Best hard drive configuration??

[cholfa]

Hi guys, I´m planning on getting my new rig next week but I have a couple of questions about hard drives.
The rig would be.

MSI K8N NEO 4 PLATINUM
3500+ VENICE OR 3700+ SANDY(IS IT WORTHIT THE EXTRA $70 FOR 1 MB CACHE)
OCZ EL PLATINUM REV 2. (1GB (2 X 512) DDR 400)
ATI X850 XT
Optical drives, mouse, case,....

I would be needing at least 160-200 gb of disk space but I also want to have fast hard drives. I was thinking on spending no more than 200-220. These are the hard drives I´ve been looking.
Raptor 36 gb + maxtor 160-200 with NCQ = TOTAL 200-220
Raptor 36 gb + hitachi 160 gb Sata II = 200

Which drives are better, the ones with NCQ or the Sata II drive????

Other options to be considered is making a Raid 0 with 2 160 gb:
2 x maxtor 160 gb diamond max with NCQ= 195
2 x hitachi sata II drives = 195

Or maybe getting just one big drive:
Maxtor Diamond Max Plus 10 (NCQ, 16 mb Buffer) = 145
Maxtor Diamond Max 10 300 gb (NCQ, 16 mb Buffer)= 205
Maxtor MaxLine PlusIII 300 gb (Sata II,16mb Buffer) = 205

Another option is:
2 x 36 gb raptor in Raid0. + 160 GB MAXTOR NCQ= 300
I want to know if there is really a great gain on performance with the raptors and if there is a better performance with 2 raptor in raid. I don´t mind paying those extra $100 buck if the performance gain is cosiderable..

What combination would you recommend me??Which is the best drive(s) for me??

[amrgb]

If you work with large files (audio, video, etc), whatever you choose, buy at least two drives and do not create a raid 0 between them. For instance, if you buy 2 raptors, it's much better to have them separated and copy from one drive to the other (one only reads, the other only writes) than to have them configured in a RAID 0 and both disks have to read/write simultaneously.

If you do not use such hard drive intensive applications (games, normal office work), then I would recommend you the cheaper between one big drive (preferably sata II) and two smaller with the same combined capacity in raid 0 or not (usually the later is better if you want high capacity drives). I always pick my hard drives based on the cost/GB, regardless of their capacity. In this kind of applications despite you may notice increased performance (level load times) it is not so important because 99% of the working time the bottleneck is not the hard drive.

PS: personally I think that Raptors are a waste of money. But hey, we are at XS, but a Xtreme member does not take rational choices :p:

[cholfa]

I´m not doing any encoding or video tasks...I use the pc basically for gaming but I want to get good loading times so that´s why I want opinions from more experienced people than me..

[jason32287]

I've heard amazing things about the raptors when it comes to load times. only thing is they are a bit pricey. But I've heard that they are well worth the price.

[amrgb]

I think that the benefit does not pay the cost in your situation.

But anyways, a RAID0 of 2 raptors or even better a RAID0 of 4 80GB (or so) Hitachi sata II (better than the 2 raptors, about the same cost and 4x the storage capacity)

In Portugal one can buy those 4 Hitachi for 240 EUR (~300 USD) and 2 36GB raptors for 236 EUR.

[The Mofo]

Get a 250 gig sata II drive and call it done. Raptors are over rated and not worth the money for the storage.

If you really want to get fancy, go with 3 Sata II drives in a Raid 5. Blow the raptors to iraq.

[cholfa]

the sata II disks work better than the ones with NCQ???
Does raid 0 or raid 5 really improve the performance or just a little bit??

[Fairydust]

NCQ is one of the Sata II features, so NCQ enabled Sata I drives basically are a crossbreed between Sata I and II.

[GermaniumGenie]

Wait, and get two Seagate 7200.9's in RAID 0. They are supposed to be awesome and should be available soon.