New drive assignment - Decisions, Decisions

Soldato
Joined
4 Mar 2003
Posts
12,449
Location
Chatteris
Right, I'm currently getting ready for October 22nd.
That is the day my copy of Windows 7 will arrive and soon afterwards I'll be rebuilding my machine.
I shall have the following HD's:

2x 128GB Crucial SSD
1x 1TB Western Digital

And now to the decision.
Should I go for:

C - SSD - Windows & Apps - 128GB
D - SSD - Games - 128GB
E - WD - Storage, Misc - 1TB

Or

C - SSD (Raid 0) - Windows, Apps & Games - 256GB
D - WD - Storage, Misc - 1TB

Nobody really knows the failure rate on SSD's yet - so not sure if RAID 0 is going to be a risk or not.
Which way would you do things?
 
Associate
Joined
27 Feb 2007
Posts
1,921
Location
Leeds
Crucial have a 5yr warranty on their drives...so other than hassle factor not much to worry about. Who knows how good they'll be but yep, could be a greater risk using SSDs in RAID0 if they prove to have a higher failure rate than HDs.

The performance increase with games might vary, it's better for me on an SSD, but not massively impressive in most the games I play. I notice a bigger improvement in day to day Windows use.

Going from a single SSD to a RAID0 SSD is not a massive performance difference - it's probably better to get a larger single drive than 2xsmaller ones as it works out slightly cheaper. Benchmarks are almost double the performance but with SSDs being so fast, it's hard to see that in real life use.

If I were you I'd be tempted to get one 256gb SSD (with a view to getting another later on for RAID0 if you want to try it - when the price is down too ;) ).

If you want to be a bit more cautious then I'd go with one 128gb drive now - see if you get the improvement you like, and then get a second 128gb drive later on and go with your second scenario.
 
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