Tom's Hardware > Forum > Storage > NAS/RAID & Technologies > HDD setup for gaming PC
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onyros   09-09-2009 at 02:27:43 AM

I know this has probably been asked a lot but this is the final step for my rig so I wanted more specific opinions.

My PC is a gaming PC. Nothing less and nothing more... :)

I have:

AMD Phenom II 955 BE @ 3.7ghz
ASUS M4N72-E SLI
8gb of RAM (800mhz)

GTS 250 1GB (soon to be SLI'd)
Creative X-Fi Titanium

Samsung F1 Spinpoint 7200rpm 1000gb


So my next (and probably final step for this PC) is my HDD setup. It seems to be my bottleneck after the GTS250 is SLI'd.

I am between the following options - The cost for these two options would be EXACTLY the same at the moment from my local store.

A) Buy an OCZ 30gb SSD to put my OS on and an extra spinpoint for RAID 0 (for games/storage) - This is probably towards speed since my combined storage space would be 2032gb

B) Buy 3xF1 Spinpoint and setup a 4 disk RAID 0 - This way I get 4000gb of storage and what I'm hoping blazing fast speeds with RAID 0 ? I did A LOT of research for RAID 0 but couldn't find specific reviews/benchmarks comparing 2 vs 4 disk RAID 0

C) Buy a WD Velociraptor 74gb for OS and an extra Spinpoint for RAID 0 - total space 2074gb


Considering all the options cost the same, what would be the optimal for a gaming system?
I was leaning towards (A) but a lot of people are against SSDs and Vista64 ... Plus all my games would still be on a RAID 0 so...I was wondering if 4 disk RAID 0 is close to SSD performance... :)

Note that data loss risks are unimportant to me, I backup both on an external and on an online service :)

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onyros   09-09-2009 at 02:09:12 PM
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No one can help ? :(

Reply to onyros
klsdivan   09-09-2009 at 02:36:37 PM
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A hard drive wont bottleneck a game, it will just take a bit longer to load some levels, it should not cause you to drop any FPS. Also just putting the OS on a faster SSD/RAID/Raptor will only speed up the time windows takes to start and loading some apps, it will not speed up game loading times unless they are on the same Disk drive


Message edited by klsdivan on 09-09-2009 at 02:41:47 PM
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onyros   09-09-2009 at 05:32:12 PM
- 0 +

I know my quest isn't to get more FPS. I'm satisfied there.

I'm just thinking MMORPGs that don't have loading screens much or HDD heavy games.

I already got 8gigs of RAM so don't suggest more :P


My project rig is almost done. Just need to add sidepanel fans over my SLI setup and finish up with my HDD setup :)

Reply to onyros
onyros   09-09-2009 at 05:33:44 PM
- 0 +

*grr can't edit*


In general, I am even wondering if going to an SSD or 4xRAID0 will improve my experience IN REAL LIFE not in number crunching that you can never tell the difference.

Mind you I already have a 7200RPM Spinpoint F1 Samsung (which is a pretty good disk I have to say from what I hear?)

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Latest best answer
Where are the fuses on nad 7250pe
By fihart, 9 days ago:

You may be on the correct course. Have you any way of checking the fuse that seems to make no difference -- sometimes if a fuse has blown it looks like it's smoked inside. You could test it with small battery and a low voltage bulb or find a friend who owns a multimeter -- or find an electronics hobby store and take the fuse in and ask for a replacement. I may be wrong about the DC part and remember that my receiver is not quite the same model as yours. If the fuse that doesn't seem to make a difference is really 250 volts it isn't DC. If both fuses have identical lettering on the actual fuse body they may both be 250 volts as your observation suggests -- so you might try swapping them and see what happens. You MUST remove the receiver's power lead from the wall socket before touching anything marked 250 volts (that incidentally is the maximum rating of the fuse -- in Europe the power is 220 or 230 volts and in the US 110). Incidentally, there are other ways to diagnose faults on a receiver. Have you tried plugging a pair of headphones in to the headphone socket and see if there's any audio. If you can hook up another amplified system (say the speakers that come with a desktop computer) to the tape output of the receiver this may help narrow down the type of problem.

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