Best possible suggestions for 1TB RAID 0 [500GB x 2]

[WDakhane]

Hi,
I'm building a system for the first time and would be using the Corsair Neutron Series GTX 240GB as a Boot Drive on the ASUS P8Z77-V Premium motherboard with a Storage Drive of 1TB in RAID 0 [500GB x 2].

Q:What are the best possible solutions for this type of RAID 0 configuration?

WD Caviar Black 500GB seems a nice choice as the WD VelociRaptor 500GB/1TB is too expensive for me.

Every bit of help is appreciated.

 

[RealBeast]

The Caviar blacks are a good choice if you can't go with Raptors, but you won't notice any performance improvement over a single 1Tb Black for storage use.

 

[WDakhane]

I hope I could have increased my budget for the WD VelociRaptors but its out of my budget.

Anyways, how 'bout the WD Red Drives? Are they as expensive as Raptors?

I heard that the 2.5" drives perform better than the 3.5" ones cause of the lower access times 'cause of smller spindle platter/s.
So,any Seagate solutions out there in the Caviar Blacks range?

 

[RealBeast]

WD Reds are good drives, but not high performance. They are really made for inexpensive drives to put in NAS boxes as the Greens don't work as well for that usually.

I would use either Caviar or Samsung spinpoints ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185 ), I've not been real happy with Seagate drives the past couple of years.

For storage you really don't need the fastest possible solution unless you are using the drives for large video editing projects. You really want a reliable drive.

 

[WDakhane]

I was thinking of Seagate Barracuda first but I read somewhere its performance is not good then thought of WD Green, that too got not so good reviews then I came across WD Black & Red and Seagate Momentus XT 750GB SSHD.

BTW you're right. I really need a reliable drive.

Well,I want a drive with Read/Write speeds above 100Mbps atleast.
I'm buying Corsair Dominator Platinum 1600MHz C9 [4 x 8GB]

 

[RealBeast]

I guess my point is that since you have an SSD for the OS, programs, and current data, you don't really need the performance of RAID 0 for storage. Just buy a good single drive. IMO Momentus XT is a waste of money except for laptops that need large storage and only have one drive bay so cannot have an SSD and HDD.

If I *really* needed high performance storage I would probably look at using Intel RST caching between a 1Tb Caviar Black and an inexpensive 60Gb SSD or going to 4-6 disk RAID 5 off a dedicated card if the storage needs were large.

 

[WDakhane]

So,no to Momentus XT!

I guess RAID 0 is for users looking for OS+Storage Performance in Intel RST.
If I'm having 32GB of RAM then there's no point in having 1TB RAID 0 just for storage as the whole system would be wuite fast I suppose!

The WD Caviar Black 1TB seems to be the best choice then considering WD VelociRaptor is too expensive,eh!
Also,there's a 32GB mSATA II drive onboard the MOBO, my guess is that I could use that as a cache with storage performance of WD Caviar Black 1TB,am I right?

 

[RealBeast]

Yup, Black Caviar 1Tb is an excellent choice for high performance storage.

 

[WDakhane]

Thanks mate. I really appreciate your help.
I'll go with the WD Caviar Black 1TB then.

 

[WDakhane]

Best answer selected by WDakhane.

 

[RealBeast]

Enjoy the build -- that's a great motherboard, I've built a few with it already and really like it.

Also, one bit of advice. When you are done with the build and Win7 install make yourself a system repair disk, it takes only a CD and you can just type that into the start button run box and follow the wizard. It comes in very handy to get out of tough spots. Oh, and one other thing: do your system install with only the SSD connected, then connect the HDD so the SRP ends up on the SSD. Then optimize your SSD using a good guide like this one: http://thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/optimization-guides/the-ssd-optimization-guide-2/ It really helps performance and saves space.

 

[WDakhane]

Oh!
I was gonna post about the System Repair Disk issue afterwards.
Send me some links for how to make a good system repair disk.
I'll definately look up the SSD Review.

 

[RealBeast]

Windows 7 has a wizard that will make you a repair disk -- I do one for all my builds and give it to the user with a speech about how important that disk, the OS disk, the program disks and all serials are to save at all costs.

If the system repair disk won't fix a problem, then a repair install with the OS disk is next best as it saves all the programs and data, you just have to reinstall all Windows Updates since the OS version, probably SP1 for you.

 

[WDakhane]

Ok got it.
BTW what do you think of the SSD I'm choosing i.e the Corsair Neutron Series GTX 240GB for the Boot Drive?

 

[RealBeast]

It's a very good drive, but I am personally a little partial to the Crucial M4 and Samsung 830, since I've used a lot of them.