD cage to the SX-style case like you're looking at, if you ever forsaw that becoming an issue. But it would cost somewhere around $40-50 for the parts to do that, so unless you had some spectacular mod window that you didn't want to give up...

 

[MDE]

I probably won't go much over three drives, my 80 will probably go in a 5.25" bay anyways and leave the airflow to the Raptors. I'll probably get both, but the question is which first?

 

[mechBgon]

I guess the other thing worth mentioning is that the Antec 1040II is a pretty heavy case. If you plan to go to LAN parties with it or something, maybe you should look at the LANBOY, which is aluminum and would be easier to carry. Plus it gots a window on it!

As for which to get first, I vote for the case & power supply, because you don't want to run your shiny new drives on a so-so PSU, right?

 

[MDE]

Weight doesn't bother me. As long as it's about 50 lbs its ok. I don't really LAN much, so I'm looking more at a sturdy case with a good PSU. BTW, in case you didn't see it, the case comes with a 400W Antec PSU.

 

[mechBgon]

I know, I meant your old PSU from your cheap case. I'd hold off on hooking up a new pair of drives to the average cheap-case PSU. Therefore, get your new Antec case/PSU first, is my way of thinking

 

[MDE]

Well, my PSU is 420W and it's got pretty stable voltages, so that shouldn't ba a problem. Maybe holding off on both and getting them at the same time would do the trick, but that would be sooo long from now. I guess whichever I get a deal on when I have the money on me would be first but about $275 for the Raptors (if I get two) and about $100 for the case. Enough of my rambling....

 

[MDE]

If I go Raptor, how much of a difference is there between a single drive and a RAID0 with two?

 

[LED]

Single Raptor and then here's Raptors in RAID0

 

[MDE]

I don't know if that's enough of a difference... j\k Could I get one and then add the other to create a RAID without destroying the first?

 

[LED]

Keep your Maxtor as the back-up then you can Ghost the Single Raptor to it, Install the 2 Raptors in RAID0 and Ghost the Maxtor back to the new Array