# ssd or velociraptor



## stevednmc (Sep 20, 2009)

I currently have all my files on one drive, a wd caviar blue, 500gig, and im thinking of turning that into a storage only drive. Ive been thinking of getting 2 300gig velociraptors , one for my os and one for games and just using the caviar blue as a storage drive, and i wonder if its worth it to go with the velociraptors or just go straight to ssd's maybe in the 150gig range for each, as the higher capicity one are way out of my price range. any thought on which way to go? i am currently running xp, but when i convert drives im thinking of making the jump to win7 if that affects matters any.


----------



## tkpenalty (Sep 20, 2009)

stevednmc said:


> I currently have all my files on one drive, a wd caviar blue, 500gig, and im thinking of turning that into a storage only drive. Ive been thinking of getting 2 300gig velociraptors , one for my os and one for games and just using the caviar blue as a storage drive, and i wonder if its worth it to go with the velociraptors or just go straight to ssd's maybe in the 150gig range for each, as the higher capicity one are way out of my price range. any thought on which way to go? i am currently running xp, but when i convert drives im thinking of making the jump to win7 if that affects matters any.



I'd get one SSD and one hdd with high platter density to have best of both worlds. Windows 7 is ideal if you want to take advantage of SSDs btw.


----------



## stevednmc (Sep 20, 2009)

So maybe get an ssd for the main/os drive and a velociraptor for the gaming drive, maybe be the best solution?


----------



## techspec6 (Sep 20, 2009)

SSD, without doubt for the OS.  Apps and progs too if you can manage to afford a large enough one.

I use:
3x 30GB (raid0) vertex for the OS/app/programs volume
2x WD HDDs for Media and image backups
1x WD HDD for backup for the backups.  Paranoid, yes.







Jason


----------



## stevednmc (Sep 20, 2009)

not paranoid...realistic! unfortunately the ocz vertex is out of my price range in the 128 gig category which is what i would be looking at. i was thinking of soemthing maybe in the patriot torx class, i dint really do raids, dont understand them well enough yet.

And i have read about the degredations which also worries me a bit, and since the technology is so new..thats why im kinda torn.


----------



## Xazax (Sep 20, 2009)

Intel SSD M25-X G2 100% at the way i would not touch any other SSD with a 40 foot pole. i would be buying one myself if i had the money, i'd buy two and Raid.


----------



## mudkip (Sep 20, 2009)

Ssd ,


----------



## wiak (Sep 20, 2009)

well if you want space go velociRaptor if you want absolute speed go ssd
a good SSD will cost a bit, like say you get 30GB SSD for a 150GB VelociRaptor or 60GB SSD for a 300GB VelociRaptor


----------



## REVHEAD (Sep 20, 2009)

2 Veloci Raptors in Raid O will beat a single  ssd , except for seek times.


----------



## TheLaughingMan (Sep 20, 2009)

techspec6 said:


> 1x WD HDD for backup for the backups.  Paranoid, yes.



I hope that is off site storage cause if your computer is blown up or burned down in a fire, your backup's backups are kinda pointless.   You are not paranoid enough.


----------



## stevednmc (Sep 21, 2009)

im thinking he should just get a bunch of mem sticks and back up everything to those, then just hide them in random places around town!

Anyone know where i can find good info on setting up a raid? i know practically zip about it.


----------



## DarkEgo (Sep 21, 2009)

REVHEAD said:


> 2 Veloci Raptors in Raid O will beat a single  ssd , except for seek times.



Not necessarily, some SSD's will beat a pair of VelociRaptor's.


----------



## grunt_408 (Sep 21, 2009)

stevednmc said:


> im thinking he should just get a bunch of mem sticks and back up everything to those, then just hide them in random places around town!
> 
> Anyone know where i can find good info on setting up a raid? i know practically zip about it.



You could start by reading the manual that came with your motherboard there will be easy to follow instructions for setting up Raid inside


----------



## [Ion] (Sep 21, 2009)

I would say a VRaptor, I like to let new technology mature a bit more before I purchase it.


----------



## grunt_408 (Sep 21, 2009)

SSD are too pricy for me. In saying that I would buy 2 for RAID 0 if I could afford it over a raptor any day.


----------



## TheLaughingMan (Sep 21, 2009)

stevednmc said:


> im thinking he should just get a bunch of mem sticks and back up everything to those, then just hide them in random places around town!
> 
> Anyone know where i can find good info on setting up a raid? i know practically zip about it.



Also do your research so you know what kind of RAID you want to setup.  Then read the manual as berry said.  You would be surprised at how little work goes into setup.  Both boards I have had in the pass few years have a option in the BIOS to turn on RAID.  Then I hit F5 or put the system disk in to setup up the RAID.  A few option menus later and some wait time, done.  

It is mainly a matter of know what your RAID does and why.


----------



## mudkip (Sep 21, 2009)

[Ion] said:


> I would say a VRaptor, I like to let new technology mature a bit more before I purchase it.



It's already mature


----------



## stevednmc (Sep 21, 2009)

Motherboard manual, haha, i skipped that part of the manual. 

I feel the same way about letting things mature a bit. i think it''l be more matuer when it doesnt cost so much, let the cost / gig come down. Besides i have read alot about some high failure rates, but the speeds are im pressive.

I think at least a vraptor will surely outrun my caviar blue , as far as os loading and seek times in games. Especially ms flight sim, which is what i generally spend alot of time on, lots of seeking for terrain and stuff. I think maybe an ssd for the os would be good, and cheaper and a vraptor for my gaming drive, would i be correct in my thinking?
I will do more research on raid though, even if i dont use it will be good to know what its all about


----------



## lemode (Sep 21, 2009)

In my opinion and in all honesty I think that the newer extreme Intel SSDs are the only SSDs that are even remotely worth purchasing right now. But there’s no way in hell that I will purchase them nor any other generic SSDs until they come way down in price…which they will do inevitably and eventually.

I’d go with 2 300 gig raptors in Raid0 (or 2 150GB raptors in Raid0 if you can’t afford the 300).

Give SSDs some time to increase in GB and decrease in price.


----------



## Reventon (Sep 21, 2009)

Having SSDs speeds pretty much everything up. HDDs do not compare. If you have the money, get at least one SSD. Like other said, I'd put the OS and games on it.


----------



## techspec6 (Sep 23, 2009)

Reventon,

Any decent computer shops locally?  I moved to Bradenton a few years back and haven't found one yet.

Jason


----------



## james2008 (Sep 25, 2009)

SSD are fantastic, great speeds, great cost

though, its new tech, give it another six months.  For example
some drives don't even have the proper tools to let it function right.
the newest one I've heard is the caviar P256 which you can't full format
or you suffer a six fold reduction in performance, and it has no TRIM function.
give it a while
James


----------



## Johnny5 (Sep 25, 2009)

What If you don't need that much space? All I need is enough room for the OS, 5-6 games, and rather small storage for movies/pictures.


----------



## stevednmc (Sep 25, 2009)

thats where im at too, but i want one drive thats gonna be my os and core progs, one drive thats game dedicated and the one i currently use to be as storage. I guess my question would be are velociraptors even worth it over a caviar blue? and given the potential for an even greater speed increase, are ssd's even worth for the price and inherent reliability issues with such new technology. Hence, my dilemma! lol.


----------



## techspec6 (Sep 25, 2009)

Do your research.  There are brands/models that are priced compeditively to other brands/models that are not even close to the same support and performance.  There are some SSDs that have serious issues and there are others that work fantastic.  Not knowing the technology is no reason not to educate yourself on it if you're a tech or enthusiast.  Not getting on board now just means you'll get left behind and you'll have to catch up later.  SSDs will probably always benefit from partition alignment and it only takes a little reading to figure it all out.  HDDs in RAID that have been around for years benefit from a proper alignment.

If you're an average user, wait a year till it's more plug and play.

If you want to educate yourself, SSD manufacturer sites are a great place to start.  Look at all of them and see what the users have to say about the product.  Stay away from any SSD with a jmicron controller.  Indilinx controllers are fantastic.

SSDs have extremely fast response times when you click an application.  You won't see much of a real world benefit when RAIDing them.  You will see benefits when loading games, loading intense media apps such as video decoder/encoders, photoshop and copying/moving files larger than 1GB.  My personal favorite benefit is my imaging software.  I can image/restore 60GB of data in about 5 minutes to/from my HDD Raid array.  After those old HDDs spin up, they can write moderately quickly.  The access times just don't compare though.

Jason


----------



## stevednmc (Sep 25, 2009)

techspec6 said:


> Do your research.  There are brands/models that are priced compeditively to other brands/models that are not even close to the same support and performance.  There are some SSDs that have serious issues and there are others that work fantastic.  Not knowing the technology is no reason not to educate yourself on it if you're a tech or enthusiast.  Not getting on board now just means you'll get left behind and you'll have to catch up later.  SSDs will probably always benefit from partition alignment and it only takes a little reading to figure it all out.  HDDs in RAID that have been around for years benefit from a proper alignment.
> 
> If you're an average user, wait a year till it's more plug and play.
> 
> ...



Thanks jason for the reply, Very insightful and well thought out, i appreciate it. Make no mistake, i am doing research, and posting here is among that research, as i have found this to be the place to go for honest opinions and sheer gobs of tech savvy people. I can assure you i am not going to leap just to leap, and all of the opinions expressed here have been extremely help ful in steering me in a direction merely to just knowing what to look for information wise. And perhaps one of these days ill have learned enough to be a supplier of knowledge here, not merely a consumer.


----------

