petehowell57 Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 Hi everyone I'm about to build a new pc using an i7 that will be O/C to 4 Ghz. I will have the following HDDs available and I hope to use W7 x 64. 2 x 500Gb SATA WD 7200rpm and 2 x 300Gb volociraptors . My main hobby is FSX although I do use the pc for other things including a small amount of video editing. My question is: what would you advise to be the best set up of the HDDs 1) OS on 500Gb; second 500Gb used for data etc; 2 x velos in RAID 0 for FSX, FTX et al 2) OS on first velo, FSX on second velo, 2 x 500Gb for other progs and data 3) Any other suggestions would be welcome Choice 1) is probably my preferred option and is based on JV's suggestion for a solid performing unit. I know from other posts that some of you will have experience at these sorts of combinations so any advice would be gratefully received. This is the first time I have submitted a post (which isn't simply a reply) so I hope it makes sense. Thanking you in anticipation Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Venema Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 Option 1 is the go, yes. You'll end up with a ~ 1TB Velo partition for FSX, so plenty of room for photoreal sceneries, hehe! For the video editing, the 7,200 RPM 500GB WD data drive has plenty of bandwidth for what you need. Keep the OS clean - just OS and apps, no data. When capturing with FRAPS, set the FRAPS destination drive to your data drive, not OS or FSX. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petehowell57 Posted October 15, 2009 Author Share Posted October 15, 2009 Many thanks for the prompt reply John. I rather though you might suggest option 1 ! Having read this forum for so long it seems slightly strange to actually be corresponding with people whom I almost feel I know personally. Many thanks for a fantastic product. Can you suggest or point me to an article that will lead me through the setting up of RAID 0 as outlined. Most of those I Google deal with RAID being installed ready for the OS. Or if you could find a little time . perhaps you could let me know how you went about setting your system up. Best wishes Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Routley Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 Peter, it will depend on the chipset you are using ... and (as I have previously suggested) if using a Gigabyte board - don't use their Giga-raid chipset. (I do, and I wish I didn't) Use the Intel Northbridge one, and/or a PCI express controller card for the second one (John has had good results from an Adaptec card) The RAID needs to be configured for the intel chip on the BIOS setup BEFORE you do anything else. The Intel RAID drivers need to be installed at the same time as your OS. Vista SP2 will ask for them. I'm sure if you search for RAID0 setup ICH10R you will find something like what you want for the intel chipset. Win7 might do it a bit better (easier) .. not sure ... and you will probably get a bit frustrated at some time, but it will be worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petehowell57 Posted October 16, 2009 Author Share Posted October 16, 2009 Many thanks for that Ian. Yes I had read your previous posting about the Gigabyte RAID ( and yes I will be using a Gig EX58 UD5 board). So i will look into purchasing a separate card. Two questions if I may? 1) Could I RAID the two 500Gb HDs that will contain OS (W7) and apps and data, or is it best to keep them separate (as I think JV has suggested in his reply above) 2) Will it be ok to kep the velociraptor RAID setup as just one large partition ( 600Gb) and put everything on (FSX, FTX, REX etc), or split it into smaller partitions eg I have VFR X (uk) on its own partition in my present setup. Oh, sorry, all that souds very complicated. Hope it makes sense to you Best wishes Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Routley Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 (My opinion) Keep the FSX volume simple - put everything FSX on it, but only FSX, and keep it as a single partition. Defrag it whenever you install any scenery updates etc, and use a defrag that includes name-sorting (eg O&O defrag, or JK defrag or the like) With the other volume - it depends on your needs: RAID0 will add a performance boost, and give you a single Tb volume to hold (large) videos. The negatives: greater vulnerability: loss of a single drive = loss of the whole volume (how valuable is the data on this drive, backup schedule for very valuable data) If the chance of a drive failing is 1/10000 - then the chance of this volume failing is double that in RAID0. Added setup issues - although if you;ve already set up RAID for the Raptors this is probably not a problem. Another thing - make sure you have a big case with space arounf the raptors - not rubbing up againt (say) your graphics card. I have lost a Raptor drive (before its time) to heat. Still sitting under my desk ... must throw it in the bin one day soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petehowell57 Posted October 16, 2009 Author Share Posted October 16, 2009 Many thanks for the advice Ian. I'm fairly computer literate but to "speak" to someone like yourself boosts my confidence to have a go! I think I will keep the two 500Gb separate and RAID the velos into one volume. One of my pleasures is tinkering so if it goes wrong then I just have to start again! Is it ok to come back to you if I hit problems (silly question really cus I know everyone is so helpful on this forum). Thanks again and best wishes Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davenicoll Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 Pete, I have Horizons UK VFR Scenery and that can go on a drive away from FSX if you wish! keeping the dedicated FSX drive even cleaner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petehowell57 Posted October 20, 2009 Author Share Posted October 20, 2009 Hi Dave I have Horizon's VFR X on a separate drive too at the moment. I also have REX, UTX, Scenery Tech stuff , Global 2008 etc. I just worry about putting it all on one drive. I know some apps are automatically installed on the FSX volume anyway but will installing it all on one volume slow things down I wonder. If not then that's great cus it makes installation so much easier! Goes without saying that FSX will be kept well away from OS, non FSX apps and data etc. pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Routley Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Having it all on the one volume is not going to make things slower. Think of it this way ... FSX gathers and indexes the stuff in your scenery library whwnever there is a change detected. If you have scenery active, it really doesn't matter whether it is on one drive or multiple, this process needs to complete. You can specify add-on scenery anywhere on your computer (even on a network if you really wanted to). The problem is that the slower the access, the slower the load-times. For a large non-changing scenery package, there should be no penalty for having it one the same drive, because as things are saved sequentially onto the drive, and then not-changed, minmal fragmentation occurs. Whenever you apply an update or load new scenery into FSX you need to defrag for this reason. I would have it all on the one drive, and put nothing else on it. It keeps it simple to manage, provides the best performance and makes it easy to work out how much stuff you have when it comes time for the next HDD upgrade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petehowell57 Posted October 21, 2009 Author Share Posted October 21, 2009 Hi Ian Once again thanks for your very clear explanation. Hope to start my rebuild in about 2 weeks and I will be putting FSX et al onto one volume ( 2 Velos in RAID 0) so wish me luck!!!! Best wishes Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petehowell57 Posted November 12, 2009 Author Share Posted November 12, 2009 Hi everyone. I'm back on this subject. Spent some time backing up and finishing a couple of videos of my hols! I'm ready to bite the bullet and put my new pc together, but still nervous about the RAID0 setup. Have read lots of info but most seem to assume you are going to put the OS (W7 x 64 in my case) onto the RAID disks. I'm putting it onto a WD 500Gb HDD and using the velos in RAID purely for FSX, FTX etc Ian, JV or any other FTX friends with experience of this, the question is: Do I have to set it all up in the BIOS first as seems to be the usual procedure, then install OS followed I assume by the RAID controller (1430SA) etc, or can I install the OS as usual and later (once the OS is working OK) install and configure the RAID system. It all seems a bit confusing when you read about it. But I want to give it a go, so any help or advice would be MUCH appreciated. By the way, FTX ROCKS!!!!! and I've ordered Coloundra! Best wishes Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Routley Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 You are very lucky that you are installing Win7 - because it has RAID support out of the box ... which makes your job very easy. Once built and up to connecting the HDD: Start the computer and enter the BIOS setup Enable the RAID controller Exit BIOS and enter the RAID setup (usually Ctrl-I) Choose Your Member Disks, Setup RAID0 and Give it a Funky Name (just for your own amusement) Make sure your "System" disk is also connected Back into the BIOS and Make sure the Boot sequence is CD then your intended system Disk Boot the Win7 Setup CD Choose Custom Setup, and make sure it puts Windows install on the correct drive Away you go . With other versions of Windows you needed to provide the RAID drivers at the critical moment. Once RAID is setup - it appears as a simple "Logical Drive" to the O/S. Good Luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petehowell57 Posted November 13, 2009 Author Share Posted November 13, 2009 Ian Many thanks for the reply. Sounds straightforward enough Will prob give it a go this weekend providing my darling wife doesn't find lots of other jobs for me to do! Might come back with silly questions if things go pear shaped! Thanks again Ian Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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