What would you do? Speed & Storage Quandry

[Arkangyl]

So as it stands I have a lone 500gb Samsung Sata II drive whirring away in my computer along with a 250gb Lacie USB and both are about completely full.

At the moment my goals are:

-more storage space (a MUST!)
-faster multi-tasking performance (reading / writing multiple files at once)
-faster boot time
-faster application load time
-faster game / level load time
-fault protection?
-$350 TOPS, ideally under $200 (but a few exceptions can be made)

*also, I'm probably going to upgrade my mobo, cpu, ram, etc... in 6-8 months when I have the money and Nelham is out, so getting a piece now that would mesh into that system would be nice (I'm thinking those Intel X25-M SSDs might be priced a bit better by then...)

That said, I'm looking at a few different options and after a week of pouring through forums and reviews I'm hoping to toss them out there and get some feedback. So that said:

Samsung F1 1tb drive, $140
-storage will always be needed, even if I go SSD soon this bit will always be useful

2x WD Raptor 150, $360
-pricier but if I use Matrix raid to form 2 partions, a 100gb Raid-0 and a 100gb raid-1 I get my speed for the base apps (100gb will cover me for now) and 100gb of safety for documents & music. this frees up enough space for now to be worthwhile and will provide a solid performance core for a while (ish)

2x WD 640gb AAKS, $170
-again, Matrix raid is the key here, 150gb Raid-0 for the core speed group, then I can either go Raid-1 for 490gb of redundancy or get around a tera of raid-0 storage. HOWEVER, I really can't move this to a new system without losing all of the data which will be problematic.


Main questions would be:
-What's the difference in 'feel' of Raid-0 Velociraptors (or raptors) versus single drive life?
-What are the chances that I regret Raptors in a few months due to SSDs?
-How safe will a modern 1tb drive be for my data?

thanks!

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EDIT:

Went for the 1tb drive, the space will always be needed and if I can stick with this XP install until Windows 7 comes out in a year then I'd like to do so. Regardless the speed drives will come with the next OS install, not mid-cycle and mid-semester.

[crackhead2k]

-What's the difference in 'feel' of Raid-0 Velociraptors (or raptors) versus single drive life?
Well it will boot slightly faster, copy files onto another drive without too much impact on your performance for ur primary.... loading games etc...

-What are the chances that I regret Raptors in a few months due to SSDs?
SSDs are pricey but are faster. The size is also significantly smaller. Unless you really copy a lot of small files around and other stuff at the same time enough to cause you to open stuff really slow. But with SSD there isn't much GBs you can store in the drive anyways. If your downloading download directly into your backup.

-How safe will a modern 1tb drive be for my data?
Vantec External enclosure is nice, backup when you need to. That way your drive wouldn't be spinning 24/7. It will work with all drives. Just keep the drive in a instatic bag when ur not using it. It supports USB and esata.
If you are really worried about data go for raid 1. Most motherboards have it now. It requires a pair of HDs.

[tiro_uspsss]

I have a diff recommendation...

2x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148298

use ur 500GB HDD as OS & Apps - it aint *super* fast, but imo ur a lil budget restricted ;)

then u got 2x 750GB to play with.. u sound like the type to use space (like myself :D) - so that should cover it! :up: