Finally got my dream PC, now what do I do with all my hard drives? (confused, help!)

M

Murkon

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 4, 2002
Messages
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I have been a fan of [H] for so very long. 90% of my PC purchases have been a direct result of information obtained on these forums and I have had nothing but wonderful results.
However, I feel lost when it comes SSD/HDD configurations.

I have always been one of those people who just upgrades a component at a time. Recently I was able to purchase an entirely new PC. I was 100% confident on everything I should do...except when it came to my SSD/HDD configuration.

My drives:
SSD: 1x Intel 510 Series (Elm Crest)120GB
HDD: 3x Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

My motherboard and CPU:
MSI Z68A-GD65 (G3) with the latest BIOS as of this post date
Intel i7 2600k CPU (I have not overclocked this...yet)

When I installed Win 7 Pro 64bit I set my BIOS to RAID and only had my SSD plugged in. The install went fine. I then plugged in two of my WD blacks and set them up as RAID0. Finally, I installed my third drive for backing up extremely important data.
I thought that was thebest way to set up a SSD with a new build. You keep Windows 7 and a select few of your favorite applications/games on the SSD, use my RAID0 for excess programs (stuff I don't use as much), and then backup the super important data onto my third drive. Right?

Wrong.

I did some reading and realized that I may not have the best configuration. Intel Rapid Storage Technology, Intel Smart Response Technology, AHCI vs RAID settings in the BIOS...it's overwhelming.
I've spent the past two days reading and researching and I still can't seem to tie it all together. Should I use my SSD as a cache for SRT instead of actually installing my OS onto it? Can I do that and still use two of my WD Blacks for excess programs? Is this done in the BIOS or via software? Is there a king of computers that I can grovel before in order to figure all of this out?
If it matters, I don't care if I have to reinstall Windows or change up my hard drive config. I've got everything that matters on my old computer. I would actually prefer to reformat everything and start fresh.

I love you [H]. Any suggestions/information is greatly appreciated.
 
Actually your planned setup is just fine. I personally wouldn't bother with SRT.
 
Thanks for the quick reply Danny. If I do keep this setup, shouldn't I change my SATA setup in my BIOS to AHCI instead of RAID? If I understand correctly, AHCI has additional features that drives can utilize.
 
Murkon said:
Thanks for the quick reply Danny. If I do keep this setup, shouldn't I change my SATA setup in my BIOS to AHCI instead of RAID? If I understand correctly, AHCI has additional features that drives can utilize.
Click to expand...
Hmmm, I'll be honest: I'm a bit unclear. I could have sworn that as long as the SSD wasn't in a RAID array, it could still keep the features.
 
Use the SSD for Windows install and any apps/games that you want to perform the best.

Raid 5 the three WD Blacks and use it as a single drive. This will give you roughly 1.2 TB of PROTECTED usable space. A raid 5 can survive a complete drive failure and all your data will be safe on those three drives. You will even experience performance gains on read operations.

Your raid configuration will be done during post. Usually you'll run into a screen when the hba controller on your motherboard fires up when it's detecting drives. It'll usually spit out a string like "Press CTRL-I for configuration" or something of the sort. Build your Raid 5 array there with the three WD Blacks. Leave the SSD alone.
 
Good info here - I'll look into Raid 5. I did use the Control + I method to create my array.
Am I able to do that with AHCI set in my BIOS and will I need F6 drivers? (Googling my butt off, a lot of people disagree on the whole AHCI vs BIOS settings)
 
Murkon said:
Thanks for the quick reply Danny. If I do keep this setup, shouldn't I change my SATA setup in my BIOS to AHCI instead of RAID? If I understand correctly, AHCI has additional features that drives can utilize.
Click to expand...

Intel's 'RAID' mode is a superset of AHCI. In effect, by running things in RAID mode you already have AHCI turned on. Any single-drive (non-raid drive) running on an Intel ICHx controller that is set to raid mode is running AHCI.

Your setup is just fine...
 
No. And your SSD is too big for it anyway.

You say you have a drive in you computer for backup purposes, but do you backup to another computer, external drive, or maybe the cloud ? Because if something takes out your computer, then your backup could be gone with it.
 
Oh yes I backup on additional computers and an external hard drive. Right now my new build is in a state where it's not a big deal to reinstall/format/whatever in order to maximize performance.

Thank you to everyone for the information - it's helped a ton.
 
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