SSD vs. Platter As Operating Drive?

[mike_r_olson]

I'm building a tech shop to open my first computer store. Now, first off, I have several years of experience fixing, building, and maintaining computers so my experience is pretty good, or well as good as diagnosing busted computers can be, as we all know it's a miserable headache doing that. It's like an episode of House trying to fix some computers... Now, for my question up for debate. It's a multi-part question, as I really would like some advice from some experienced power-users.

Here's my choice components:

Core i7 920 with CoolerMaster V8 cooler (probably won't OC, but looking more for longevity)
6 gigs of tri-channel DDR3-1333 (haven't settled on a brand yet, leaning towards Corsair or SuperTalent)
Asus P6T or Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P or MSI X58 Platinum SLI motherboard (Probably the MSI for the USB/FireWire/Sata/eSata connections)
ATI 4350 Vid Card (As I simply need DVI out and I'm buying an Acer 21.5" LCD with 1920x1080)
Dual SATA DVD Burners
Antec 300 Case
BFGTech 550W PSU ($55 on Newegg, BFG is a pretty good name I guess)
Vista Ultimate 64 (YAY TECHNET!!!)

Now, here's where I'm stuck:

Before I pose my question, the purpose of the computer is going to be for running data backups using Acronis TrueImage, running AV Scans using multiple programs, AND serving files across a gigabit network such as AutoPatcher, Service packs, etc.

I'm torn between using two small (32GB) SSDs in a RAID stripe as the Operating drive and buying a 1.5TB drive to house installation files and data backups, OR buying two 1TB drives and setting a stripe on those. I know which of the two options is more stable (Definitely the first option), however I wonder if there is that much more of a difference in performance to warrant spending $200-250 on two small SSDs.

Is there anybody with experience using platter raid stripes vs. SSD raid stripes with platter archiving? And if you believe the SSD option is best, any advice on smaller SSDs to stripe?

Thanks in advance,
Mike

 

[Helloworld_98]

Wait for the OCZ summit ssd's for an OS and installation drive, a 128gb should be enough, and then buy a 2TB hard drive for everything else.

 

[mike_r_olson]

Well, considering I don't make a mortgage to refi to get the Summit SSD, I've come to a conclusion and am ordering this setup on Monday:

MSI X58 Pro Motherboard
Intel Corei7 920
Cooler Master V8 CPU Cooler
Sapphire HD4550
3*2GB OCZ Gold DDR3 RAM
1*Velociraptor 150GB As Operating Drive
1*WD1001FALS 1TB Caviar Black As Archive Drive
2*Lite-On 22X SATA DVD+/-RW
Antec 300 Case
Thermaltake PurePower 500W PSU
XP Pro x64 and Vista Ultimate x64 Dual Boot

 

[cletus_slackjawd]

wait until late at night, break the display window, and take all the laptops you can fit in a bag. Return home, remove SSDs and put in new computer.

Congrats on your new purchase BTW. Why you need a gaming build for data backups? Also, kind of funny this thread had 3 post prior to me, and 2 from OP.

 

[theAnimal]

Well, considering I don't make a mortgage to refi to get the Summit SSD, I've come to a conclusion and am ordering this setup on Monday:

MSI X58 Pro Motherboard
Intel Corei7 920
Cooler Master V8 CPU Cooler
Sapphire HD4550
3*2GB OCZ Gold DDR3 RAM
1*Velociraptor 150GB As Operating Drive
1*WD1001FALS 1TB Caviar Black As Archive Drive
2*Lite-On 22X SATA DVD+/-RW
Antec 300 Case
Thermaltake PurePower 500W PSU
XP Pro x64 and Vista Ultimate x64 Dual Boot

Get a better PSU. Antec Earthwatts, Corsair or Seasonic.

 

[ameatypie]

Get a better PSU. Antec Earthwatts, Corsair or Seasonic.

I dunno............ with what he has right now, a good 500Watt PSU would do the trick. But, i think that if he wanted to add anything else (more hard drives, another GPU etc.) he is goanna need to go for a 600-650 watt for absolute stability with room to spare.
Also - Mike, do NOT go for a duel boot. There is no real reason to - stick with one or the other, i would suggest Vista simply because XP x64 is useless for a whole bunch of important stuff.

Anyways, hope i helped 😀

 

[kamel5547]

wait until late at night, break the display window, and take all the laptops you can fit in a bag. Return home, remove SSDs and put in new computer.

Congrats on your new purchase BTW. Why you need a gaming build for data backups? Also, kind of funny this thread had 3 post prior to me, and 2 from OP.

Agreed, an i7 is a waste for data backup / file server. get a cheap core 2 and you would ge tthe same performance for those operations. Graphics card is overkill also, if this is really a server then you can use onboard. RAM is also overkill for the task specified.

THe AV idea sounds a bit farfetched.... I really don't get the point of running multiple different AV scans off a server. You won't want to install more than one AV program on the system, and it just doesn't make sense. (if I have a known infected system the last thing I would ever do is plug it into the network as it might just infect the other systems, and I have AV software on all production machines).

 

[theAnimal]

I dunno............ with what he has right now, a good 500Watt PSU would do the trick. But, i think that if he wanted to add anything else (more hard drives, another GPU etc.) he is goanna need to go for a 600-650 watt for absolute stability with room to spare.
Also - Mike, do NOT go for a duel boot. There is no real reason to - stick with one or the other, i would suggest Vista simply because XP x64 is useless for a whole bunch of important stuff.

Anyways, hope i helped 😀

I didn't say bigger. I said a good one, which does not include the chosen PSU.

 

[mike_r_olson]

Well, here's the deal:

I run Avast for realtime protection and use AVG Free 8, aSquaredFree, MalwareBytes', SuperAntiSpyware, and Kaspersky VRT as on demand scanners. When you run a tech shop, you begin to realize how many end users there are out there that have really no idea what they're doing with their computers when they use the "free" McAfee security or whatever from their ISP and run rampant downloading every single file they can off of Bearshare, Limewire or Ares. 4 hours of downtime on the primary computer used in a tech shop due to that one trojan an AV program missed could potentially be large amounts of money lost.

I'll take into account the larger power supply. I think I saw a BFG 550watt for around $70. Antec is overrated. You can get a Zumax 600 power supply for $55 retail, so I'm not too concerned about the PSU. It really just depends on what I can get from my primary vendor at the best cost. I did consider a 700 watt PSU though. Might be a better option.

The reason why I'm considering a "dual-boot" system is to familiarize myself with other operating systems to answer questions for customers. I'd probably be better off just installing VMWare and going about it that way.

As for a C2D/C2Q vs. Corei7, I want MORE horsepower than what I need. I don't want to be sitting in my tech shop in a year wishing I had spent that extra $300, you know what I mean?

Here's my issue. I'm going to have my tech shop be visible to the public. I'm not going to be using some throwaway CRTs like most tech shops use. I'm going to be using brand new 17" LCD monitors. I'm going to have a 21.5" LCD monitor on my tech shop computer. I'm going for more of the "wow" factor so people see my shop and say, "Well this dude knows what he's doing."

Oh, and as for the "gaming machine" question, the only real reason why I chose an ATI HD4550 was for the slim profile and the HDMI out, as the monitor I've chosen has HDMI and I figured it'd be kind of cool to use that instead of DVI. (I'm trying to make my ePenis HUGE).