Are 2 hard drives better than 1?

[Rubber Bullets]

I am going to upgrade my hard drives, mostly because I want to do some video editing, and my system is soooo slow at that currently.

I am doing the HDs now and a video editind card, probably this one, as soon as I can afford it.

Recommended specs for this type of card suggests, though do not require, 2 HDs. Having intelligently not bought the RAID version of my mobo, they will both have to go on one controller.

I can afford a Western Digital 120GB caviar with 8Mb cache, that gets good reviews, and is very quick. Or for just a bit more I could get a similar 80Gb with same cache size and a 40Gb with just a 2Mb cache, but still quicker than my existing drive. At least then I'll have 120Gb of space which is what I want, I think.

My existing system is :

Athlon 1900XP
Abit KR7A-133 mobo (non Raid)
1x512Mb ddr ram
Leadtek GF4 ti4400 Graphics card.
40GB Maxtor HD ATA100 (5400 rpm)
20Gb can't remember what HD (just stopped working)
Hercules GameTheater XP soundcard.

Oh and WinXP Pro.

The other thing is, I have now read the ' Western digital HD Problem' thread and am worried about the WD Caviar drives. Do any other makes come close to the 8Mb cache caviars in terms of speed? Should I be worried about the couple of people who have had problems with that make? Embattle seems to think they are alright now. What do I believe?

All help gratefully recieved.

s

 

[Insane]

id invest in a RocketRAID IDE card (probably the UDMA133 model) which is £28.48 located here (Scan.co.uk)

then you could invest in two 40Gb Maxtors (D740X ATA-133 (7200rpm, 2MB Cache, 8.5ms) Quiet Drive Technology) for £67.56 located here (scan.co.uk again)

grand total? £139.24 ex VAT (£163 inc. vat)

That gives you a 80gig IDE RAID array, with a lovely raid controller. of course you could pick other drives and IDE RAID cards, but thats a simple example

in regards to the KT133 chip on your motherboard (i had just read the post in the other thread about it), if you have the PCI Latency update from either ViaArena or Via Hardware (cant remember which one) it solves a lot of your problems anyhow also placing your PCI cards into a reasonable order will solve some hangs and crashes
[PCI1] free
[PCI2] Modem/ISDN/ADSL card
[PCI3] IDE RAID
[PCI4] Network
[PCI5] Sound

as far as i've seen, i've ran a SCSI RAID off an old KT133 chip, and i have had very little problems with it since it was installed.

try the following for decent prices (anybody got any others to add?)
Komplett
Aria
CCL Computers

 

[Rubber Bullets]

Thanks Insane.

I am cofused, as I just posted in another thread.

I am told that my VIA chipset doesn't handle the PCI bus very well at all, so PCI IDE controllers would not be a good idea for me.

What you said though does seem a good idea, it would mean that I could keep my existing Maxtor on its own controller, and therefore probably not notice too much that it is only 5400 and not that quick.

SAdly I am not too technically gifted so I need all the help I can get.

How difficult is it to get the system to boot off the RAID array?

Thanks again

s

 

[Insane]

*points upwards to his edited post*

 

[Embattle]

www.overclock.co.uk
www.overclockers.co.uk
www.dabs.com

TBH Hard drives going wrong are normally a case by case problem with no manufacturer being a well known danger, expect IBM who did have a very bad run recently.

You will need to drives of the same size, same make and model helsp too, to take advantage of RAID, so 2 x 60GB will give you 120GB total.

 

[doh_boy]

umm, just to alay your fears about the caviar series my mate got it working I didn't ask how!

She was prolly doing something silly knowing her!

 

[Scooba Da Bass]

Get a Firewire drive, plenty fast enough for video work as long as you get one specced for it and they are damn sexy.

 

[.Cask]

Originally posted by Scooba Da Bass
Get a Firewire drive, plenty fast enough for video work as long as you get one specced for it and they are damn sexy.

Why invest in a flash new car when you cruise around town with your PC strapped to your back?