What Hard drive is best

[ravemtech]

Hi All,

I am just about to upgrade to a new computer just for FSX with all the Orbx stuff.  The system will include:

Intel Core i7 - 930 Quad-Core 2.8GHz 8MB Cache 4.8GT/s QPI overclocked to 4GHz (I hope)

Intel X58 Express Chipset Mainboard - 3 x PCI-E 16x Slots

700 Watt SLI & Crossfire Certified Power Supply

Thermalright ULTRA-120 eXtreme with 120mm Fan

6GB High Performance Low-Latency DDR3-1600MHz RAM

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 1GB GDDR3

24X Dual Layer DVD Burner

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Matrox TripleHead2Go (analog)

TrackIR

but the question is the hard drive.  I can easily afford a 500GB SATA 3Gb/s 7,200RPM 16MB Cache, but a 300GB VelociRaptor 10,000RPM SATA 3Gb/s 16MB Cache or altenatively  a 128GB only SSD (Solid State Drive) SATA II, will stretch the budget by $400 extra,  but is it worth stretching the budget for the extra performance.  The 128GD SSD seems a little small,  but the 300GD SSD is just way out of my price range.  .....  or could I run the Operating system on the 500GB SATA and just put FSX programs on the 128GB SSD (Solid State Drive) SATA II to get the full benefit of the SSD harddrive.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

Ravemtech

[Ian Routley]

I would have a separate system drive and FSX drive.

At a later point, when technology becomes cheaper, it is VERY easy to migrate your F: drive (or whatever) onto new technology, simply by copying.

[Aidan Sandri]

I would say get the 500GB for general and 300GB or 120GB for FSX (depends on your addons)

[tennyson]

Why would you buy an analog triple head2go?

Are you sure they still make them? I'd certainly be talking to some people in the know before I handed over good cash for technology that old.

Frank

[ravemtech]

Thanks guys

The Triplehead2go is off my current system, but everything else is new. I included it in the list of gear as I know it will affect the performance of the system as I use 4 screens in total (the forth being for my gauges).

My concern is spending money on a good system that is being slowed down and/or let down by the harddrive being the bottleneck.  Should I be concerned about this being the issue?

Also,  if  you guys do think I need to get a SSD or VelociRaptor,  does FSX go on this or should the Operating System go on this.

Thanks again for any help.

Ravemtech

[TenBlade]

Definitely put the most demanding stuff on the fast drive, that being FSX. And have nothing else on that drive. If you partition your other harddrive make sure the C-drive is bigger than 20 gigz, win 7 and all the other basic stuff that goes there quickly takes up 15+ gigz, and you don´t want to have to weed out your c-drive all the time (like someone I know has to )

Regards

Bjorn

[tennyson]

I have an Intel 160Gb SSD dedicated to FSX/FTX, apart from the operating system (Win7 64 bit Ultimate). Nothing else.

I use caddies in my tower and they are hot swappable, meaning I can turn extra drives on and off without rebooting (all drives are SATA 2).

I have a 1.5gb Seagate drive with Win 7 64bit Ultimate for all of my productivity, so I shut down the FSX drive, turn on my Productivity drive and never the two will meet.

It is the most functional system I've ever owned and have just built a second in preparation for my new 'pit with the same hot swappable caddies. 

Previously, I used multiple operating systems and all sorts of rubbish, but this is the cleanest and most productive of them all.

Bit of organisation in the set up, but well worth the effort, especially when you hear some of the horror stories that happen out there.

Frank

[Maurice_King]

What I would be doing is to use a SSD for the OS and FSX .  Segregate ie Partition the SSD into 30 Gb for the OS and PAGEFILE.sys and the rest for FSX. Then both a 500 Gb 7200 for all your regular programing and a 1 Tb regular 7200 RPM for Archiving and Backup storage. 

I make a point here of separating the default Program files and User profile AWAY for C:\ as this makes it far easier to back up and restore the OS without the extra baggage of installed programming.

It pains me to see people build what amounts to a good system and then shoot themselves in the foot because they don't have enough storage space and good backup regime in place.

In today's world there is NO excuse for not having enough storage to back up your entire system AS IS HDD's for this a cheap when compared to the time taken to rebuild what you work hard to set up just the way you like it.

[marka]

Is there any gain with partitioning an SSD for the OS and FSX?

Thanks

[peterhayes]

Rave

Why don't you get a mobo that supports USB 3.0 and SATAIII 6GB/sec and then buy a 1 or 2 TB SATAIII HDD (MWave have them - 1TB for $150) or a new SATAIII VRAP 600GB for $400 which won't be slow and wait until SSDs drop in price. 

These prices are much cheaper than a fast 120GB SSD.

Regards

PeterH

[Maurice_King]

Yes marka there is a significant gain to be had simply because you have a partition for your OS and ONLY your OS and in this way you can preserve your system much easier.

There is NO speed deficit if this is what you are possibly concerned about.

IMHO it is VITAL these days to separate your OS from EVERYTHING else. 

[tim_A]

Also consider an ATi 5870 as an alternative to the GTX285 + TH2Go combo. This is the current king of the crop card, and its built-in Eyefinity will give you the triple wide screen (although you'll need a DisplayPort adapter for one monitor). It'll also save you a fair chunk of money.

[Atomic_Sheep]

I think you should get the older 7200rpm hdd for now... either x2 in RAID 0 like I have (although I've read that this setup may actually slow down FSX in certain circumstances... can't remember which). Sure the SSD are something like 5 times faster but their price premium at the moment is way over 5 times. you're getting something like 10 times less space for a 5 time price premium if that makes sense. 7200 aren't that much slower than raptors but are a hell of a lot cheaper than ssd so that's the route you should go. I've got 2TB atm for $200 and quite honestly, when the SSD's become reasonable I'll undoubtedly migrate to them in a year or two or however long it takes and simply chuck these 2 hdd into my older computer and end up with two comps. Alternatively I'm sure you will be able to use them as extra storage for backup purposes in the future in some shape or form and I can tell you that 2TB is very handy to have. You simply don't have to worry about space. I remember I had 40gb on my laptop back in the day and I told everyone that I didn't really mind deleting a lot of files that I didn't need. I later realised that the amount of bandwidth that I needed to redownload sutff I needed was quite ridiculous and that indeed, 40 gigs was not enough. 125gb this day and age is nothing and you'll eat through it without a problem. I've already gone through 200 gigs and thats just total rubbish, I'm sure I can clean so much of my comp and have something like half that of useful stuff but the beauty is I don't care and it's not getting in the way.

To be honest, RAID 0 with 7200 classic drives as I'm going to call them is pretty damn quick. The transfer rates are certainly not an issue. Perhaps I'm comparing it to my old computer and it seems super quick but in all honesty, I don't think you NEED anything quicker at the moment even for FSX. Sure loading times will be slightly slower but they aren't ridiculous on my setup at the moment. Certainly no more than 30 seconds and for the amount of data being loaded that's not a lot of time IMO. I think around Melbourne memory gets up to around 1.7 gigs or so? Can't remember exactly and load times don't feel frustrating. So to put it simply... save some money and go for something that is not yet obsolete in my mind for your purposes.

EDIT: I haven't compared the figures and hopefully other will be able to fill me in on this one but... how comparable is performance of RAID 0 7200 to just 1 SSD? Is it worth getting just 1SSD over a 7200 RAID 0 setup in terms of performance only? Not considering price in this question?

[ravemtech]

Hi guys,

I have ended up purchasing a 500GB SATA 3Gb/s 7,200RPM 16MB Cache, and a 128GB only SSD (Solid State Drive) SATA II.

Will it slow down FSX if the operating system (Windows 7) and all other non FSX stuff is on the 500GB,  and only FSX is on the 128GB SSD.......  OR am I better the partion the SSD for windows 7 on one partition and FSX gear on the other,  and then everything else non FSX on the 500 GB.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Ravemtech

[TenBlade]

Definitely put the most demanding stuff on the fast drive, that being FSX. And have nothing else on that drive. If you partition your other harddrive make sure the C-drive is bigger than 20 gigz, win 7 and all the other basic stuff that goes there quickly takes up 15+ gigz, and you don´t want to have to weed out your c-drive all the time (like someone I know has to )

Regards

Bjorn