Storage Solutions

[pellaz]

Hey all - hoping someone can give me some better ideas here. I will be building something close to the 'high end' build posted here (http://forums.mysuperpc.com/showthread.php?t=2382) very soon.

I really have no clue how to really get set up how I want to be - this is what I need:

~2TB storage
The ability to reinstall windows with a minimum recovery impact to my time
as close to 100% stable as possible
As fast as possible while maintaining the above
As cheap as possible, given the above (basically, I'm not going to be spending anywhere close to 4-500/drive)

This is both a play and a work pc - the reliability and stability are very important. I am really scared to try raid0, and have heard bad things about SDDs stuttering.

Anyone have some advice for me? It would be greatly appreciated :)

[The Wise Monkey]

SSDs have improved remarkably since they were first introduced - the Intel X-25s are still class leading, but Corsair, OCZ and Kingston all offer superb performance without stuttering.

If you can afford it, you can go for an SSD drive for your OS, and a separate drive for your storage. You can get drives up to 2TB in size now, so this might be an idea. If you want real data security, you can get two of these 2TB drives and use them in RAID 1 i.e. mirrored.

[RickyTick]

Here's a nice offer. Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB. It's $199.99, but if you use Promo Code EMCMNNX33 they are $179.99 each and have free shipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136344

[The Wise Monkey]

That is a very good deal. :)

[pellaz]

Thank you for the info so far :D

Has windows 7/modern programs solved most of the "os on a different drive" problems that used to make doing this a pain? I can remember a time when a lot of programs would just hate trying to run on anything but c: and the like.

What about raptors? Would it be better to do the OS on a 10k drive, or on an SSD? Clearly the SSD should be faster to read, but I wonder if the speed trade off might be made up for with setup times and the need to tweak the SSD - seems like there is a lot of this when you go into SSD disks. If it's something I can accomplish in an hour or two, that's one thing, but if it's a more involved deal than that, it starts getting hard to justify, I think, for me.

[The Wise Monkey]

You don't need to do anything extra for SSDs - just plug it in and go. As long as you install the OS as the C drive (i.e. the SSD), then you shouldn't have any problems. Maybe an issue with space, but you can install your applications to a separate drive if you want.