Hello everyone!
Today I want to discuss about an upgrade i've been planning to do for quite some time and it is about my HDD.
Right now I have a single 1,5TB Seagate Barracuda (this info will come into guestion later). However, i've concidered reinstalling my Windows 7 to make a serious cleanup, but then I thought: "If I'm going to reinstall the whole thing, why not just upgrade while we're at it?"
So, here are the options i've come up with so far:
[B]Option 1:[/B]
[I]120GB SSD + 2x identical 512GB SSDs + Barracuda for backups[/I]
This one was the first idea I got, but is pretty expensive despite the SSD prices coming down a bit but it would make my computer a whole lot faster (obviously). The idea is to have the 120GB SSD completely for Windows 7 and it's updates, 2x 512GB SSDs for all the other data with RAID0 and the old HDD for backups.
The reasons for having the RAIDs is to make the SSDs form a single 1TB SSD storage so I don't have to keep wondering where I'm going to which stuffs, like movies and music to A and games and programs to B. Having them work together would make the system simpler and more manageable. But buying a single 1TB SSD is not possible because those ones would just blow up my budget. As for the Barracuda, I was thinking about having a RAID1 on it to have the datas from the SSD, but then I realized that if it's on RAID1, it's gonna have the same problems and viruses I might catch, which isn't exactly a good thing for backups to have. Also I'm not sure if it's even possible to have 2 RAIDs on one PC. So the Barracuda will work as regular backup with automated weekly (or shorter) saves.
[B]Option 2:[/B]
[I]120GB SSD + Barracuda[/I]
This is basically like the [I]option 1[/I], but without the 1TB SSD storage, speed and backup system, but is a heckuva lot cheaper and easier thing to do. With this option, I would simply get one 120GB SSD for Windows 7 and that's about it. All the other data would be working with the Barracuda, but would have the extra space which Windows is currently taking.
In both cases I'm going to buy a 120GB SSD and reinstall Windows 7, but the questions left now which option is better and [B]what SSDs can you recommend?[/B] I can also send specs of my PC if requested but I don't think those matter for this kind of upgrade.
Tell me what you guys think and recommend and we'll see if we can get something out of this. [B]Cheers![/B]
You wouldn't want to go for Option 1, RAID 0 doubles the risk of losing everything. If one SSD dies, you lose everything on the whole array. And a RAID 1 array only protects you from drive failure, like you said it won't protect you from viruses or accidentally deleting things
I'm using a 128gb Samsung SSD for OS with a 1tb WD Black for everything else, the HDD has enough speed for gaming, and the SSD still has space for things that need more speed.
If you wanted a dedicated backup drive, you can grab a 2TB WD Blue for $80 and periodically back things up to there
[QUOTE=kaze4159;41208660]You wouldn't want to go for Option 1, RAID 0 doubles the risk of losing everything. If one SSD dies, you lose everything on the whole array.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, but if Barracuda had the backup copies then I wouldn't lose everything except for the things i've done after the last backup, right? I mean I understand what you mean but wouldn't the situation be fixed, for example, by replacing a broken SSD and then restoring the system from HDD?
buy a samsung 840 pro, 256gb
make it your boot drive, install all your apps to it, move pagefile to 1.5TB and install a 1TB WD black for other store, backups etc
boom, fast startup and a nice chunk of storage for you to use
[QUOTE=JUUD0LF;41208710]Yeah, but if Barracuda had the backup copies then I wouldn't lose everything except for the things i've done after the last backup, right? I mean I understand what you mean but wouldn't the situation be fixed, for example, by replacing a broken SSD and then restoring the system from HDD?[/QUOTE]
The thing is Raid 1 doesn't backup both drives every day/month/century, it's instant, meaning there's no way to grab something before the backup.
Also the HDD would bottleneck the two SSDs, since everything has to be written to the slower drive as well, you'll only get the HDD's write performance in the SSDs.
Here's a quote from another forum that sums up why RAID 1 shouldn't be used as backup
[quote="sminlal"]RAID 1 isn't a substitute for backup because there are a lot of risks that it can't protect against.
If you accidentally delete a file, it will instantly be removed from both mirrored copies.
If your disk is corrupted by a software bug or virus, the corruption will be done to both mirrored copies simultaneously.
If you're hit by a bad enough power surge, it'll probably fry both disks at the same time.
If someone breaks into your house, they'll steal the box that holds both disks.
If your house gets flooded or burned, both disks will be ruined.[/quote]
I don't think there's much point in putting SSDs in raid 0, they're plenty fast to begin with... better probably to just run one ssd for your os/programs/games and use hard drives for storage. Also, 120gb will fill up real quick, you might want to consider a bigger drive than that. I have a 150gb raptor and I can't even fit my whole Steam folder on it so I'm constantly shuffling stuff around...
[QUOTE=TweaK2007;41208904]I don't think there's much point in putting SSDs in raid 0, they're plenty fast to begin with... better probably to just run one ssd for your os/programs/games and use hard drives for storage. Also, 120gb will fill up real quick, you might want to consider a bigger drive than that. I have a 150gb raptor and I can't even fit my whole Steam folder on it so I'm constantly shuffling stuff around...[/QUOTE]
The 120GB SSD if just and only for the operating system, like a dedicated drive, where nothing else but the OS files and updates go to. Steam and other files go to other drive(s), depending on what I'm going to do with the upgrade.
[editline]27th June 2013[/editline]
[QUOTE=kaze4159;41208753]The thing is Raid 1 doesn't backup both drives every day/month/century, it's instant, meaning there's no way to grab something before the backup.
Also the HDD would bottleneck the two SSDs, since everything has to be written to the slower drive as well, you'll only get the HDD's write performance in the SSDs.[/QUOTE]
I said I [B]had concidered[/B] using RAID1, not that I'm [B]going to[/B] use it and I agree with you here. And yeah I thought having different kind of drives could cause a bottleneck. So I'm quessing I'll just go with one SSD for the OS, for now atleast.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.
