FSX HD Recommendations

[idahosurge]

I am thinking about getting a second hd specifically for FSX and all my add ons.  Right now I have FSX w/Acceleration, GEXn, UTX USA/CAN/EU, MegaSceneryX HI, So Cal, Dallas, Phoenix, Scenery Tech NA/EU and FEX and I want to add FS Genesis NA and EU at a minimum.  Without FS Genesis my hd is a little over half full.

My current hd is a Segate ST3250823AS, should I just get another one of these?  I read someplace for a FSX specific hd you should format the hd different than the standard format for XP, can some one please confirm and if true how do I do it.  Can all FSX add ons go on the new drive or would I need to leave some on drive C?

Also I would like to know if I can just get a large USB hd or if I do this should I get an interal hd.

If it matters my pc is a HP Pavilion a1467c, mobo is a MSI Amethyst-M w/ 4GB of Corsair DDR PC-3200 (4 1GB chips), my cpu is a AMD Athlon 64 x2 4200+.  My PSU is a Antec 500W FP500U and my video card is a GeForce 8800GTX.

Regards,

Rod

[idahosurge]

Does anyone have an opinion?

Rod

[NickN]

Two hard drives is the best way to use FSX. One for the OS and addons like FEX, GEX which are simply database programs that send textures to FSX, and the other for FSX install with addons like UTX/FSG mesh/Landclass/AI/scenery, etc

NO>> Never use a USB or Firewire external drive... these drives are SLOW due to the connection. Only eSATA externals are as fast as internals due to the external SATA interface and most OEM motherboards do not support external SATA

So I would look at what you have now and plan on double its size at minimum for the second drive. Larger platter is better. Your better off with 70-80% free space than 40. the larger the drive the better geometric performance and NEVER partition any drive that is not purely storage

[idahosurge]

Thanks Nick!

Rod

[N. Chapman]

i never had a problem with my firewire400 drive  :-/ ran just as good as when i had it on the internal hard drive

[idahosurge]

My mobo has a black and white connector.  The current hd is plugged into the black connector.  The white connector is directly below the black connector and except for the color is the same connector as far as I can tell.  When I buy a SATA drive do I plug the new drive into the white connector?  The PSU has a power connector for the second hd.

When I get the drive I am assuming that the directions will tell me how to select what drive that I want it to be.  Right now my next drive would be "N" due to the various USB devices that I have connected.  Also will the drive be formated and if not I assume the directions with the drive will tell my how to format it for Windows XP Media Home use.  I am thinking about a Segate AT3750640AS.   Last, but not least, I do not seem to have an empty bay, is there any reason that I can not place the second drive on the bottom of the PC case and use double sided tape to hold it in place, this assumes of course that if I ever need to move I take the drive out before I ship the PC off to a new home.  Also I realize that I will need to make sure that air has plenty of room to move around under the drive.

Regards,

Rod