One HD versus two
 

I want around 200 Gigs of hard drive space.

Would it be better to have 2 100Gig HDs or 1 200Gig HD?

you could get 2 100's and go raid 0 on them..

what does raid 0 mean?

RAID 0 means splitting all the data evenly amongst the HDDs.

Heres a link explaining them.
http://www.acnc.com/04_01_00.html

Two 80 gig HDD would cost you about $140, a 200 gig HDD would cost around $150.
And if you have a 200 gig HDD you could probably upgrade later on, unless there is only one open connexion on your HDD IDE cable, in which you would have no other choice than to go with the 200 gig HDD.

Yes, it makes it faster. It also increases the chances of data loss--if one HDD fails, all of the information on both is kaput.

right on. thanks

sailor If RAID 0 increases the chances of data-loss why do I always hear of people using it. I was reading this site before and I don't understand why people wouldn't use RAID 1

Most peope use RAID 0 on non-critical drives, such as an array that only has the operating system on it.

Most will also have a large secondary drive for information storage.

RAID 1 does not offer any performance increases and is typically only used in servers where constant data backup is critical.

Put one hdd on each IDE channel and split the pagefile evenly. Performance goes up by a lot. I believe the term is pagefile striping.

People use it because it is fast. They use it because of bragging rights. They use it because they can. They use it when their data is non-critical.

You will never, ever, find a server or any other sort of critical machine running RAID 0. RAID1, sure, but RAID 0 is not something to be used in a mission critical application.

Thanks for the link kel. Good info.

This is incorrect. RAID 1 is faster than RAID 0 for read performance, since the data for a particular file can be pulled from multiple disks simultaneously.

RAID 0, on the other hand, is faster for write performance.

This assumes all other things are equal.

Fuck that. Get two 120 gig drives for 50 bucks each. Just go to
http://www.slickdeals.net
They right now have a link to western digital 120 giggers for 50 bucks after rebate.

Yeah, and raid em.