Ok first I should say that I am a newb and have been studying as much information as I can for 4 straight days for building my new system. The information found here is awesome and overwhelming at times but I think I am on my way. What I have put together so far is a Intel Duo Core 2 E6850, Asus P5K Deluxe/WiFi-AP w/ P35 Chipset, Ballistic Tracer DDR2 PC2-8500 1066mhz 4x1Gig. I should explain that I am not a gamer, but needing the power for multitasking and working with a database (while running other apps) which is a rapidly expanding database that will continue to grow over time. Now I am at the point of deciding on storage. I have read conflicting articles on here and really need some help. First I came across this article http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] hard-drive that talks about 1 raptor drive for OS and another for storage; then I came across this http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] erformance article that talks about creating and array; then I saw this http://www.pugetsystems.com/articles.php?id=29 posted in the forums which just further confused me, or do I just settle for putting one drive in and run it old school?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

A two drive system is always beneficial no matter how you configure it. In your particular case I would go with a raptor for OS and a 500Gb for database storage.

Any thoughts on which drive to host the database? Is it safe to assume that I put the database application on the primary (Raptor X) drive and host the database on the secondary drive? I should explain the primary function of this system isn't to be a DB, although a DB will be running a good part of the time. The DB application is a third party app (Poker Tracker) and runs off of a MS Access database. As the database grows substantially, I might move the primary database to MS SQL. It will never become a sophisticated database and only ever run for Poker Tracker.

Thanks in advance.

I changed the layout...I killed the Raptor Drive, and will now have two WD Caviar SE16 SATA 750GB 3 GB/s 16MB Cache 7200 RPM drives. One will be OS/Backup and the other Storage.

Hello fellow felt player!

Firstly, get rid of the access db, it sucks dogs balls when you get to a million hands

Or, just get pt3 (which is now in beta) and reload all your hands in. You can now get 3bet stats, cbet stats, etc

I am similarly setting up something like yourself, (using my old socket 939 and new opteron 180).

Not sure what ill go for, prolly a big, fast drive for databases. Would like a raptor, but dont think they can justify their price