16 replies to this topic

[x_byakugan_x]

Getting ready for BF3.

After replacing my sata cables on my 5+ year old drives, I still get random OS not founds. I have concluded it's the really old drives.

If I am to Raid0, I need 2 identical drives right? Also... is it worth doing for gaming?

Edited by x_byakugan_x, 20 August 2011 - 01:10 AM.

[oldSkool]

Getting ready for BF3.

After replacing my sata cables on my 5+ year old drives, I still get random OS not founds. I have concluded it's the really old drives.

If I am to Raid0, I need 2 identical drives right? Also... is it worth doing for gaming?

If you're after speed, I'm fairly certain a single SSD would be better than RAID-0.
You're only going to get better load time for the game maps/level - not improved gameplay.

RAID-0 used to be good (in the old days)... Not sure what it's like in current tech.
But then, I don't know many people use RAID on their personal computers anymore.

[7h3 n00b m4573r]

That's true, an SSD is miles better than RAID0 for desktop usage
RAID0 is better than a single drive but as mentioned this only applies to loading the game not to playing it
In all honesty if you're not 100% sure what you're doing with setup of RAID0 and how it works etc it probably isn't worth it given the gains vs headaches of when something messes up

[x_byakugan_x]

In all honesty if you're not 100% sure what you're doing with setup of RAID0 and how it works etc it probably isn't worth it given the gains vs headaches of when something messes up

Excellent. Things messing up is what made me hesitate more.

Also I looked into SSD's... 60 gigs for 100 bucks.. And if it's just for quicker load times? I think I'll just get a regular decent speed SATA II.

[oldSkool]

Excellent. Things messing up is what made me hesitate more.

Also I looked into SSD's... 60 gigs for 100 bucks..

I'm a fan of Keep It Simple.
I personally don't have enough faith in the SSD's as they are now. At least with a physical platter, if something goes wrong, you *can* spend the thousands of dollars to recover the data. Not sure what they've got going for SSD's - if anything, yet.

Then again, the speed + power factor does become a selling point

[7h3 n00b m4573r]

SSDs are expensive, usually you'll use an SSD just for the OS and a few games then a mechanical drive for everything else
Currently I'm using my laptop which has a 120GB SSD and a 1TB mechanical drive and it's so much better with the SSD
If you're concerned about data loss then just keep a backup I reckon, SSD is awesome if you have the money for it

[cadetduke]

I have an 80GB Intel for my OS and apps like office and sony vegas, I use mechanical drives for everything else. Have my games/programs on internal drives and all of my media are on externals. Not a bad setup, but space was an issue so I store my pagefile on one of the internals and only keep my SSD set to 800MB.

[teh_HyDr0iD]

RAID0 isn't going to be that much of an improvement if you are using it for everything. I however have a 60GB SSD for my OS and then 2x 1TB drives in RAID0 for programs and documents and I find it works very well. Removing the stress of OS work from the platter drives and then essentially doubling their speed through RAID0 has yielded a pretty snappy system. But before I had the SSD I couldn't really notice much of a difference running the OS and everything else off the same drives in RAID0 over no RAID at all. I'd say if you don't want to do RAID or SSD then get a few platter drives and split your files across them. So have 1 clean drive purely for the OS, 1 for programs and then another couple for documents (read: music, pictures, movies, files, pr0n...etc). 500GB and 1TB drives are dirt cheap these days and having things split up like that will be faster than a single drive, but probably still not quite as good as going for SSD + HDD RAID0. Also when you get to having 4+ drives in your case things can get pretty hot if there isn't enough room for air to flow around them so you will probably just want to make sure you have enough drive slots and if they are compact slots that seat drives right against eachother then you really would like to have 1 slot free between each drive. I think a lot of newer cases are starting to cater to cooling drives better though now. As was previously stated though, improving drive performance only helps load times on software not the running of the program. So if you find you need to transfer/copy files often or run programs that need to load a lot of stuff from the drive then this will make things start up faster, but once it is running there isn't any benefit.

Edited by teh_HyDr0iD, 20 August 2011 - 04:54 PM.

[x_byakugan_x]

Heh all these setups sound way better than mine.

I'm on a 7 year old 75gb sata drive for my OS and programs.
Another internal 150gb for games. And a 1TB external for movies and emulators and misc shit.

[Spowis]

Accidental edit.... -Byakugan

Edited by x_byakugan_x, 29 August 2011 - 09:17 PM.

[x_byakugan_x]

LOL spowis I somehow posted over your post. I come back and think you've reply'd and see word for word what I wrote... Sorry! I saw your post though, here's my reply:

All I really want is to not see "OS cannot be found" anymore. I'm blaming the internals for being so old. I constantly switch the main boot drive (once every 2 weeks~).

If all the SSD's will do is improve my loading time, and not actual gaming FPS, then I don't want it. I guess my budget is 1000 bucks. I may go with the type of HD you mentioned. 7200rpm 1TB.

I won't replace my second internal cause hypothetically I shouldn't have trouble booting with the new one.

[x_byakugan_x]

Allright my 1TB 7200rpm sata is coming.

What if I get an SSD just for my OS and some programs, and use the 7200rpm for games? Would that work? Having an SSD and also regular drive that is.

edit: Looks like noob master answered that.
This a good deal?
http://www.amazon.co...p;condition=new

I assume I'd have to get a 2.5->3.5 converter case.

Edited by x_byakugan_x, 31 August 2011 - 08:46 PM.

[Spowis]

Accidental edit.... -Byakugan

You mother....

Ah, 30GB for $61 is cheaper than it is here when you check exchange rates, presumably it's the same deal with the larger size SSDs also. I'd probably opt for something a bit larger, maybe 40GB purely because my Windows partition with numerous software packages takes up that much space. I'd just find the biggest SSD you can get for $100 and roll with that.

Edit: You shouldn't need a new case, pretty sure they do brackets to support SSD's for next to nothing.

Edited by x_byakugan_x, 02 September 2011 - 04:42 PM.

[x_byakugan_x]

You mother....

Ah, 30GB for $61 is cheaper than it is here when you check exchange rates, presumably it's the same deal with the larger size SSDs also. I'd probably opt for something a bit larger, maybe 40GB purely because my Windows partition with numerous software packages takes up that much space. I'd just find the biggest SSD you can get for $100 and roll with that.

Edit: You shouldn't need a new case, pretty sure they do brackets to support SSD's for next to nothing.

Is this what you mean by the brackets?
http://www.amazon.co...m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Also yeah, I just checked my HD and windows ALONE is 20 gigs.. 40 sounds reasonable.

Is this what you mean by the brackets?
http://www.amazon.co...m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Also yeah, I just checked my HD and windows ALONE is 20 gigs.. 40 sounds reasonable.

[Spowis]

Is this what you mean by the brackets?
http://www.amazon.co...m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Also yeah, I just checked my HD and windows ALONE is 20 gigs.. 40 sounds reasonable.

Hell yes, those brackets are great, believe you can put two SSDs into one of those.

[channal1]

Keeping the bots image here cause... LOL. It's trying to sell handbags with this.....???

Bot suspended -Byakugan

Edited by x_byakugan_x, 16 September 2011 - 02:58 PM.

[teh_HyDr0iD]

Oh dear, that was pretty funny.