Another gig of RAM or another hard drive in RAID 0?

**Incinerate_IV** · March 19, 2006, 09:03 PM

I have some money to space, and I'm thinking of upgrading my computer. I got around $90, which should cover the cost of another 2 x 512MB of Corsair XMS2-5400C4, to make my total RAM 2 gigs. OR I can get another 160 gig hard drive, so I can run 2 160 gig hard drives in RAID 0 (My mobo comes with a RAID controller). I'm not that famillar with RAID or their performance increases, which one do you guys think is going to be the better choice?

**Lee1026** · March 19, 2006, 09:10 PM

Do you need the space?
Either way, the performance gain is too small to notice. But then, I never understood how people manage to live in the old days with out 800 gigs of space on their computer.

**allthesedamnnamesaretaken** · March 20, 2006, 10:00 PM

Originally Posted by Lee1026

Do you need the space?
I never understood how people manage to live in the old days with out 800 gigs of space on their computer.

you have too much porn buddy

**Lee1026** · March 20, 2006, 10:55 PM

Everyone assumes that when they realize that I got 600 gigs of files on my computer, but I haven't got so much as a byte of porn on my computer.
It is music (50 gigs, triple backed up across three hard drives)
Movies, (20 gigs)
Games (well over 150 gigs)
And their ISOs (Well over 80 gigs)

**Incinerate_IV** · March 19, 2006, 09:17 PM

Na I still got 95 gig of free space on my current 160 gig hard drive, I just want to know how much do the performance increase with RAID 0, and if that performance increase is worth it. Maby I'll go with another gig of RAM, since I'm pretty sure you gotta reinstall Windows to put 2 hard drives in RAID, and I really don't feel like doing that again

Anyone else got any comments?

**Lee1026** · March 19, 2006, 09:19 PM

I did not notice any performance gain with raid 0, but I did after buying my raptor

**Incinerate_IV** · March 19, 2006, 09:30 PM

Really? So I guess its +1 gig of RAM for me

BTW Lee, since when did you get a rapter? So I guess you don't have a $500 computer after all

**Lee1026** · March 19, 2006, 09:32 PM

Well, the CPU and the such came out to be 300 ish. The huge stack of hard drives ran me another 300 or so. So I did go over my budget limits, but not as badly as you did.
Come to think of it, it may have been under 500, I got 3 of hard drives free (savaged from friends and family) and brought 2 more at 30 a piece, and the raptor came in at 100. So well, it stay well within reason.

**Incinerate_IV** · March 20, 2006, 02:52 PM

You just reminded me WD makes a $100 raptor, I can always save $10 more dollars for that. Is it worth it? Personally after using a 5400 RPM laptop and them switching to a 7200 RPM desktop hard drive, I hardly noticed any difference, do 10000 RPM really make that much of a difference?

BTW, when I started with my X600 XT and cheap case, my computer WAS around $500.. ish

**Lee1026** · March 20, 2006, 06:15 PM

Well, the performance gains are not huge, but I doubt you would see any boost with 2 gigs of ram. But then I do lots of hard drive intensive stuff, which is why I need it.

**Incinerate_IV** · March 20, 2006, 06:48 PM

Thats true, I use this computer mainly for gaming, and the only thing a faster hard drive would do is faster loading times, which I really don't care about, and I stoped playing Battlefield 2, which is the only game I have that need 1+ gigs of ram... I've been thinking about going water cooling though, I read some guides and it seems fairly easy, I'll go do some research on parts and maby I'll post here later.

**westy159** · March 23, 2006, 01:42 PM

DO NOT have 2 gigs in a 512mb x4 combo. DO have 2 gigs in a 1gig x2 combo. The former just doesnt work very well.

**Aristocrat** · March 20, 2006, 11:12 PM

Another thing to consider, will filling all the ram slots on your computer slow the rams timings down?
Meaning you would be better off buying 2x1gb down the track (or now, but I assume you don't have that much money to spare atm, I know I don't...dammit).

**Proximus** · March 21, 2006, 02:35 AM

You will see marginal (at best) performance gains with both RAID and another gig of RAM, a Raptor on the other hand will net you a moderate boost in overall smoothness of the system, as well as shorter loading times in games.

**rayzzz** · March 21, 2006, 02:38 AM

I would go with ram as it is a much needed source for the future.

**Timmius** · March 21, 2006, 03:50 AM

Don't those raptors make a lot of noise?

**Proximus** · March 21, 2006, 03:57 AM

Originally Posted by Timmius

Don't those raptors make a lot of noise?

I don't find them disturbing at all, and I can be really sensitive to loud noice from the computer. :original:
Here's a chart from Anandtech

The acoustical characteristics of both Raptors were similar. You will notice a slight whine during the spin-up phase on each drive along with the same whine when the drive powers down. The reads are clearly audible, but do not have the same metallic noise that we noticed on the Maxtor drives. During normal operations, both drives could be heard, but the sounds emitting from the drive was almost dull compared to the Maxtor drives. The WD1500 was slightly louder during constant read access compared to the WD740GD. While not obtrusive in our opinion, the sound levels would be clearly evident in a silent system.