Hard Drive Question

[MWISimmer]

On the raptor noise issue, yes they're a bit noisier than your run of the mill HDD but you'll soon get used to it.. I don't even notice mine now.

[a1]

Noise is not a problem for me. I don't mind it.

When I ask how it is set up I mean how should the files be distributed for FSX to work well in RAID. So when it says choose a drive to install we check the c or whatever drive we want it to? RAID is very confusing even as I read about it.

[Mermaid Man]

Posted on another forum

"I've fitted the F1 750 and its just as quick as a Raptor and no bloody noise !! I will get 2 x F1 320 and RAID 0 them and keep the 750 for storage."

[Slotback]

RAID is very confusing even as I read about it.

RAID 0 basically cuts files into little peices (stripes) and puts some physically on one drive and some physically on the other drive. It's all automatic so once in windows you'll still only have one drive letter in My Computer. There are often performance advantages, but if one drive dies then you loose everything

The problem is that RAID cannot make each stripe big enough, so the end result is you have tons and tons and tons of peices of files scattered accross the drives. That means to load one file it has to search across the drives, hogging CPU cycles and SLOWING the computer down.

The only way you can cure that is with a dedicated RAID card which can have larger stripe sizes. They're expensive.

[NickN]

That and the fact that motherboard, PCI or other cheapO RAID solutions eats CPU cycles for every one of those fragments it has to call... eats them for breakfast, lunch and dinner

Anyone running motherboard RAID0 for FSX needs a technical reality check.. it will make system performance WORSE