Which drive should I use as a boot drive?

O

Om1zzle

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 24, 2005
Messages
145
I am currently using an 80GB WD Raptor, but I ordered a Samsung F1 HD103UJ 1TB a few days ago. I use a 500 GB Seagate Barracuda for storage.

Once I get the drive, I am going to reformat and install Vista x64 and Max OSx86. I was originally planning on partitioning my Raptor and installing both OSs on it and using the other two drives for storage, but after reading about how fast the F1 is, I am reconsidering.

What do you guys think?
 
Use the raptor as a boot drive and for applications. Use the F1 for storage.
 
Test the drives for speed with HDTach/HDTune and compare results. The drive with the best overall standing (fastest read speed for the first 20% of the capacity and the fastest random seek time) should be the OS drive, unquestionably. The F1 is fast in terms of sequential read performance, but that Raptor will probably edge it out in terms of random access/seek times.

Since I don't know which 80GB "Raptor" you're referring to (there were some OEM Dell 80GB Raptors as well as some OEM Dell 80GB Velociraptors), I'm going to assume the original models, and even as old as it is, it should still beat the F1 in terms of that random access speed.

Do testing, find the one that performs the best overall and stick the OS on it, the rest for storage...
 
Yeah it is one of the OEM Dell drives. I had a 74GB raptor and had to RMA it, but they didnt have any more 74GB drives. I called and bitched about how long it was taking so they upgraded me to the 80GB. No problems since.
 
Would you really want your OS on your storage drive anyway? Having the OS dependent of the storage drive allows faster speeds when using storage media and running an application simultaneously.
 
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