Will extra hard drive help my new computer's performance?

[neeboy74]

I am trying to put together plans for a new desktop computer for ACAD '10, Inventor Pro, Solidworks, Photoshop, Painter 11, etc. I have decided on a Core i7 with 12 GB of triple channel RAM & 7200 RPM hard drive. Should I consider having the OS on one hard drive and my programs on a second, separate HD for overall better performance?

[Anonymous]

Try 10,000 rpm SATA 2 Western digital Velociraptor drive(s). I dont
think that OS on one drive and programs on another would make any
difference especially with a healthy amount of RAM you are planning on -
you are going to use 64 bit O/S aren't you?
--
======================================================
George Drayton CD-CAD Ltd Christchurch New Zealand.

[Anonymous]

The major advantages of a second drive come about from:
1)using them in a RAID array to get the 2 drives to act as one faster drive
or 2)allowing easier backups by separating data from programs
or 3)placing the swap file on a drive that is not busy reading the programs

Having lots of memory doesn't seem to eliminate the need for the swap
file, although it seems counter-intuitive to need a bigger swap file
with more memory, it does seem to make a difference. On the other hand
more memory will reduce the "thrashing" that occurs with less memory
when the OS has to make more room by writing some memory contents out to
the hard drive.

George Drayton wrote:
> Try 10,000 rpm SATA 2 Western digital Velociraptor drive(s). I dont
> think that OS on one drive and programs on another would make any
> difference especially with a healthy amount of RAM you are planning on -
> you are going to use 64 bit O/S aren't you?

[Anonymous]

No, that's old-school thinking trying to partition a drive for the OS, or
have a separate drive for the OS. That always comes to bite you since most
apps want to install all or most of their code on the OS drive anyway.

You are simply hobbling your setup with a lower end 7200 rpm drive: you are
also not trying to explore the benefits of RAID (added speed or safety of
files) with multiple drives if you are truly spending that much money on a
system.

--
Dean Saadallah
http://LTisACAD.blogspot.com
--

[Anonymous]

An extra drive is cheap and worth it in my opinion if you don't have a
server. I split my OS drive from my data drive to for back up reasons. A
striped raid (0) will give you better performance and twice the room, but
doubles the changes for a hard drive crash. A mirrored raid (1) give you
reliability in case of a hard drive crash, but no increase in performance
for the money other than the down time from a crash. If you get three or
four drives, you can go with a striped and mirror raid for the advantages of
both. Look up raid 5 and 10 for more information. About the only down side
is cost. Do you have a server for data and other machines in case of a hard
drive crash? If not, think seriously about going with a raid set up.

As for the drive, check the performance numbers against a faster drive like
a WD Velociraptor 10,000 RPM. There are also 15,000 RPM drives, but I have
not kept up on them. They used to be SCSI drives only, so you needed a SCSI
controller. The third type to consider are solid state drives, but I have
yet to be convinced they are the way to go. I am sure it will be someday,
but I don't think the time is now.

Other items to consider with your new build are your operating system
(Windows 7 64 bit), power supply, large dual monitors, network cards, back
up systems, UPS/surge protection, printers, and scanners. While I suspect
you have looked into these already and left them off the discussion, they
are important to consider if you have not.

Brad
C3D 2010 on Vista Business 64 SP 2
LT 2010 on XP Pro SP 3

"Dean Saadallah" wrote in message
news:6309977@discussion.autodesk.com...
No, that's old-school thinking trying to partition a drive for the OS, or
have a separate drive for the OS. That always comes to bite you since most
apps want to install all or most of their code on the OS drive anyway.

You are simply hobbling your setup with a lower end 7200 rpm drive: you are
also not trying to explore the benefits of RAID (added speed or safety of
files) with multiple drives if you are truly spending that much money on a
system.

--
Dean Saadallah
http://LTisACAD.blogspot.com
--