HDD setup for Windows 7

[ashland_thunder]

Looking for some advice from the community. Wife is getting a new bathroom so I decided to rebuild my PC.
I'm keeping my Phenom 8750 ( I know it sucks ). Just ordered Windows 7 PRO today with a new Asus AM2+/AM3 motherboard. I have 8 gigs 4x2 of ddr2-800 RAM to recycle. My current setup has a 500 gig Deskstar and 80 gig Deskstar. I was looking at some of the cheaper SSDs on Newegg, but wasn't sure how people are using them.
If I keep the Deskstar 500 gig for backup and apps, how would you set up windows 7 and a game drive? Windows 7 on the SSD, and 2 striped SATA drives for games? Sata drive for Windows and 2 striped SSDs for games?

[powerarmour]

Not much point in striping a modern SSD as even a single one pushes the limits of SATA II, you'll just be wasting space/speed otherwise (unless you can pick up one of those ASRock SATA3 cards that are floating around).

Personally I'd go with the largest Indilinx based (OCZ Vertex is excellent as that supports Trim right now with the 1.4/1 firmware) or Intel SSD you can afford as a main Win7 OS drive and then by all means stripe a pair of 500GB single platter drives (~120MB seq read/write each) to use for gaming storage.

[impar]

Greetings!

Wife is getting a new bathroom so I decided to rebuild my PC.

Thats makes sense.

SSD for the OS.

[ashland_thunder]

Well marriage is all about compromise right?
Anyway, I have't kept up on SSD technology, but I believe there is a certain type that is better than others right now?
For the RAID 0 array I'm looking at the WD black series. Any objections there?
2 of these in RAID 0 for games. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136320
and this SSD for Windows load. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820227393

[powerarmour]

2 of these in RAID 0 for games. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136320
and this SSD for Windows load. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820227393

Fine, no problems...

I'm slightly biased because I own one myself, but the OCZ Vertex is the best drive to get for Win7 'right now' (the only other sensible choice is the Intel G2's but they are still more expensive, have faster seq reads/4k writes, but slower seq writes), just remember to flash the drive to the 1.4 firmware prior to installing the OS, which will enable Trim support (so basically the drive doesn't slow itself down over time) :- http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum ... hp?t=63498

You'll find it's just the insane access times which make SSD's a joy to use as an OS drive, the read/write speeds (although a lot faster than any mech..!) are almost irrelevant in some ways...

[impar]

Greetings!

I'm slightly biased because I own one myself, but the OCZ Vertex is the best drive to get for Win7 'right now' (the only other sensible choice is the Intel G2's but they are still more expensive, ...

Prices over here are different.
The 80GB G2 is 225€ and the 60GB Vertex is 243€.

[ashland_thunder]

I think I'll stick with that OCZ Vertex. I read on a Newegg review that Win7 took 21 GB to install? is that true?
I can keep all the clutter off the C: drive, but 21 gigs seems extreme.
Anyone have any suggestions for a new gaming monitor under $400? I'll be getting a 5850 to push it.

[powerarmour]

I think I'll stick with that OCZ Vertex. I read on a Newegg review that Win7 took 21 GB to install? is that true?

Nope, it's around ~10GB for me, but to get there you'll have to disable system restore and hibernation, to disable hibernation, right click on cmd 'Run as Administrator' and type :-

Code: Select all

powercfg -h off

then

Code: Select all

exit

That'll free up in disc space whatever the equivalent in ram you have (for me 8GB...), so it's an easy one to get rid of if your not running a laptop.

[ashland_thunder]

Thanks for the info and the link. I ordered the 30 gig Vertex today for the OS, and (2) WD black edition 640 gig hard drives for a RAID 0 array to load my games onto. From what I have read this is a pretty quick drive, and there isn't much performance to be gained with Raptors, (not for the price anyway)
Still waiting for Newegg to get some 5850s in stock, and I have to decide on a cpu. I'm leaning towards a Black Edition triple core

[lordkevin]

Thanks for the nice post dear...