Hard Drive Question

[a1]

I will have 2 Raptors and they both spin at 10,000 RPM. Should one Raptor have a capacity of 74 GB or both at 150 GB? I will have a RAID setup on the Asus Maximus Extreme. Will it be necessary to have both 150 GB or just the 74 GB for the OS? I want storage also. Will the RAID set up reconise that I have 2 HDDs and distribute the OS and other files evenly on both disks?


Please Explain because I don't get it much.

[Mermaid Man]

To have RAID you must have identical hard drives (size) ideally make/model. RAID is seen as a single HD, once setup in the RAID BIOS. Depending on the RAID setup it'll depend on how the files are stretched across.

tbh I'd just get two 500 or 750GB drives and set them up as RAID-0. Raptors are expensive and loud.

[NickN]

To have RAID you must have identical hard drives (size) ideally make/model. RAID is seen as a single HD, once setup in the RAID BIOS. Depending on the RAID setup it'll depend on how the files are stretched across.

tbh I'd just get two 500 or 750GB drives and set them up as RAID-0. Raptors are expensive and loud.

Raptors are much faster than any other drive and that 'loud' and the expense is because they are faster

[NickN]

I will have 2 Raptors and they both spin at 10,000 RPM. Should one Raptor have a capacity of 74 GB or both at 150 GB? I will have a RAID setup on the Asus Maximus Extreme. Will it be necessary to have both 150 GB or just the 74 GB for the OS? I want storage also. Will the RAID set up reconise that I have 2 HDDs and distribute the OS and other files evenly on both disks?


Please Explain because I don't get it much.

DO NOT under any circumstances use RAID with FSX

Your better off on a single Raptor 150 hard drive with FSX installed to it by itself, or, a larger capacity single drive to install everything on at once

The ONLY RAID that will not kill performance with FSX is that of a professional PCIe 4-8x RAID card

It does not sound like you understand RAID to begin with. I would not use it. Place the OS and installed software on one drive and install FSX to the 150 Raptor

I have 5 hard drives in the tower I am typing this message on. 2 WD Raptors on a professional RAID0 solution with FSX installed..  1 WD Raptor for the OS and installed files, 1 Seagate for internal backup storage and 1 external eSATA 500GB drive mass storage

[Mermaid Man]

To have RAID you must have identical hard drives (size) ideally make/model. RAID is seen as a single HD, once setup in the RAID BIOS. Depending on the RAID setup it'll depend on how the files are stretched across.

tbh I'd just get two 500 or 750GB drives and set them up as RAID-0. Raptors are expensive and loud.

Raptors are much faster than any other drive and that 'loud' and the expense is because they are faster

How about two 7200 rpm drives in RAID-0 versus a single Raptor? I can hve two 500GB drives, for the single price of a Raptor. And RAID 7200 is faster than a single Raptor (for read/write) Fast read speed is important when loading up textures.

[NickN]

Apparently you do not understand RAID either

In FSX motherboard RAID will kill FSX file load performance because the average file size well exceeds the optimal STRIPE motherboard RAID allows, and, motherboard or cheap PCI card RAID will tax the CPU 10x more than professional on-card DDR2 memory RAID support

Do not use motherboard RAID0 for FSX, period

I dont care how many drives you put together in Motherboard RAID0

Side by side and in real world use that single RAPTOR will outperform the motherboard RAID array in FSX and every drive you add to that array you are removing CPU from FSX.. your killing the app by adding drives, not feeding it faster

[a1]

Ok as of now I will only have 1 Raptor 150Gb 10,000 RPM drive. Until I understand RAID more I will ask and seek your advice Nick.


Thanks

[NickN]

Ok as of now I will only have 1 Raptor 150Gb 10,000 RPM drive. Until I understand RAID more I will ask and seek your advice Nick.


Thanks

Do yourself a favor

2 Raptors.. (or 2 drives) one for the OS and installed programs and one for FSX all by itself.

[a1]

Ok as of now I will only have 1 Raptor 150Gb 10,000 RPM drive. Until I understand RAID more I will ask and seek your advice Nick.


Thanks

Do yourself a favor

2 Raptors.. (or 2 drives) one for the OS and installed programs and one for FSX all by itself.

Would you also explain how the set up would look like? The FSX slow part is kinda concerning to me as other games might have that problem.

[Mermaid Man]

C and D

Why not just buy a single 7200rpm drive, use that for both OS and FS-X, you can always add a Raptor later if you find it slow. Other games are quick loading, and at 77/150GB the Raptors just don't have the capacity (games are now 4-15GB)

My FS-X game path is 50GB.

[NickN]

Ok as of now I will only have 1 Raptor 150Gb 10,000 RPM drive. Until I understand RAID more I will ask and seek your advice Nick.


Thanks

Do yourself a favor

2 Raptors.. (or 2 drives) one for the OS and installed programs and one for FSX all by itself.

Would you also explain how the set up would look like? The FSX slow part is kinda concerning to me as other games might have that problem.

What it looks like?

It looks like 2 drives   LOL    I have 5 in one of my towers, 7 in another and one I run 3.

Each drive shows up as another drive letter in Windows.

FSX is file access monster and really should have its own drive.. and, never partition a performance hard drive, only data drives that hold storage should be considered for using partitions.

[raptorx]

Ok as of now I will only have 1 Raptor 150Gb 10,000 RPM drive. Until I understand RAID more I will ask and seek your advice Nick.


Thanks

Do yourself a favor

2 Raptors.. (or 2 drives) one for the OS and installed programs and one for FSX all by itself.

Would you also explain how the set up would look like? The FSX slow part is kinda concerning to me as other games might have that problem.

What it looks like?

It looks like 2 drives

[Mermaid Man]

Doesn't matter. Just avoid the Raptor with the window, MTBF is lower and because it's plastic windows  the casing won't be as good for cooling.

[raptorx]

[quote]Doesn't matter. Just avoid the Raptor with the window, MTBF is lower and because it's plastic windows

[NickN]

Mine are mounted on their sides... does not matter just make sure they are not PACKED tight together like a sandwich and have space between them to breathe